With Buller in Natal | Page 7

They had wondered and fretted at the apathy with which the enormous
warlike preparations of the Boers were regarded at home, and the fact
that they were permitted to become a formidable power, capable of
offering a desperate resistance even by the armies of England; whereas,
before they had been enriched by the industry and enterprise of the
immigrants, they had been in danger of being altogether wiped out by
the Zulus and Swazis, and had only been saved by the interference on
their behalf of the British power. Thus, then, while the war-cloud had
been slowly but surely gathering, the lads had watched the approaching
crisis with delight, unmingled with the anxiety and foreboding of the
capitalists, who, without doubting what the end must be, were sure that
enormous losses and sacrifices must result before their deliverance
from Boer oppression could be obtained.
The scene at the station was an extraordinary one. Men, women, and
children of all ranks were crowded on the platform; the greater
capitalists, the men whose fortunes could be counted by hundreds of
thousands, had for the most part left, but many who in England would
be considered as rich men had remained in the town till the last
moment, to make their final arrangements and wind up their affairs.
With these were well-to-do storekeepers, with their wives and families,
together with mining officials, miners, and mechanics of all kinds. Piles
of baggage rendered movement difficult, for many had supposed that
the regular trains were still running, and that they would be able to

carry away with them the greater portion of their belongings. The
scenes at the departure of the previous trains roughly awakened them to
the fact that all this must be abandoned, and women were crying and
men cursing below their breath at this last evidence of Boer
indifference to the sufferings of those by whose work they had so
greatly benefited. Mr. King soon found that the manager was still there,
but on speaking to him he shrugged his shoulders, and said:
"I do not see what I can do. Look at the crowd there. When the
waggons come up there will be a rush, and I have no men here to keep
such a number in order."
"I see that, Mr. Viljoen, but if you would send a man with us to where
the waggons are standing in readiness to come up, my wife could take
her place then."
"Yes, I will do that at once. You had better go with her outside the
station, and the porter shall take you on from there. If you were to get
off the platform here and walk up the lines, others would notice it, and
there would be an immediate rush."
He called to one of the porters on the platform, and gave him
instructions, and in a few minutes Mrs. King was seated on her box in
the corner of a truck, which, with a few others, had a covered roof,
although it was entirely open at the sides. In the next half-hour eight or
ten others, who had been similarly favoured by the manager, joined
them. All these were known to the Kings, and it was a great relief to
them to find that they would travel together, instead of being mixed up
with the general crowd. They had packed themselves together as
closely as possible, so that when the train became crowded there should
be no room for anyone to push in among them. Among the party was
John Cairns, a great chum of Chris's. He and his father and mother had
been waiting for two hours at the station, and he told him that there
were seven or eight of their companions there.
"We will take our seats on that side," Chris said, "and as we move in
shout to them to join us. It will be a great thing to get as many people
we know in here as possible."

Presently the train began to move. Fortunately, at the spot where it
drew up, a group of their acquaintances were clustered together, and
these all managed to get into the truck, which was speedily filled up
until there was scarce standing-room. Three minutes later the train
moved on. A great number were left behind, although everyone made
as much room as possible, women especially being helped in after the
trucks seemed absolutely choke-full. As soon as the train was fairly in
motion many of the men climbed up on to the roofs of the covered
waggons, thereby relieving the pressure below, and enabling all the
women to sit down. Others ranged themselves along the sides, sitting
on the rail, and so minimizing the space they occupied. But even with
all this, the women were packed inconveniently together. All, however,