The men were all several times searched for
weapons, and made to turn their pockets inside out, the contents being
unceremoniously transferred to those of the Boers. Chris and his
companions would have taken their places below with their friends, but
these implored them not to do so, being afraid that they would be
enraged beyond endurance, and might in their anger say or do something
that would give an excuse to the Boers to use their rifles, which they
so often pointed threateningly at women as well as men. It was only when
the train was in motion that food and drink were passed up from below,
as these too would assuredly, had they been seen, have been confiscated
by the brutal tormentors.
When they steamed into Standerton in the afternoon, the distress of the
women and children for water was so great that men determined at all
costs to endeavour to get some for them. As if by one impulse, when the
train came to a standstill outside the station, they jumped out and made
for the little village. But here all refused to give or sell them water
or food, and in a few minutes a large party of Boers rode in, and
falling upon them with their whips, drove them back to the train. Had
they been armed the men would assuredly have resisted till the last,
although certain to be killed, so mad were they with passion.
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