"
There was no time for further conversation, for they were now within a
short distance of the Tugela, and the train was winding its way between
steep hills which could have been held successfully by a handful of men.
"The only wonder to me is," another officer said, "that the Boers did
not take up and drag away the rails all the way from here to Estcourt.
If they had lifted them out of their sleepers, they had only to harness
a rail behind each horse and trot off with it. I know that there is a
considerable amount of railway material at Durban, but I doubt if there
is anything like sufficient to make twenty miles of road. And the
business would have been still more difficult if the Boers had collected
the sleepers in great piles and burned them. Of course they have
destroyed a good many culverts and the bridge at Estcourt. It is
wonderful that the railway people should have managed to get up a
temporary trestle bridge so soon, and to make a deviation of the line to
carry the trains over. It does their engineers immense credit. This pass
is widening," he added after putting his head out of the window. "I
fancy we shall be at Chieveley in a few minutes."
The train came to a stand-still at a siding a short distance outside the
station, which was crowded by a long line of waggons with stores of all
kinds.
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