Lord Methuen’s army, after its long marches and arduous work, arrived at Mafeking on August 28th for the purpose of refitting.  Since his departure from Boshof on May 14th his men had been marching with hardly a rest, and he had during that time fought fourteen engagements.  He was off upon the war-path once more, with fresh horses and renewed energy, on September 8th, and on the 9th, with the co-operation of General Douglas, he scattered a Boer force at Malopo, capturing thirty prisoners and a great quantity of stores.  On the 14th he ran down a convoy and regained one of the Colenso guns and much ammunition.  On the 20th he again made large captures.  If in the early phases of the war the Boers had given Paul Methuen some evil hours, he was certainly getting his own back again.  At the same time Clements was despatched from Pretoria with a small mobile force for the purpose of clearing the Rustenburg and Krugersdorp districts, which had always been storm centres.  These two forces, of Methuen and of Clements, moved through the country, sweeping the scattered Boer bands before them, and hunting them down until they dispersed.  At Kekepoort and at Hekspoort Clements fought successful skirmishes, losing at the latter action Lieutenant Stanley of the Yeomanry, the Somersetshire cricketer, who showed, as so many have done, how close is the connection between the good sportsman and the good soldier.  On the 12th Douglas took thirty-nine prisoners near Lichtenburg.  On the 18th Rundle captured a gun at Bronkhorstfontein.  Hart at Potchefstroom, Hildyard in the Utrecht district, Macdonald in the Orange River Colony, everywhere the British Generals were busily stamping out the remaining embers of what had been so terrible a conflagration.

Much trouble but no great damage was inflicted upon the British during this last stage of the war by the incessant attacks upon the lines of railway by roving bands of Boers.  The actual interruption of traffic was of little consequence, for the assiduous Sappers with their gangs of Basuto labourers were always at hand to repair the break.  But the loss of stores, and occasionally of lives, was more serious.  Hardly a day passed that the stokers and drivers were not made targets of by snipers among the kopjes, and occasionally a train was entirely destroyed. [Footnote:  It is to be earnestly hoped that those in authority will see that these men obtain the medal and any other reward which can mark our sense of their faithful service.  One of them in the Orange River Colony, after narrating to me his many hairbreadth escapes, prophesied bitterly that the memory of his services would pass with the need for them.] Chief among these raiders was the wild Theron, who led a band which contained men of all nations—­the same gang who had already, as narrated, held up a train in the Orange River Colony.  On August 31st he derailed another at Flip River to the south of Johannesburg, blowing up the engine and burning thirteen trucks.  Almost at the same time a train was captured near Kroonstad, which appeared to indicate that the great De Wet was back in his old hunting-grounds.  On the same day the line was cut at Standerton.  A few days later, however, the impunity with which these feats had been performed was broken, for in a similar venture near Krugersdorp the dashing Theron and several of his associates lost their lives.