Kaffirs said that the Dutchmen were assuredly in the neighbourhood.  They had been seen only that morning.  ‘How many?’ The reply was vague—­twelve, or seventeen, or one thousand; also they had a gun—­or five guns—­mounted in the old fort, or on the platform of the station, or on the hill behind the town.  At daylight they had shelled Colenso.  ‘But why,’ we asked, ’should they shell Colenso?’ Evidently to make sure of the range of some telegraph post.  ‘It only takes one shell to do the trick with the engine,’ said the captain who commanded.  ‘Got to hit us first, though,’ he added.  ’Well, let’s get a little bit nearer.’

The electric bell rang three times, and we crept forward—­halted—­looked around, forward again—­halt again—­another look round; and so, yard by yard, we approached Colenso.  Half a mile away we stopped finally.  The officer, taking a sergeant with him, went on towards the village on foot.  I followed.  We soon reached the trenches that had been made by the British troops before they evacuated the place.  ’Awful rot giving this place up,’ said the officer.  ‘These lines took us a week to dig.’  From here Colenso lay exposed about two hundred yards away—­a silent, desolate village.  The streets were littered with the belongings of the inhabitants.  Two or three houses had been burned.  A dead horse lay in the road, his four legs sticking stiffly up in the air, his belly swollen.  The whole place had evidently been ransacked and plundered by the Boers and the Kaffirs.  A few natives loitered near the far end of the street, and one, alarmed at the aspect of the train, waved a white rag on a stick steadily to and fro.  But no Dutchmen were to be seen.  We made our way back to the railway line and struck it at the spot where it was cut.  Two lengths of rails had been lifted up, and, with the sleepers attached to them, flung over the embankment.  The broken telegraph wires trailed untidily on the ground.  Several of the posts were twisted.  But the bridge across the Tugela was uninjured, and the damage to the lines was such as could be easily repaired.  The Boers realise the advantage of the railway.  At this moment, with their trains all labelled ‘To Durban,’ they are drawing supplies along it from Pretoria to within six miles of Ladysmith.  They had resolved to use it in their further advance, and their confidence in the ultimate issue is shown by the care with which they avoid seriously damaging the permanent way.  We had learned all that there was to learn—­where the line was broken, that the village was deserted, that the bridge was safe, and we made haste to rejoin the train.  Then the engine was reversed, and we withdrew out of range of the hills beyond Colenso at full speed—­and some said that the Boers did not fire because they hoped to draw us nearer, and others that there were no Boers within ten miles.