There was no equivocation, or holding aloof. Johannesburg, with its riches, must be abandoned, and at once, i.e. within the next twenty hours at latest. Those who remained in that city would be forced to take up arms by the Boers, when the time of grace was over. They were driven like sheep into the pen, where they were to be slaughtered if they did not declare themselves enemies of England, and "bind" themselves to the masters of this Boer rebellion.
Poor, miserable, and terror-stricken wretches--these gold and diamond traffickers, who had come here only to make money, and who were without a single molecule of courage in their composition,--they were placed between two fires, and knew not where to turn for safety. They were likely to be shot or hanged whatever side they decided to take.
They drove home in their flash traps, or in the saloon cars, with bloodless, flabby lips and staring eyes. Inside their swell houses they collapsed, and found the champagne and brandy of no more aid to them than coloured water.
Their wives, however,--the painted, illiterate, dyed-haired, and outrageously dressed and be-diamonded ex-shop girls, ex-barmaids, and ex-variety actresses,--were not going to let the twenty hours pass before making up their minds what to do. The Boers were at their doors, and at present bosses of the show. Like Simon, Lord Lovat, they believed in serving the customer who was in possession.
By six o'clock that night thousands of these mercenaries had signed the papers of allegiance to the Republic, and left Johannesburg in detachments, escorted by their masters, while their women were driven out of the country to become paupers at Durban and Cape Town.
After a frightful and never-to-be-forgotten train journey, our disguised heroes at last found themselves on British soil, with hearts burning with rage and hatred at the vile treatment they had received in the trains.
The rush for trains by that panic-thralled crowd of refugees resembled a stampede of wild cattle. Delicate women and children struggled frantically for places with rough, strong men, and were glad to find themselves packed in open trucks. Order was at an end, and gallantry rarely displayed by that pushing, shouting, and sweltering crowd, while the Boer officials only mocked at their despair.
