The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-13
THE HAND CAR SCOUT.
THRILLTNG EXPERIENCE or MEN N WHO LOOK FOR DYNAMITE.

Not Easy to Save One's Life with the
 Ugly Bottles Lying in the Pathway
 of the Chr.
 The following dispatch to the London Mail from Viljoen's Drift South Afri- ca, is a thrilling war story. The cor respondent says.
 It is early morning and bitterly cold. Only the stars--frozen spangles of light--in the heavens; only white rim of frost on the ground. and be- tween frost and stars an empty silence, save that from the engine of the mail 7 train that has been held up all night at the little veldt siding come the hiss and roar peculiar to its kind. A feather of x steam shakes impatently at it's safety valve, for the walseful engine and the A sleepy passenger coaches behind are ready as soon as light shall come to re- sume the interrupted journey to Preto- ria.
 But much may have happened in the night. Brother Boer may have crept down in the darkness and lifted rail, or worse, left packet of some unpeas- ant mess artfuly hidden between rail and ballast with the object of reducing the rolling stock of the imperial militia ry railways So we are going down the line on the gangers trolley to nose out these modest destroyers that hide coyly behind sleepers and retire unob trusively to the shelter of fishplates.
 Before Heaven and a critical public, ! declare I am no hero, although the fThpU z knew the risk they ran--I did not. Perhaps if I had known the risks l was about to take I should not have gone; certain it is I will never go again.
 Three full privates, one corporal Of engineers, one war correspondent of the ! Daily Mail--that was the trolleys pas senger list; and as the night thought of her sins and paled eastward two Of the Tommies gave the machine shove X and we were off on our ten miles voy- age of discovery. The road was down hill and easy going for mile and X the enemy's country did not begin until @ we reached the foot of the slope. There we passed the advanced post of the siding guard--a solitary Tommy hidden \ somewhere in the semi-darkness, who challenged and was silent,
 Then the search commenced. on the outer edges of the trolley the corporal and a man stretched themselves full length along wooden platform, their heads just overreaching the fore end or z the trolley their faces about twenty inches above the rail. The other two \ men trundled the car along, now run Z ming alongside pushing heavily, now sitting on the back of the platform propelling the little truck forward with g an occasional kick at the ground. l was seated amidships facing forward K and the cold air came to my mouth and < nose for all the world like dry ice < spray--if such a thing could be. There was now just enough light for the two \ watchers to see pretty clearly twenty wards ahead, and the uncanniness of the experience was passing Atklns who pushed on the right had line for gruesome anecdote, more par ticularly in the matter or exploaeu mines, and his conversation was not cheerful. His repertory included the stories of the injudicious corporal, the inuuisitive loyalist, the unfortunate goat and the circumspect Boer
 M The story of the inquisitive loyanst was about a Boer who lived on d farm And when the English came along this x sere Roer discovered that he had never been in favor of the war from the very srst. so was allowed to live on his farrn provided he gave in his arms So +his ere somethinged Boer handed Ill +he Tower musket with which he had heen nlugging Tommies at two thou sand yards and upward, and the flint lock. which was, so to speak, his sec nnd barrel, and was allowed to i've neacefully in sight of the camp.
 And as every day passed his love for 4he British increased, so that the ami af,1e camp commandant allowed him to v;s;t the camp and sell the brutal sol diery milk and vegetables. But the anniable commandant was not the 1ool x his eyeglass and his drawl led you to beIieye. and he had notion that the new convert to imperialism was in the { bab,t-and a disgusting habit 1t 1s-of communicating with outside pals And once a culvert was mysterously blown m and nobody saw the Boers who did ~ so inc commandant took that - - 1T won't attempt to tone down the e5iectives) Boer into his confidence. Tba culyert south of the siding had haan blown up, he said, but had been repaired; he was now having it careful 1v guarded. He did not intend having inc other culvert which was north of +he siding, watched, as he did not think the Boers would experiment. on that and, besides he couldn't spare the men. And the Boer was touched by the confidence the guileless Philistine re- rosed in him and wept. That night the commandant sent for the farmer and held him in conversation for two hours on agricultural prospects, what time two engineers laid down devilish con- triyance near the northern culvert.
 And this is the way it was made. They dug hole and placed therein ramp kettle Within that camp kettle were fifteen pounds of dynamite. ln- serted in that camp kettle was the muzzle of a loaded Martini carbine, and attached to the trigger of that carb1ne u-ere wires that the foot of the most careful walker would not fail to catch. Well, that night -
 "Stop!"
 The story stops suddenly, two pairs of hands grip the right-hand brake ana the trolley jars to standstill.
 We are off in second and the cor ' moral is gingerly scraping away the ao,th niled round a thing that looks