Singular War Incident

SINGULAR WAR INCIDENT.

Why Boers Took a Nurse's Horse and Returned It Safely.

A curious incident befell an army nursing sister while out riding alone in the northern Transvaal close to a small town which has been held for the past year by the English, says the London Hospital. Two men on horseback, dressed in what seemed to her the uniform of our scouts, rode by. When they had gone a little farther, they dismounted and, taking their rifles in their hands, came up, grasped the reins of her horse and asked her if she would like to walk. Surprised at the question, she inquired to what regiment they belonged. Their answer made her aware that, though claiming to be British, they were really Boers in disguise. The men spoke to each other in Dutch, and then one said to her, "We are Boers, and we want your horse." The sister, greatly distressed at the thought of losing the animal, which was borrowed, begged the men not to take it. They replied that they were very short of horses and required it badly. Expostulations proved unavailing. She had to give way with as good grace as possible, made easy to her by their extremely polite manner and the gentle way in which she was lifted from her saddle. They left her with the promise that the saddle and bridle should be returned.

A few days after a letter was brought by a Boer to a blockhouse to say that if the English commandant would send out beyond the British lines the sister's horse and property would be restored. He did so, and everything was found as stated, together with a letter explaining that the two men had been compelled to take the horse, as they though that the sister suspected their nationality, and they feared she would ride at once to the nearest blockhouse and report their whereabouts. They had, therefore, in order to secure their own safety, to choose between taking her with them beyond the blockhouses or the confiscation of her horse, and they chose the latter as being probably less repugnant to the sister's feelings. No doubt the good treatment their own women have received at the hands of the British authorities tends to account for their friendly and courteous behavior, but the sister is none the less to be congratulated upon the result of an experience that might have been most unpleasant.