Churchill said, “I had not retraced my steps 200 yards when, instead of Haldane and his company two figures in plain clothes appeared upon the line. Boers! My mind retains its impression of these tall figures with slouch hats, poising on their levelled rifles hardly a hundred yards away.” He was in a small cutting with banks about six feet high on either side. Escape was impossible when a horseman appeared holding a rifle. Churchill realised suddenly that he had taken off his Mauser pistol and placed it on the engine tender. (His valet Walden recovered it and it was eventually returned to him). “The Boer continued to look along his sights. I thought there was absolutely no chance of escape, if he fired he would surely hit me, so I held up my hands and surrendered myself a prisoner of war.” Trooper W. Park Gray and three other Carbineers, on patrol near Weenen, were eating breakfast when they heard field guns firing from the direction of Chieveley. “The Boers have got that silly armoured train at last” they said. They met the train at the Little Bushmans bridge. There were wounded men on every part of the engine, even the cow-catcher.