Churchill and Haldane quickly debated what to do next. Haldane and his Dublin Fusiliers and the naval gun would engage the Boers to keep down their firing. Churchill was to see to the damage to the line and clear away the wreckage. Some of the platelayers had been killed as the truck overturned but the Durban Light Infantry men were sheltering in the truck that was on its side. “As I passed the engine another shrapnel burst immediately overhead. The driver, Charles Wagner, at once sprang out of the cab and took shelter in the overturned truck. His face was cut open by a splinter and streamed with blood. He was a civilian. What did they think he was paid for? To be killed by a bombshell – not he! He would not stay another minute. It looked as if his excitement and misery would prevent him from working the engine further, and as only he understood the machinery, the hope of escape would be thus cut off. So I told him that a wounded man who continued to do his duty was always rewarded for distinguished gallantry. On this he pulled himself together, wiped the blood off his face and climbed back into the cab of his engine.” Boer riflemen, two field guns and a pom-pom machine gun opened a heavy fire on the wrecked train.