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which an attack could be made.

amuses me to think that a judge's robes, or a clergyman's Our canvas tent, erected to cassock, are merely the Arabian everyday dress transplanted to England-for good reasons originally, since they took the place of more primitive garments when England was not civilised but Arabia was. True, they had been altered in transit across Europe, but their place of origin was the cradle of man -Arabia, Palestine, and the Middle East.

If romance clung to the walls of Azrak, dramatic possibilities attached to our own position. Here were we, four British and one Egyptian officer, and eight British other ranks, comprising the air mechanics and the drivers and crew of an armoured car and Ford tender, which arrived that morning. In addition, there were the Sherif Nasser and his two slaves, and H.'s Egyptian servant. Our nearest help in the case of attack would be from the escort to the hamla, still a soore or two of miles away, and small in numbers at that. Forty miles away, and between us and the nearest British post in the Jordan Valley, were a division and a half of Turks at Ammon. Azrak was comprised in the area of their aeroplane patrol (it had indeed been bombed during the previous winter, when L. was there), and in view of the possibilities of an attack from a British or Arab mobile column, already referred to, on their left flank at Ammon, it would seem a natural thing to scout the only watering - place from

was

hold the two machines, which arrived a day or two later, would in any case disclose that there was something unusual here. Yet, as good luck would have it-and our luck throughout the whole "show" amazing-the only Turkish 'plane which came during our week's stay at Azrak made a perfunctory circle of the oasis at great height, seeing nothing, and returned no doubt to report at Ammon, "Nothing unusual."

Thus did a young

officer's slackness help in the subsequent downfall of a whole Turkish army. For if we had been discovered there, it is almost certain we should never have reached Deraa, the line would not have been cut, and after Allenby's great attack much more of the Turkish

army would have escaped northwards, to join eventually, perhaps, Mustapha Kemal in Kurdistan.

In addition to to ourselves, there were a few miserably poor Bedouin Arab families in and around Azrak, of a low type of intelligence, and it seemed to me that there was a danger of some of them telling the Turks of our existence at Azrak. L. always assured me there was none; and certainly, by the wonderful influence he so soon quired over all of their race, he turned their rather sullen acquiescence in our presence on the day of our arrival into active interest and support before we left, whilst other nomad Arabs and even

ac

peasants from the Hauran to the North came to see L. after the first day or two, and brought in some cases eggs, tomatoes, grapes, and melons for our delectation. Nevertheless, with £E.10,000 or £E.15,000 on L.'s head, there was a risk, and I once asked L. what he would do if the Turks from Ammon sent a raiding party on horses or camels by night to attack us at dawn. Owing to the lie of the ground our single armoured car would be little or no use against a surprise attack, and apart from the oar we had no means of defence. L. replied, "The answer is, they won't send such a party. They are much too afraid of the Arabs." I was never entirely convinced, and, until the hamla and column arrived, I used to wake by instinot just before dawn, and steal out so as not to wake L. or the armoured car crew (after our first night's misery near the pools, we slept round the armoured car on high ground some three-quarter mile from the oasis), to soan the surrounding country for possible enemies as soon as the sun's rays pierced the mist, but they never came.

Very beautiful was the palepink of the desert and darkgreen of Azrak, with the faroff outline of Gebel Druz in the background, at rise of sun, On the 9th August nobody arrived, but on the 10th our two 'planes safely reached Azrak. On the 11th J. and F. S. arrived by car, and Y., P., and S. H. with the hamla,

and the Egyptian Camel Corps and Gurkhas arrived, bringing "Bivies" and other luxuries. The same day A. D. was to have flown over from Allenby's G.H.Q. for a final conference, but, being sick, sent another Staff officer, who had nothing to do with "Hedjaz operations," in his stead. Unfortu nately, the latter, who had never before been up in the air, had suffered severely from air-sickness on the way, and consequently his system was not in a condition to stand the shock of being told by L., when he had asked what was our scheme of defence at Azrak -"our advanced base," as he professionally termed it-that "We haven't any; you see, the Turks will never come and look for us here." retired gracefully on his 'plane, escorted by another 'plane, fully convinced, I feel sure, that the "whole outfit," as Australians say, would inevitably end in prison at Constantinople. On the 12th our medico joined us, and the same day arrived Prince Feisul himself, and the main body of the column.

He

All was now ready, and the excitement and strain were becoming unbearable. That night we had a reunion of the Britith mission over a meal that might almost be dignified by the title of a mess, followed by that glorious period of conversation or contemplation, according as to whether the individual is a talker or not, under the velvety sky, in an atmosphere neither too hot nor too cold, and with an exhilara

of the sea in the soft breeze
that one gets only in great
treeless spaces on land after
sundown. I do not think
sufficient tribute has ever been
paid to the desert night,
though I personally know of
few more pleasant things on
earth (save in winter, when
it is bitterly cold). In most
warm climes the charms of
the temperate night after
the fierce day are marred by
mosquitoes and other obnoxious
insects. Except quite close to
water, as, for example, in the
oasis proper at Azrak, no
living thing, insect or animal,
disturbs the peace of the desert
at night. Jackals and foxes
are found only near water or
cultivated land, never in the
desert proper.
A windless
desert night has for me the
charm of complete peace and
calm.

tion reminiscent of the ozone J., the Doctor, and I rode in one of these tenders; but I am not sure, in view of the constant stoppings and surveyings of the route and the general strain of proceeding by car in 8 roadless and practically unmapped country, if those in & car had any advantage over those on camels. The column did nineteen miles that day, and General Nuri, the Arab commander of the force, looked justifiably pleased. We halted in a wadi with excellent cameland even mule-grazing, a great advantage in view of our very small supply of grain. On the 15th we marched at 5 A.M., the column swinging along in fine style in the cool of the morning. About 10.30 J. and I, after a spinglorious after the shingle of the desert-in our Rolls-Royce tender over some hard mud flats that we passed, came in touch with the Egyptian Camel Corps demolition party, and learnt that they had been unable to effect their purpose owing to the opposition of a big band of local Bedouin Arabs, who threatened both to warn the Turks and attack the demolitionists as well, using the very human if self

On the 13th the Egyptian Camel Corps and Gurkhas marched out with two armoured cars to attempt the first demolition of the railway south of Deraa, with instructions to join us in two days' time; and at 5 A.M. on the 14th the rest of the fighting column marched, the Shereefian troops on their camels in long picturesque ish argument, "You are too lines of single file (which small to do any good, or for would cause a hostile 'plane us to throw in our lot with to imagine them to be Bedouins you. If and when we see on the move), followed by the Feisul and L. it will be difFrench gunners, partly on ferent. They doubtless have camels, partly on mules, with an army. You are just a the British armoured car little band." To do these men sometimes in front, sometimes justice, they kept their promise behind, and the "tenders" of telling the Turks nothing where the best "road" was. if the demolitionists would

withdraw unseen, and thus avoid Turkish reprisals for not keeping them (the Turks) informed of the presence of raiders. The rest of the journey that day was over very rough and broken ground with numerous wadis, and a very trying one for the three armoured cars and seven tenders. In the afternoon we passed Um El Jimal and El Baek, which, uninhabited to-day, are the remains of Roman villages or forts surprisingly little altered since the Roman times. They are on the edge of the "better country," with fair grazing even in August, that eventually merges into the rich plain of the Hauran, and from now onwards on our trek the desert was definitely left behind.

We caught a glimpse of the railway and Mafrak Station in the far distance. At Mafrak that day, M. in one of our 'planes brought down a Turkish 'plane. At dusk we reached the Wadi El Butm, and from there to our halting place at El Umteiye was a dreary orawl through the semidarkness over villainous ground for cars, which involved constant stops and removal of boulders. El Umteiye, another deserted Roman fortified village, contained the first rain-water cistern that we had come to since Azrak, the mules having been watered the previous evening from fantassis or camel water-tanks, and the men from water-bottles, the camels of course not requiring water; and as soon as the main body marched somewhat wearily in

about 7.30 P.M., they made straight for the cisterns, where animals and men, Arabs, French Colonials, Egyptians, and British, watered indiscriminately, in a way that would have turned the blood oold of a British A.D.M.S. or sanitary officer. Then hundreds of little fires were lit in all directions, producing in the bright moonlight an an extraordinarily arresting effect. The unsentimental reader may ask why, considering we were now but fifteen miles or so from Deras, our objective, fires or lights were allowed at all. The answer is that our original column had increased by half as much again, owing to its additions of local Ruweilah Arabs and a sprinkling of Druses, both sets of tribesmen well mounted on true Arab horses, with modern rifles slung across their shoulders, and dressed in a wonderful variety of vividooloured robes - brown, blue, and so on with gorgeous horse trappings. To have asked or commanded these wild undisciplined warriors to take such military precautions would have been to court disasterat best losing their services, at worst, perhaps, sending them to warn the Turks. You cannot monkey with an Arab's customs, one of which is to have a fire to sit round at night. Though, from personal observation, I can soaroely put the fighting value of these troops of irregular horse as high as some of their admirers, such as L., with, of course, a hundred times greater knowledge than

mine, did, their moral value at a good bridge just north

to us was considerable. From this period on some of them always marched with us, and their presence not only exeroised a most salutary effect on the not too friendly villagers of the Hauran, who could have given us many unpleasant stabs in the back, but made our force from the air look far more imposing than it was. It must have puzzled the Turkish and Boche aviators to see our column one day at its normal strength of about 900, and the next swelled to nearly 2000 by the addition of 1000 Ruweilah horsemen who came and melted away, and returned as the spirit moved them.

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of where the previous unsuccessful attempt had failed, and catch up the column next day. We knew the railway in these parts was held by small and badly-constructed blockhouses, manned by Turkish garrison troops, but otherwise our information was scanty. At 2 P.M. we sallied forth, reaching the railway in about threequarters of an hour, and made straight for a blockhouse in front of us. It was garrisoned by seven Turkish soldiers, who gallantly advanced to meet us and lined some pathetically inadequate trenches. Only a few minutes sufficed to enable the armoured cars to get into a position to enfilade them, when four of the Turks ran away into the blue, where we did not pursue them, as prisoners were a real hindrance, and the remainder, one of them being wounded, advanced towards us with uplifted hands. L. having out the wires, assisted by the armoured-car officers, then set to work to lay a charge under the bridge, which was close to the station on the north, whilst J. and I tried our prentice hands at the new game of "planting tulips." "Tulips were little charges of explosives placed under the centre of an iron sleeper, which, when they had gone off, not only bent the sleeper into an arc, but irremediably bent and twisted the rails on each side and drove a furrow across the bank. Thus twelve "tulips" meant twentyfour rails to be replaced. This particular species of explosive art, as well as its name, was

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