e
stake were piled some clothes, and the Arabs were standing around in a
circle just out of reach of the man with the rope. The object was to dart
in and snatch up something from the heap without the old man who was on
guard catching you. They were enjoying themselves hugely--the oldest
graybeards behaving as if they were children--a very pleasant side of the
Arab.

Our instructions were to be ready to pull out before daybreak. The mission
was, as usual, a flanking one. The direct attack was to be delivered on
Kara Tepe, and, if that were successful, upon Kifri. We were to intercept
the arrival of reinforcements, or cut off the retreat of the garrisons, as
the case might be.

In the early morning hours the country was lovely--rolling grass land
"with a hint of hills behind"--miles of daisies with clusters of blood-red
poppies scattered through them--and occasional hollows carpeted with a
brilliant blue flower. In the river courses there were numbers of
brilliantly hued birds--the gayest colors I saw in Mesopotamia with the
exception of the vivid arsenic-green birds around Ana on the Euphrates.
In one place I thought that the ground was covered with red flowers, but a
close inspection proved it to be myriads of tiny red insects swarming on
the grass stems.

Column marching is slow and wearisome, and after the sun rose the heat
became intense. The dust smothered us; there was not a breath of air to
rid us of it for even a moment. The miles seemed interminable. At noon we
halted beside a narrow stream known as Oil River--a common name in this
part of the country where oil abounds and the water is heavily impregnated
with it. For drinking it was abominable--and almost spoiled the tea upon
which we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the engineers found a
suitable location to throw a bridge across the creek. The main body was
halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and we were sent over the bridge to
form across the main road leading from Kara Tepe back into the Turkish
territory.

It was nightfall before we had effected a crossing, and we groped our way
along until we came upon the road. It was impossible to do very much in
the way of selecting a position, but we arranged the cars as best we
could. When you were off at large in the desert you were what the army
called "Out in the blue," and that was certainly our situation on the
night of April 26. We all expected that we would intercept traffic going
one way or the