die.
Many of the servants had indeed already given up hope, though no one
fled. I gave the order to leave the tents and fly round the hill.

"Lieut. Kitchener was the last to obey this order, being engaged in
front. He retreated to his tent, and whilst running he was fired at,
and heard the bullet whistle by his head. He was also followed for
some short distance by a man with a huge scimitar, who subsequently
wounded with it more than one of our people."

The timely arrival of the regular soldiers undoubtedly saved the little
party from massacre.

Another enemy, the Eastern fever, was more successful in attack. Both
Conder and Kitchener had to return to England to recuperate. In 1877,
Kitchener went back, this time in command of the expedition, and by
midsummer had completed his survey of northern Palestine. He had
covered all told one thousand miles of country, making photographs and
maps which added immeasurably to the general knowledge.

On his way back to England, Kitchener stopped in Turkey, which was then
at war with Bulgaria. His observations on the qualities of soldiers in
the two peoples, as recorded in an article written for _Blackwood's
Magazine_, are interesting in the light of later wars.

The publication of the results of the Palestine exploration first
brought Kitchener to public notice. He was officially thanked and
began to be regarded as a marked man. He had won his first spurs.

His next task was along similar lines. The Island of Cyprus occupied a
strategic position in the Mediterranean, and moreover had been the
scene of much turmoil. The British Government desired to set up a
stable regime there, and to this end decided to make a careful survey
of the Island and its resources. They naturally turned to Kitchener to
do the work. The satisfactory way in which he carried it through
earned for him the warm approval of Lord Derby, then Secretary of State
for the Colonies. One of his associates in Cyprus says of him there:
"We saw little of Kitchener at the club or anywhere else where
Englishmen mostly congregated, although he sometimes turned up at the
gymkhana meetings to contribute his share to their success. Kitchener
was always a hard worker, a gentleman with a long head who thought much
but said little. It is, of course, easy enough to prophesy when you
know, but honestly, to my mind, he looked a man who would go far if he
only had his chance."

As an immediate result of thi