rom a violent stoppage of the heart.

Those of us who expected to find a great camp seething with activity and
alive with all the pomp and circumstance of war were disappointed to see a
mere collection of tents scattered about promiscuously, as it were, within
handy reach of the shore. Here and there were piles of timber, R.E. stores,
and the beginning of the inevitable ration dump; it was, in fact, a typical
advanced base in embryo. Nobody seemed more than mildly interested in our
arrival, with the exception of a supply officer who was making agitated
inquiries about a consignment of forty crates of oranges which he said
should have been on board.

When we were sufficiently recovered to sit up and take notice of every-day
matters again, we learnt that there had been some very heavy fighting
during December, culminating in a fine show on Christmas Day and Boxing
Day, when the Senussi, although they took full advantage of the
extraordinarily difficult country, were trounced so severely that more
fighting was unlikely for some weeks. Curiously enough, this cheerful news
rather damped our enthusiasm. We had come expecting to find a large and
exciting war on the beach waiting for us. Instead, we found battery-drills
innumerable for the better training of our bodies and the edification of
our minds. Also, there were fatigues, long and strenuous, which our souls
abhorred. It is curious how the British soldier loathes the very word
"fatigue." He will make the most ingenious excuses and discover that he has
extraordinary and incurable diseases in order to dodge even the lightest.
Possibly the authorities, who sometimes see more than they appear to, had
this in mind when later they changed the word to "working-party." There is
a more dignified sound about it, though I don't know that it made the work
any more acceptable.

In the evening we forgathered in an aged marquee used as a canteen, and
cultivated the acquaintance of our new comrades, the Australian Light
Horse, of which splendid corps more in the proper place. They were an
independent but friendly crowd. Indeed, the word "friendly" is not quite
enough; the Army one "matey" expresses so much better our attitude towards
each other, after the first tentative overtures had been made. And this
"matey" feeling animated the whole campaign against the Senussi, to a
greater degree, I think, than any other. Perhaps the conditions drew us
closer together, for they were deplorable.