a view to granting leave. As practically the whole army sent in its
name, with a pleased smile of expectation, the return suffered the fate of
most returns: it sank into profound oblivion.

Perhaps this optimistic gentleman, together with the majority in England,
had accepted the view of the arm-chair critics, that having reached the
Promised Land by easy stages we were continuing the "picnic" begun in Egypt
some two years before; and on this account, therefore, we did not mind
waiting an indefinite period for leave.

All this is not entirely a digression. There were times--and just after the
battle of Gaza was one of those times--when the utter futility of war in
general, and this one in particular, pressed heavily upon us. For the most
part we worked by the day alone nor took thought for the morrow; but
sometimes the desire to see well-loved faces and familiar scenes again took
hold and bit deeply. If you were wise you strangled the desire at birth,
for if you nursed it the result was very much more than a bad quarter of an
hour. By the same token let us continue.

On the night of the battle, after withdrawing about five miles, we took up
a position alongside some batteries of sixty pounders, in a saucer-shaped
valley, dug the guns in and prepared to hold on till further orders. The
following day the Turks counter-attacked unsuccessfully in various places,
and without pressing their attacks too closely presently left us in
possession of the three ridges we had captured at so great a cost.

The problem now was to maintain the troops in these positions. For obvious
reasons the railway could not be brought too near the wadi; indeed, it was
at this stage, I believe, that the branch line running eastward to our
right flank was begun, and despite the constant attentions of enemy
aircraft this work was carried on steadily and without pause.

Belah had now usurped the position of Rafa as railhead and the station had
been greatly enlarged by the addition of numerous sidings for the reception
of the heavy trains daily arriving from Kantara. The few wells in the place
had been medically tested and numbered and were now in use, supplemented by
those of Khan Yunus and the supply of water sent up by rail. In the wadi
itself the engineers had been labouring incessantly since its capture to
bore wells for the troops holding it. This was no light task, for with the
summer drought drawing nearer every day the wadi was drying up rapi