nd to contend with but one had to climb hills and descend
valleys covered with huge boulders. It was a creditable feat merely to get
over the ground at all; manoeuvring was out of the question.

An eight-horse team could with difficulty pull a gun and its limber over
fairly level ground; frequently twelve horses were required and sometimes
as many as sixteen! And it was really wonderful to see them intelligently
thrusting all their weight on the breast-collars, heaving and straining to
get their load over a nasty place. These were the days, too, when the heat
whipped off the rocks in waves and the sun's rays beat upon the back like
strokes from a flail; when it was impossible to march during the noontide
hours and one crawled under the limbers for shelter; and when a man looked
longingly at his water-bottle, even though the water therein was almost
boiling.

For the most part these flying columns drew blank. Rarely did the Turks and
their Bedouin allies come out and fight, but confined themselves to sniping
and harassing our cavalry-patrols at night. Every day these would return to
camp bearing the body of a comrade, killed without seeing the hand that
killed him; and once, saddest of all, two riderless horses, famished and
almost mad with thirst, dashed up to the watering-troughs in camp. Their
riders were never found.

We had to wait long weeks before our chance came. (Even then it came only
just in time, for we left Ayun Musa for good the following day.)

It was rather a curious affair. The solution to the whole question lay in
our being able to get the guns to the top of a certain hill commanding the
Raha Pass. If this could be accomplished things would be very warm indeed
for the people in the Pass.

It took twenty-six horses to pull the gun to the top of that hill! The rest
was easy; almost too easy. The Turks had no heavy artillery, so we sat
about in the open smoking and watching our guns shell them out of their
holes into the arms of the Indian infantry, who went forward with a pleased
smile to receive them.

But the urgent need in those days of the army in the East was aircraft;
fast, modern machines, that is. There was a lamentable lack of anything
that could go near the Fokker or Taube; the men were willing, but the
machines were woefully weak. Almost with impunity the Turks came over and
bombed the camps in the area; the one at El Shatt always received
particular attention, possibly on account of its p