nt method would take an hour at least, directed his men to go
straight to the point, and to attack the camels themselves. There
resulted an appalling pandemonium, everyone beating everything and the
camels snarling like a pack of wolves; and at length the drivers, seeing
that the white men meant business, sadly abandoned their leisure
occupation of parasite hunting and rushed upon them. After receiving
some of the blows intended for their charges, they managed to get most
of the camels disentangled and the difficult business of loading began.
The officer, however, realised that the natives had no idea that we were
leaving Katia for good, and being a kind-hearted man, did not wish them
to lose their few belongings. He therefore summoned Rice again, and said
slowly, "Mahamdiya--Katia never no more"--accompanying the words with a
gesture of violent negation. Suddenly the awful truth broke on Rice, and
he set up a long and despairing howl, on which all the drivers left
their charges, ran screaming to their household goods and began hastily
to pack them into their bosoms. Immediately half the camels lurched to
their feet with horrid sounds, began to turn round like teetotums and
went a-visiting among their friends. The Mark VII. Camels, as if by
instinct, sought the Mark VI. (We should perhaps remark that this refers
not to a difference in the brand of camel, but to the fact that the
Battalion used Mark VI. ammunition for the long rifles, with which they
were still armed and Mark VII. for the Lewis guns and great care had
always to be exercised to keep the two separate.) The camel with the
bombs scraped off his load against the camel with the fuel. Order became
chaos. The exhausted but undaunted fatigue were about to dive into the
welter, when the officer observed the approach of the O.C. camel escort
with his men in all their war-paint, ready for the march. Silencing his
scruples he hastily called off his own party and, reporting to the
unsuspecting new comer that all was in order, he fled to the trees,
where they were just in time to throw on their equipment and get into
position before the column started. It need hardly be said that they
felt as if they had done a hard day's work, and were already the victims
of an excellent thirst before the march began.

The Battalion moved straight back to Mahamdiya, starting at 2 p.m. and
arriving at 7.15 p.m. The men were very tired, but only two fell out
during the march and the cont