ky were blusteringly ejected from their bivvie by an officious
sergeant, who said that the poop boat-deck was holy ground reserved for
machine-gunners and men on guard. So they retired to the upper deck,
and sought a spot whereon to lay their bones; but the ship was very
full, and space limited. In an ill-considered moment they settled down
partly under a seat, where passengers had sat in the palmy days of
peace, and partly in an open gangway. It proved an evil spot. Each
changing guard trod on them, and retreated with awful blasphemy echoing
in their ears. Then it chose to thunder, and rain fell in torrents.
Not only from the skies, but also from the deck above it came in
fountains, until the troopers were wretched in the extreme. There was
no refuge whence to flee. Leaving their oil sheets and blankets meant
only greater damp, so they stuck it out.

By daylight the rain had lessened, and the troopers, bedraggled and
sleepy, disentangled themselves from the sodden blankets, and set about
getting things in order. Smoky gathered up the wet clothes and
surreptitiously made his way to the engine-room, where he selected a
not too conspicuous steam main on which to hang them.

It was a damp grey morning. The vessel was steaming very slowly
towards where appeared dimly through the mist a host of vessels of all
descriptions, war-ships, transports, hospital ships and small craft.
Ahead loomed the land, not very high, and indistinct in the rain.

At last, Gallipoli! The trooper regarded it suspiciously. It looked
miserable, and he felt likewise. After the long, bright months in
Egypt, the damp penetrated his bones, and he hadn't had breakfast.
Anyhow, he supposed it wouldn't be so bad, and went off downstairs for
a wash.

When Mac and Smoky, having breakfasted, disentangled themselves from
the Bedlam of a troop-deck meal, and gained the upper air, they were in
better humour to regard their surroundings from a philosophical, if not
an appreciative, standpoint. The depressing drizzle had ceased, the
clouds were breaking, and the shore, except for the mist-filled nullahs
and the cloud-wrapped Asiatic hills, showed up more clearly in the
morning light.

The _Grantully_ had anchored about half a mile from the fort at Seddul
Bahr, which with the castle and the village was shattered and forlorn.
An untidy medley of tents, mules and stores of all description, covered
the seaward slope and the beach to the left. Small