ic
nervousness of fire; instructions were that an attack would eventuate
during the night, and that no one was to sleep.

Just about sunset, word floated up from behind that a white flag was
approaching, but it was some time before it and several attendant Turks
appeared through the scrub about a chain to the right. Too many
accompanied the flag, but nearer approach being severely discouraged
they retired speedily again into the scrub. A few minutes later, the
flag returned, this time direct towards the sap-head, and now the
Colonel, armed with German and Turkish vocabularies, was there to
welcome it. They halted about twenty yards away, and a rather
fruitless conversation followed. The Turks jabbered excitedly a
meaningless chorus, to which the Colonel, full of importance and
dignity, replied with deliberate and forceful phrases of alleged
Turkish and German, fluttering the while through the vocabularies and
prompted and admired on all sides by an audience of officers and men.
The Turks were unimpressed, and gabbled on. Now arrived the right man,
the interpreter--all would be well. But, alas, he was so nervous and
alarmed at being thrust on the parapet that the conversation profited
little by his presence! All that could be impressed upon the
flag-bearers was that they were to return home as speedily as possible,
which course they wisely adopted, and immediately a burst of firing
broke out along both lines. This calmed as rapidly as it had begun,
and the troopers, chuckling over the comical scene of the Colonel
airing his German and Turkish, drank their rum and settled down to the
long vigil.

A glorious night it was, still and starry, and sound travelled far.
But it was very weary, standing hour after hour waiting for the attack.
From the sap-head came the steady tapping of the picks and occasionally
the sound of muffled voices. Water was very scarce, but the drowsiness
which crept over the trooper was the worst of his troubles. Attack or
no attack, he could not keep awake. Every few seconds he fell asleep,
his knees kinked under him, and he was once more awake. This grew
monotonous, but there was no stopping it. His interest was caught at
times by the jabbering of assembling Turks in the hollow just over the
scrub-covered rise. Searchlight beams had been scouring the hills to
the north, and one was suddenly thrown on no man's land. Batteries
ashore and destroyers opened fire. Shells whirred up from