isappeared, and cruisers and
destroyers resumed a leisurely patrol.

That was Saturday. In the early light of next morning, while the
mist-wraiths still clung to the hills and filled the dongas, Mac was
disturbed in his breakfast preparations by the sound of a heavier
cannonade than usual to the south. Going to an observation post he saw
a battleship aground off Gaba Tepe Point. The morning mists had just
revealed her, and now she was emptying her broadsides in rapid
succession up the great valley below Kilid Bahr. Another battleship
was right alongside attempting, apparently, to push her off. White
smoke from many bursting Turkish shells mingled with the heavy black
pall from the discharging broadsides. The bombardment continued for
some time, and Mac at length returned to his neglected breakfast
preparations, his going hastened by the fact that, carelessly exposing
his head, he had attracted the attentions of a sniper. When he looked
later, both men-o'-war were some distance away steaming west.

He learned afterwards that the _Albion_, in taking up her position on
the southern flank, had grounded in the mist, and that the _Canopus_
had come to her assistance, attempting, without success, to get her
off. The _Albion_ lightened herself by emptying her magazines through
her broadsides, and was finally towed off.

* * * * *

Then came the armistice, a day of interest and amusement, and of grim,
unpleasant work.

For almost a month, in no man's land, attack after attack had dwindled
away to nothing and there, five days before, Turkish losses had been
especially heavy. The enemy took the initiative in the matter, and
white flag negotiations proceeded on several occasions. Later, a
gorgeously apparelled Turkish staff officer came across and was taken
blindfolded to Headquarters, where an armistice for internment purposes
was agreed upon. Very considerate it was of Abdul to put the
proposition, Mac thought, for the condition of the atmosphere in the
neighbourhood was not conducive to his peace of mind, nor did it
improve his inclination to eat to know that those flies which nothing
could keep out of his food, had come from ----. And his internals
would squirm at the thought.

A peculiar quietness had marked the passage of the night, and with the
vanishing of the mists a strange silence filled the air. Since the
landing nearly a month back, the continuous music of rifle fire, with