earily back along the beach, ate and bathed and
turned in for a real long sleep.

They were to have no such luck. They had only just settled down when
word came back that the enemy had closed over the ridge along which
they had returned, and that the squadron in the new outpost was cut
off. The only remaining squadron was sent out at once to their relief,
but, the Turks being in too great strength, it could do nothing. So
Mac's squadron, tired as they were, dodged away out again to another
hard day's work in the blazing sun. It was now daylight, and certain
spots had to be crossed by each man singly at a run, while the close
attention of a Turkish machine-gun at long range lent wings to their
feet. With his head down and his teeth clenched, Mac would bolt
full-speed across these open spaces. Tut--tut--tut would echo from the
hills, then a whinging past his ears or a spurt of dust in too close
proximity, and he would redouble his pace. The shelter of the bank on
the farther side gained, he would turn to laugh at the expressions,
whimsical, serious as death, or thoroughly amused, of his cobbers as
they rapidly paced their hundred yards.

Arrived in a ravine which cut the ridge, they found the Turks in a
position too strong to be attacked in daylight by so small a force.
Eventually it was decided to await nightfall and strong reinforcements
before attempting to force a passage through the Turkish lines to the
beleaguered garrison of the outpost. They gathered in shady corners of
the dried water-course, and yarned and smoked the long hot hours away.
Shrapnel came screaming across the scrub in the afternoon, but spent
itself harmlessly in desert spots.

It was decided that the outpost was too isolated a position to hold,
and that, after nightfall, the enemy, who had entrenched, should be
forced back, the besieged with their wounded withdrawn, and a retreat
made to the old position. This was all successfully carried out. Mac
took his fortunes with a covering party on the right flank. He could
follow little of what was taking place up at the outpost itself. There
was a good deal of rifle-fire and bombing, and a certain amount of
shell-fire, whose great white flashes lit up the wild ravine in
fleeting visions of weird beauty.

At midnight the order for retreat found Mac almost asleep, for he was
very weary from long wakefulness. They passed silently down the
valley, being apparently the last to go. The Turks w