e little opposition to the advance and no hand-to-hand fighting.
They did not even appear to have reached the base of Chocolate Hill
when deepening shadows made it no longer possible to follow their
progress.

CHAPTER XXII

THE NIGHT BATTLE ON CHANAK BAIR

Of the general progress of the battle through the night and indeed
until he was wounded, Mac knew little. He heard but vaguely what was
going on on other portions of the front and could see little, and
gathered only indefinite impressions of happenings elsewhere.

He passed the second night of the battle in alternately trenching and
resting, when he occasionally had a few moments of sleep. It was very
dark, warm and clear with a glorious showing of stars. The noise of
battle increased and seemed to fill the whole sky and earth as it had
not in the daytime. Star rockets shot skyward from the enemy lines and
burst into dazzling falling lights while the fellows crouched low in
the scrub to escape notice. The flash of the artillery and of the
bursting shells were here, there and everywhere, but mostly along the
ridge tops, and the musketry roared spasmodically in squalls along the
ridges, or drifted down from the high summits.

At length the stars slowly faded before the eastern glow, and the
hill-tops stood out darker than before. Did dawn find them gained?
Mac waited eagerly for more light; but, when it came, found little to
discover. The summits seemed to be won, but he could find no trace of
the British nearer Anafarta.

Sunday passed much in the same way as Saturday. The Suvla Bay force
was still hanging about the landing-place, and there was no indication
of a heavy engagement on their front. The New Zealanders had reached
the high ridges of Chanak Bair, but no one knew, if they had progressed
at all, how far they had gone over on the Dardanelles side. Nearly all
the hospital ships had vanished with full cargoes of wounded; but
otherwise the whole scene was little different from that of the
previous day. The hot hours passed slowly, the battle roared on, and
Mac and his mates wondered what might be their next move, for they were
not at present opposed to any direct enemy force.

In the middle of the afternoon they received orders to prepare to move,
with the exception of one Squadron which was to garrison the positions.
They moved off almost immediately, passing down the steep northern
slope of the plateau and forcing their way through the d