gone is the lovely green country, the shady
trees and the coach! 'Get up! Reveille has gone'.

"All day we rest here, and shall move on the latter part of our
25-mile journey as soon as dark has fallen. Horses to water--but
luckily not far to go, and though two men have fainted with the
heat already, the majority are still 'merry and bright'.

"About 11 o'clock Talat-ed-Dumm becomes literally an oven; no
trees, no water, nothing but rock and dust--dust six inches deep;
the only protection, a single piece of canvas between one and the
pitiless sun! Gasping for breath, one reaches for the water-bottle,
but it is quite warm. Still, a warm drink brings perspiration, and
_that_ is cooling to a certain extent--in its after-effects!

"Night falls, welcomely, and saddled up the Squadron waits for the
advance to begin and to drop into its place in the line of march as
the Brigade moves past. Voices in the darkness, then shadowy forms,
and, their horses' hoofs muffled by the dust, Brigade Headquarters
passes by. Then the three regiments, one British and two Indian,
each of the latter followed by crowds of donkeys looking ghostly
white in the gloom. At length it is _our_ turn, and behind the last
regiment we 'walk march' and once more get the clouds of dust for
our portion. Now, along the level for a time--and then down again,
down towards the valley, to many a valley of death!

"The impression we get, on leaving Talat-ed-Dumm, is rather
different from that ascribed to tourists in the guide book to
Palestine. '_It is with regret_,' it says, '_that we drag ourselves
away from a spot of such historic interest, where so many of the
patriarchs have rested_'. God help 'em! _we_ never wish to see it
again. No wonder to us, now, that Naaman the Syrian objected to go
down to the Jordan and wash seven times in it![17]

"The horses slip and slide as they pick their way down the old
Turkish road, and once more the moon looks over the hills and
floods her silvery radiance over all--the same moon that in two
hours will rise upon the old homestead in Blighty. But here are we,
among great mountains, rugged and cleft, fantastic shapes in high
relief, in the moonlight. We might be in the moon itself! Not a
sign of life, not a bird nor an animal!

"By mid-night we ha