as cover for the rear of the trenches. Then an inner
wall was constructed, behind which we carried the sick men. In the
very center we buried two jars of water, to guard us against thirst.
In addition we had ten petroleum cans full of water; all told, a
supply for four days. Late in the evening Sami's wife came back from
the futile negotiations, alone. She had unveiled for the first and
only time on this day of the skirmish, had distributed cartridges and
had acted faultlessly.

"Soon we were able to ascertain the number of the enemy. There were
about 300 men; we numbered fifty, with twenty-nine machine guns. In
the night Lieutenant Schmidt died. We had to dig his grave with our
hands and with our bayonets, and to eliminate every trace above it, in
order to protect the body. Rademacher had been buried immediately
after the skirmish with all honors.

"The wounded had a hard time of it. We had lost our medicine chest in
the wreck; we had only little packages of bandages for skirmishes; but
no probing instrument, no scissors, were at hand. On the next day our
men came up with thick tongues, feverish, and crying: 'Water, water!'
But each one received only a little cupful three times each day. If
our water supply became exhausted we would have to sally forth from
our camp and fight our way through. At night we always dragged out the
dead camels that had served as cover and had been shot.

"This continued about three days. On the third day there were new
negotiations. Now the Bedouins demanded arms no longer, but only
money. This time the negotiations took place across the camp wall.
When I declined the Bedouin said, 'Lots of fight.' I said, 'Please go
to it.'

"We had only a little ammunition left, and very little water. Now it
really looked as if we would soon be dispatched. The mood of the men
was pretty dismal. Suddenly, at about ten o'clock in the morning,
there bobbed up in the north two riders on camels, waving white
cloths. Soon afterward there appeared, coming from the same direction,
far back, a long row of camel troops, about a hundred; they drew
rapidly nearer, rode singing toward us, in a picturesque train. They
were the messengers and the troops of the Emir of Mecca.

"Sami Bey's wife, it developed, had in the course of the first
negotiations, dispatched an Arab boy to Jeddah. From that place the
governor had telegraphed to the emir. The latter at once sent camel
troops with his two sons and his personal s