er
side of the farther hill in great force and ordering us to clear out at
once to avoid capture.

It never struck us till afterwards that the fact of the water being
undrinkable saved us. Had it not been that we had spent something like half
an hour dragging it from the well and trying to persuade the horses to
drink, the harness would have been removed and we should have been in our
blankets and fast asleep.

As it was, the Turks were in our position twenty minutes after our hurried
departure.

CHAPTER IX

THE RETREAT

Bewildered by this sudden turn of events, we hurriedly hooked the horses in
again to guns and ammunition-waggons, slung on the personal equipment
recently discarded--though our water-bottles were now, alas, empty--and
quickly vacated the nullah.

Where we were going to nobody save those in command knew; most of us were
too weary to care. Our deadened senses were hardly capable of realising
that the relieving Turks had somewhere broken through the cordon; we had to
clear out and, in spite of what the firing had told us at sundown, we had
failed to take Gaza. That much was now obvious; victorious troops do not as
a rule retreat, especially at our present pace.

Hence we had no option but to keep moving as fast as we could until we were
ordered to stop.

A mile or two out of the nullah we encountered the rest of the brigade, and
gradually a troop from one unit or a squadron from another joined the
column. By now it was pitch dark, but as far as one could judge we were
taking a different route from that by which we had come. Our present
direction was due west, and had we persisted in following it this route
would have led us straight into the Turkish lines at Gaza.

The reason, which I give with some reserve, was learnt later. A German
officer speaking perfect English and dressed in the uniform of a British
staff-officer, rode up to the head of the column and announced that he had
been sent by Headquarters as a guide. Thereupon the column followed this
audacious gentleman's leadership for some miles, until a pukka British
officer, who had providentially spent some years surveying this very
country, asked his commander whether he knew that we were making a bee-line
for the Turkish defences. A startled ejaculation burst from the general,
who turned to the guide to ask him if he was quite sure of the way.

But he asked in vain, for the man had disappeared!

Whether this explanation be tru