n. When the
gallant brutes did eventually reach the top they were shaking in every limb
as if with ague.

But the worst was now over. Some time or other we must have reached our
destination; I cannot remember. I have the vaguest recollection of placing
a nosebag for a pillow, but that is all; the rest of that night is lost in
deep oblivion.

It was a curious sight that presented itself next morning. Men were lying
just where they had fallen. Some were stretched straight out with faces
upturned to the sky; others huddled up in strange attitudes; others again
lay with their heads pillowed on their saddles; and all had utter weariness
stamped in every line of their bodies. Nearly all the horses were lying
down, a sure indication of extreme fatigue, for as a rule they slept
standing.

One by one the men stirred, stretched, and looked dazedly about them.
Presently, when consciousness returned, we began to remember that it was
twenty-four hours since we had eaten. Haversacks were searched for what
remained of the bully-beef and biscuits, which were very hard to get down
without water, and of that we had none.

In this respect the horses were in worse plight than we. It was forty hours
since they had been watered. In no country, save Mesopotamia, did the
exigencies of the campaign lie so heavily upon our four-legged comrades as
in Egypt and Palestine. But for the fact that all animals in the army are
better treated and looked after than any in the world, it would have fared
very hardly with them. You should have seen some of the captured Turkish
horses! It made us heartsick to look at them, so emaciated were they from
ill-usage and neglect. The Eastern has no idea of kindness to animals; it
was a common practice for them to ride horses with open sores as big as the
hand on the withers and elsewhere, day in and day out, with no thought of
giving the tortured creatures treatment for their ills.

It is a poor day for the British soldier when he cannot find some little
dainty for his horse, or "win" an extra handful of grain when the
quartermaster-sergeant is looking the other way; his first thought is
always for his horse.

When we had snatched a hurried meal we set out to look for water. The only
known wells were at Deir el Belah, whither we proceeded. We had apparently
crossed the wadi some distance to the east, for we went seven miles or
thereabouts before we reached the wells, which were, however, only for the
use of t