y old Bedouin, therefore, was a potential spy.

By the middle of April the preparations for a second attempt on Gaza were
complete. This time there was no intention of confining the issue to a
one- or even two-day battle. There might be another fog.... On the 16th we
packed six days' rations and forage on to the limbers and moved to the
outskirts of Belah, there to cover the infantry and wait till they had
carried out their part of the programme, which was to capture the outer
defences of Gaza. The Lowlanders and East Anglians did this in great style
the next morning, and spent the rest of that and the following day
consolidating the gains and preparing for the big "show" on the 19th. At
dark on the 18th we moved forward and crossed the wadi once again: the
journey this time was made comparatively easy by the fine work of the
engineers during the past fortnight.

By cutting deep into the steep sides of the wadi they had made several
really admirable roads sloping gradually down to the bed and up the other
side. The way led through fields of barley now standing almost waist-high.
It seemed a monstrous pity that the harvest would never be garnered, that
soon it would be crushed by gun-wheels and trodden underfoot by thousands
of horses. As we drew nearer the Turkish lines we proceeded with extreme
caution lest we ran into their patrols, and shortly after midnight halted,
noiselessly unlimbered the guns and dug them in. We had to tie the horses'
heads up to prevent them from grazing on the barley around us, and muffled
their bits and other steel work on the harness with bits of rag, for the
least sound carries a long way in this clear atmosphere. Then, the drivers
in each team taking turns to watch their horses, we lay down in the barley
and slept. "Zero" was at 0530, when it was just light enough to fire, and
by dawn we were up and about, tightening girths and preparing for a quick
move, if necessary--in one direction or the other.

The Turkish batteries discovered us at the precise moment when we opened
fire, possibly a few seconds before, for their first shells arrived and
exploded in a smother of barley-stalks and dust ere we had fairly begun.
They must have had some previous suspicion of our presence, for they had
the range to a yard right from the opening chorus and peppered our position
with extraordinary precision. Fortunately for us their guns, like our own,
were light field-pieces, or casualties would have been h