h the centre of a narrow lake, that runs in the same
direction as their line of advance. The reflection in the lake is
perfect in every detail and that is suspicious, for a train of wagons
and horses crossing a shallow lake would stir up the water and disturb
reflection. But there is another thing that helps you to recognise
mirage. At the tail of the column rises a cloud of dust and here and
there along the line you can make out a little wreath of dust rising
apparently from the surface of the mirroring water.

The fall of Kut did not ease the pressure at the hospitals. The sick
rate was increasing steadily. The Shimal, the north-west wind that comes
just in time to make it possible for you to believe in Providence, was
not due until the middle of June. Down by the river-side, where the
official meteorological station stood, the day temperature was far over
100 degrees, and up in the airless creeks, in the palm groves, it was
much higher. Clinical thermometers cracked if they were left lying about
on tables. Our staff was getting seriously depleted. No Tommy had to
work so hard as those hospital orderlies, and it is not surprising that
our casualties in sick men were very heavy. Clerks in the office became
ward masters at a moment's notice. But in spite of all this the spirit
of the place remained unshaken. However great the heat, it did not
destroy that sense of humour which is the glory of the British Army.
Rather be beaten and retain that sense than be victorious and lose it.
And if you come to think of it, no man who retains his sense of humour
is ever really beaten.

VI

THE DAY'S WORK

The great distances that separate the main stations in Mesopotamia, and
the long sea voyage between Basra and Bombay, threw a considerable
strain on that part of the army that sits in offices and deals with army
forms. At Poona the supreme headquarters of the campaign resided amid
the clear breezes of the Indian hills. The consequence was that in cases
where two or three copies of a form would have sufficed on the Western
front, there it was necessary to multiply them indefinitely, so as to
satisfy all the various authorities down the line. For example, in
sending sick to India, a nominal roll is compiled with name, number,
rank, regiment, nature of disease and so on. This, in triplicate, is an
ordinary procedure anywhere. But in Basra it was necessary, for some
reason, to make out over twenty copies, and this is a long