vering night with a wet skin in the open. An
Australian doctor going up to his regiment at grips with the Turk told
me that he had no doubt we were on the right road, for he had been
given a line through Mansura, which must be the farmhouse ahead of us.
These Australians have a keen nose for country and you have a sense
of security in following them. The doctor's horse was slipping in the
mud, but my car made even worse going. It skidded to right and left,
and only by the skill and coolness of my driver was I saved a ducking
in a narrow wadi now full of storm water. After much low-gear work we
pulled up a slight rise and saw ahead of us one or two little fires.
Under the lee of a dilapidated wall some Scottish infantry were
brewing tea and making the most of a slight shelter. It was Mansura,
and if we bore to the right and kept the track beaten down by lorries
across a field we might, by the favour of fortune, reach Junction
Station during the night. The Scots had arranged a bivouac in that
field before it became sodden. They knew how bad it had got, and a
native instinct to be hospitable prompted an invitation to share the
fire for the night. However, London was waiting for news and I decided
to press on. The road could not be worse than the sea of mud in which
I was floundering, and it might be better. We turned right-handed
and after a struggle came up against three lorry drivers hopelessly
marooned. They had turned in. Up a greasy bank we came to a stop and
slid back. We tried again and failed. I relieved the car of my weight
and made an effort to push it from behind, but my feet held fast in
the mud and the car cannoned into me when it skidded downhill. 'Better
give it up till the morning,' said an M.T. driver whose sleep was
disturbed by the running of our engine. 'Can't? Who've you got there?
Eh? Oh, very well. Here, Jim, give them a hand or we'll have no sleep
to-night'--or words to that effect. Three of the lorry men and the
engine got us on the move, and before they took mud back with them to
the dry interiors of the lorries they hoped, they said, that we would
reach G.H.Q., but declared that it was hopeless to try.

Before getting much farther a light, waved ahead of us, told of some
one held up. I walked on and found General Butler, the chief of the
Army Veterinary Service with the Force, unable to move an inch. The
efforts of two drivers failed to locate the trouble, and everything
removable was taken off t