came and said. 'There's a wounded officer just
come in. I've given him a drink and dressed him.' A minute later he
said, 'That officer's dead, sir.' I went across, and found it was
Scarth, of the 53rd. No braver spirit went out in this day of storm and
sorrow than this very gallant boy. He was aged nineteen.

Night fell, and slowly o'er the blood-bought mile
They brought a broken body, frail but brave;
A boy who carried into death the smile
With which he thanked for water that we gave.
Steadfast among the steadfast, those who kept
The narrow pass whereby the Leicesters swept,
Amid the mounded sands of ancient pride
He sleeps where Grattan fell and Adams died.

I know his father, and the Himalayan oaks and pines amid which he grew
to manhood. Men looking on Scarth loved him. The freshness of his
mountain home and his free, happy life clung to him to this end, amid
the tumults and terrors of our desert battle.

The son of Hyrtacus, whom Ide
Sent, with his quiver at his side,
From hunting beasts in forest-brake,
To follow in AEneas' wake.[16]

At dusk Wilson came. He had been toiling away, exposed and close up to
the fighters, as always--there never was a braver regimental medical
officer--and he now asked me to be responsible for getting his wounded
away, whilst he searched the battlefield. So all his cases were
evacuated into my place. At the same time many chits reached me,
addressed to the O.C. Clearing-Station. As there was no such person, I
opened these. The regimental aid-posts were pressing to be cleared. My
own place had men from seven different regiments, British and Indian,
as well as Turks, and Wilson was sending more along. So I found McLeod,
and we 'phoned down to the field ambulances. These were congested from
yesterday's battle and to-day's walking cases, and replied that nothing
could be done till dawn. But we were so insistent that about midnight
bullock-carts turned up, and I got fifty wounded away. The
'cahars,'[17] in their zeal to remove all kit belonging to the wounded,
carried off my water-bottle, haversack, rations, and communion-kit. But
before this I had been down to the Tigris in the darkness, and drunk
like a wounded wolf.

To return to the battle as it died away. The Forward Observing Officer
with the Leicestershires sent word back that fourteen guns (instead of
nine) had been taken. The news was exultantly forwarded to Corps H.Q.
When t