reme discomfort. No one had blanket or overcoat, and most were in
shorts. At dawn we had ten minutes' notice to rejoin the rest of the
regiment behind the station. In that ten minutes I had opportunity to
admire the soldier-man's resourcefulness. One of the picket, thrusting
his hand deep into one of the countless holes in our canal-wall, found
two tiny eggs. Raising fat in some fashion--probably a candle-end--he
had fried eggs for breakfast before we moved. The eggs were presumed to
be grouse-eggs. More likely they were bee-eater's, or may have been
snake's or lizard's. These canals are haunted by huge monitors, and
there must be tortoises in the Dujail. However, eggs were found, and
eggs were eaten.

On picket the men's talk was interesting to hear. They were regardless
of the discomfort they had known so long; and when his turn came to
watch, every man was eager to lend his waterproof sheet to Fisher and
me, who had only our thin khaki. Marner's death had gone deep. 'I hear
Mr. Marner's dead,' said a voice. 'I'm sorry to hear that,' said
another; 'he was a nice feller.' 'He was a good feller an' a',' said a
third. 'He was more like a brother to me than an officer,' his
platoon-sergeant told me. These were brief tributes to an able and
conscientious man, but they sufficed. At Sumaikchah our bivvies had
been side by side, where the green was most glowing, and we had
rejoiced together in that light and colour.

Beled Station was a small action, scarcely bigger than those dignified
in the Boer War with the name of battles. Our casualties were little
over a hundred for the whole day, and more than half of these were
incurred in the station itself. The Leicestershires lost twenty, three
killed among them; several of the wounded died later. But the action
attained considerable fame locally as a model of a successful little
battle. Our losses were miraculously slight. But for the very great
skill with which the two separate attacks were organized, and the
constant alertness which exploited every one of the ground's endless
irregularities, our losses must have been many times heavier. The
advance was conducted with caution and the utmost economy of life; but
the moment a breach was effected or an opportunity offered, then there
was a lightning blow and a swift push forward. Thus the enemy in the
station were trapped before they realized that their retreat was
threatened. The careless trooping together at the station was the