g note, and to the accompaniment of
battle sounds above, came the music of the soul, and Mac was awed. It
was the chanting of five hundred Maoris and their prayer before this,
their first great trial in modern warfare. Upon the next few hours
depended the reputation of their race. Would they be worthy of the
glorious traditions of their old chiefs?

Then came the word to move, and the Regiment, in single line, filed
down the slope and into the main sap to the north. It was already full
of troops filing to the attack, but, after many halts and
side-trackings, they reached the exit which led to the ravine. Here,
at the parting of the ways, stood the fine old padre, and, with a "God
bless you, my boy," he shook each by the hand as they passed out to
battle.

The several troops of Mac's squadron divided for their various
objectives. To his section fell the duty of going up the ravine to cut
enemy communication trenches, leading across it to their strong outpost
on the ridge above on the left. Magazines were empty, and the orders
were that the night's work must be done with the bayonet. The forty
silent figures crept up the sharp stony bottom for a short distance,
and then halted to await the critical moment of the attack. Then,
while they waited, the long white beam from a man-o'-war at sea settled
along the ridge on the left and showed the strong wired entrenchments
of the outpost. Whir-r-r went a shell overhead, and the first shot of
the battle burst in an eruption of black smoke among the Turkish wire.

More followed in rapid succession; but the first shot had been the
signal for the troop in the defile below to set off at a jog-trot up
its murky, twisty depths. They trotted along for five minutes,
machine-gun bullets from high above sometimes hitting up small spurts
of sand as they doubled round corners. Then, as they suddenly rounded
a sharp ridge, a dozen or so rifles burst on them from fifteen paces
distant. Some men went down in front of Mac, a cloud of dust sprang up
and he stumbled over one of the prone forms. Instantly they were in
among them, the terrified Turks shrieked, a few odd shots rang out, Mac
killed two with his revolver, and then, with bloody bayonets, shadowy
figures emerged from the murky depths of the trench, and passed on to
explore the ground beyond. They pushed up through the thick scrub to
beneath the outpost where a battle now raged, for the purpose of
catching fugitives and p