r-guard ran in. We
felt for a moment like rats caught in a trap, for, in the hut I was in,
there were but two rooms. One had no light but what came in at the door;
the other had an opening of about nine inches square, and that not
looking into the street. In a moment, however, we saw that there was a
ladder leading up to the flat roof, and we swarmed up. These houses are
all built with flat roofs made of clay like the walls. Some of them have
a parapet about a foot high; some of them none at all. In better-class
villages some of the parapets are a good deal higher; so that the women
can sit there unobserved from the other roofs.

"The hut we were in had a low parapet, and we threw ourselves down
behind it. The street was full of horsemen, yelling and discharging
their guns at the doors; but when, almost at the same moment, a rattling
fire broke out from every roof, the scene in the street changed as if by
magic. Men fell from their horses in all directions. The horses plunged
and struggled, and so terrible was the _melee_ that, had the houses
stood touching each other, I doubt whether a man of those who entered
would have got out alive. As it was, they rode out through the openings,
leaving some sixty or seventy of their number dead in the street. We had
breathing time now. The whole of the Arab horsemen presently surrounded
us, but the lesson had been so severe that they hesitated to make
another charge into the village. The major's orders, that we were not to
throw away a shot, unless they charged down in force, were passed from
roof to roof round the village. We were ordered to barricade the doors
with anything we could find, and if there was nothing else, we were,
with our bayonets, to bring down part of the partition walls and pile
the earth against the door. Each hut was to report what supply of water
there was in it. This was to be in charge of the non-commissioned
officer, or the oldest soldier if there was not one, and he was to see
that it was not touched at night. It was to be divided equally among all
the huts.

"'You will understand, men,' he shouted from his roof, 'that our lives
depend more upon the water than upon your arms. We could defend this
place against that horde for a year; but if water fails altogether,
there will be nothing to do but to sally out and sell our lives as
dearly as we can.' Fortunately, we had still water with us, for it was
not known whether we should find any on the march, and w