ad only a vague
suspicion that the English might have agents here also. We could travel
only at night, and when we slept or camped around a spring, there was
only a tent for the sick men. Two days' march from Jeddah, the Turkish
Government, as soon as it had received news about us, sent us sixteen
good camels.

[Sidenote: An attack.]

"Suddenly, on the night of April 1, things became uneasy. I was riding
at the head of the column. All our shooting implements were cleared for
action, because there was danger of an attack by Bedouins, whom the
English here had bribed. When it began to grow a bit light, I already
thought: 'We're through for to-day'; for we were tired--had been riding
eighteen hours. Suddenly I saw a line flash up before me, and shots
whizzed over our heads. Down from the camels! Form a fighting line! You
know how quickly it becomes daylight here. The whole space around the
desert hillock was occupied. Now, up with your bayonets! Rush 'em! * * *
They fled, but returned again, this time from all sides. Several of the
gendarmes that had been given us as an escort are wounded; the machine
gun operator, Rademacher, falls, killed by a shot through his heart;
another is wounded; Lieutenant Schmidt, in the rear guard, is mortally
wounded--he has received a bullet in his chest and abdomen.

[Sidenote: A flag of truce and a barricade.]

"Suddenly they waved white cloths. The Sheik, to whom a part of our
camels belonged, went over to them to negotiate, then Sami Bey and his
wife. In the interim we quickly built a sort of wagon barricade, a
circular camp of camel saddles, rice and coffee sacks, all of which we
filled with sand. We had no shovels, and had to dig with our bayonets,
plates, and hands. The whole barricade had a diameter of about fifty
meters. Behind it we dug trenches, which we deepened even during the
skirmish. The camels inside had to lie down, and thus served very well
as cover for the rear of the trenches. Then an inner wall was
constructed, behind which we carried the sick men. In the very centre we
buried two jars of water, to guard us against thirst. In addition we had
ten petroleum cans full of water; all told, a supply for four days. Late
in the evening Sami's wife came back from the futile negotiations,
alone. She had unveiled for the first and only time on this day of the
skirmish, had distributed cartridges, and had conducted herself
faultlessly.

[Sidenote: Death of Schmidt and Rademach