uts and camps.

And all the time we had no letters from home. We were actually marooned
on Lemnos Island: as literally marooned on a barren desert isle as any
buccaneer of the old Spanish galleon days. We went suddenly back to a
savage life. We went down to bathe stark naked, with the sunset glowing
orange on our sunburnt limbs. Here it was that Hawk proved himself a
wonderfully good swimmer. He was lithe and supple and well-made--an
extraordinary specimen of virile manhood--and he spent his fiftieth
birthday on Lemnos!

One day came the order to pack up and man-handle all our stuff down
to the beach ready for re-embarkation. At last we were on the move. We
worked with a will now. The great day would soon dawn. Some of us would
get "put out of mess," no doubt, but this waiting about to get killed
was much worse than plunging into the thick of it.

August the 6th saw us steaming out at night towards the great unknown
climax--the New Landing.

CHAPTER X. THE NEW LANDING

A pale pink sunrise burst across the eastern sky as our transport
came steaming into the bay. The haze of early morning dusk still held,
blurring the mainland and water in misty outlines.

Hawk and I had slept upon the deck. Now we got up and stretched our
cramped limbs. Slowly we warped through the quiet seas.

You must understand that we knew not where we were. We had never heard
of Suvla Bay--we didn't know what part of the Peninsula we had reached.
The mystery of the adventure made it all the more exciting. It was to be
"a new landing by the Xth Division"--that was all we knew.

Some of us had slept, and some had lain awake all night. Rapidly the
pink sunrise swept behind the rugged mountains to the left, and was
reflected in wobbling ripples in the bay.

We joined the host of battleships, monitors, and troopships standing
out, and "stood by."

We could hear the rattle of machine-guns in the distant gloom beyond
the streak of sandy shore. The decks were crowded with that same khaki
crowd. We all stood eagerly watching and listening. The death-silence
had come upon us. No one spoke. No one whistled.

We could see the lighters and small boats towing troops ashore. We saw
the men scramble out, only to be blown to pieces by land mines as
they waded to the beach. On the Lala Baba side we watched platoons and
companies form up and march along in fours, all in step, as if they were
on parade.

"In fours!" I exclaimed to Hawk, who was p