AFTER THE FIGHT. 135 handing his water-bottle to another man a bullet passed through his friend's hand and pierced his chest. He fell on to me, a torrent of blood gushing out of his mouth. No use trying to staunch it ; he was dead in less than a minute.

At length the enemy on the hills melted away, and the fire gradually ceased. Occasionally an Arab, seeing everything was lost, would come out into the open, and expose himself purposely to the bullets of the infidels, and once a horseman charged my company by himself, and got quite close before he was dropped. He was coming straight my way, and I was expecting to get a pot-shot at him, when, to my disgust, a marine bowled him over an awful " crumpler " at an unfairly short range for a rifle.

The square was now moved on to a space clear of dead bodies, and the gaps were closed up. Now that the enemy had disappeared, we had leisure for the sad task of collecting and burying the dead before moving on to the wells. The officers of the G.C.R. collected together for a moment, and we discovered to our mutual joy, that, with the exception of poor Magill,