140 WITH THE CAMEL CORPS UP THE NILE.

The wells were simply deep holes in the sand, thirty or forty in number, and mostly with one or two feet of water in them. One of my men, a great sixfoot-three private, called Rooke, who had taken me under his special protection, soon picked me out in the dusk, and presented me with a huge calabash full of cool milky-tea-coloured water, of the consistency of thin mud. It was delicious! I drank till I was full to the brim, and then felt annoyed that I couldn't hold any more, for the roof of my mouth wasn't soft yet.

When everybody had drunk their fill, a large square was formed for the night on some rising ground close to the wells, for the chances of another attack were not yet by any means over. Three hundred volunteers were then called for from the Heavies, the Mounted Infantry, and ourselves, to march back to the zeriba and bring up all the baggage before daylight.

They were soon started off, and then began for us quite the coldest night we ever experienced ; the wounded must have suffered fearfully. Of course we had no extra clothing or covering of any sort, nothing between us and the freezing night air but a shirt and