THE "SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT IN THE DESERT. 55 frequently did, a fresh beast at once took his place, and so wearily until morning we silently marched iew cared to converse gliding across the desert like one long shadow. At half-past five what looked like the reflection of a huge conflagration appeared on the horizon. It signalled the approach of day; and when it was light the bugles sounded a merry march, the men shouted and talked cheerily, and even the camels looked mildly contented. At ten we halted for breakfast, and tried to get a little sleep until two, when we were away again, striding on sometimes across stretches of sand, sometimes over stony ground, and anon through mimosa country; but ever the sun shone fiercely overhead. A peculiarity of the deserts that border the Nile is that the mouths of men and beasts who traverse them are always parched. Those who have experience know that it is no use to drink continuously. That only increases the torture, but it is difificult to resist the temptation, and so the men of the Sussex regiment, unlike their comrades of the heavies and mounted infantry who had marched up from Wady Haifa, drank on unceasingly and surreptitiously at their water-skins. In vain the officers restrained them, and when the march at last came to an end for the day it was discovered also that so had almost the water, while seventy miles had yet to be traversed before a plentiful supply could be obtained.

The skins, too, served out to the heavies had leaked; in short there was scarcity of water with all. Lucky was he who, having ventured to bring with him a horse, could give that horse a drink; and never shall I forget the blank look of despair with which one journalist announced that he ' had no water for his horse and none for himself.' But it was not always the skins that had leaked; sometimes, too, had the honesty of the servants in charge, for soldiers were foraging about offering any price, even a dollar, for as much as would make a single drink.

Afain, early in the morning, we started, but there was now no unwillingness to get on; for with many delay meant torture—perhaps death—while progress meant water and life. The wells of Hambok, forty-seven miles out from Korti, were found empty. Only a bucketful of the precious fluid was there, and that was given to a