" On the third day, to their mild surprise, we
managed with infinite difficulty to tow the camels out through the shallow
water into the main stream.
We finally got our rafts built, over eighty in number, and arranged for
enough Arab pilots to take care of half of them. On the remainder we put
Indian sepoys. They made quite a fleet when we finally got them all
started down-stream. Two were broken up in the rapids near Daur, the rest
reached Samarra in safety on the second day.
We had a pleasant camp on the bluffs below Tekrit--high-enough above the
plain to be free of the ordinary dust-storms, and the prospect of
returning to Samarra was scarcely more pleasant to us than to the men.
Five days after we had taken the town, we turned our backs on it and
marched slowly back to rail-head.
III
PATROLLING THE RUINS OF BABYLON
We returned to find Samarra buried in dust and more desolate than ever. A
few days later came the first rain-storm. After a night's downpour the air
was radiantly clear, and it was joy to ride off on the rounds, no longer
like Zeus, enveloped in a cloud.
It was a relief to see the heat-stroke camps broken up. During the summer
months our ranks were fearfully thinned through the sun. Although it was
the British troops that suffered most, the Indians were by no means
immune. Before the camps were properly organized the percentage of
mortality was exceedingly large, for the only effective treatment
necessitates the use of much ice.
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