For drinking it was abominable--and almost spoiled the tea upon
which we relied for a staple. A few miles beyond, the engineers found a
suitable location to throw a bridge across the creek. The main body was
halted at a place known as Umr Maidan and we were sent over the bridge to
form across the main road leading from Kara Tepe back into the Turkish
territory.
It was nightfall before we had effected a crossing, and we groped our way
along until we came upon the road. It was impossible to do very much in
the way of selecting a position, but we arranged the cars as best we
could. When you were off at large in the desert you were what the army
called "Out in the blue," and that was certainly our situation on the
night of April 26. We all expected that we would intercept traffic going
one way or the other, but the night passed without incident or excitement.
[Illustration: Indian cavalry bringing in prisoners after the charge]
By four in the morning we were once more feeling our way along through the
darkness. As it lightened we came under observation by the Turks, who
started in to shell us. We learned from our aeroplanes that Kifri had been
evacuated; the garrison was falling back along a road running parallel to
the one on which we were, separated by eight or ten miles of broken
country. By this time our cavalry had caught up with us. They pushed off
across country to intercept the Turks.
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