one night, expecting to give "Abdul," as the Tommies called him, a
surprise. Whether it was that we started too early and their aeroplanes
saw us, or whether they were only making a feint, we never found out; but
at all events the enemy fell back, and save for some advance-guard
skirmishing and a few prisoners, we drew a blank. We were not prepared to
attack the Daur position, and so returned to Samarra to await
developments.

Meanwhile I busied myself searching for an Arab servant. Seven or eight
years previous, when with my father in Africa, I had learned Swahili, and
although I had forgotten a great deal of it, still I found it a help in
taking up Arabic. Most of the officers had either British or Indian
servants; in the former case they were known as batmen, and in the latter
as bearers; but I decided to follow suit with the minority and get an
Arab, and therefore learn Arabic instead of Hindustanee, for the former
would be of vastly more general use. The town commandant, Captain Grieve
of the Black Watch, after many attempts at length produced a native who
seemed, at any rate, more promising than the others that offered
themselves. Yusuf was a sturdy, rather surly-looking youth of about
eighteen. Evidently not a pure Arab, he claimed various admixtures as the
fancy took him, the general preference being Kurd. I always felt that
there was almost certainly a good percentage of Turk. His father had been
a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish army, and at first I was loath
to take him along on advances and attacks, for he would have been shown
little mercy had he fallen into enemy hands. He was, however, insistent on
asking to go with me, and I never saw him show any concern under fire. He
spoke, in varying degrees of fluency, Kurdish, Persian, and Turkish, and
was of great use to me for that reason. He became by degrees a very
faithful and trustworthy follower, his great weakness being that he was a
one-man's man, and although he would do anything for me, he was of little