Persian, Turkish, and Kurdish was fastened into each aeroplane informing
the reader of the reward that would be paid him if the pilot were brought
in safety to the British lines. This was done in case a plane got lost and
was driven down out of its course among the tribesmen.

The night of the 27th we bivouacked once more "out in the blue." Dawn
found me on my way back to Umr Maidan to lay in a new supply of gasolene.
I made a rapid trip and caught up with the armored cars in action in a
large swampy plain. The grass was very high and the ground so soft that it
was difficult to accomplish anything. Two or three small hills offered
vantage-points, but they were not neglected by the Turk, and among those
that fell was the colonel of the Twenty-First cavalry--the regiment that
had acquitted itself so well in the charge of the day before.

We were ten miles from Tuz Khurmartli, the next important town held by
the enemy now that Kifri had been taken. It was thither that the Turks had
been retreating when we cut them off. Finding that we were unable to
operate effectively where we were, it was decided that we should make our
way across to the Kifri-Kirkuk road and advance along it to make a frontal
attack upon Tuz. Our orders were to proceed to a deserted village known as
Kulawand, and wait there for the command to advance. When we got to the
road we found the hills still occupied by camel-guns and machine-guns. We
replied ineffectively, for we had no means of dislodging them, nor did the
cavalry when they came up. Kulawand we found to be a fair-sized native
village unoccupied save for a single hut full of old women and children.
Here we waited until nightfall for the orders that never came. I sat under
a ruined wall reading alternatively Camoens' _Lusiad_ and _David Harum_
until darkness fell.

During the night some infantry came up, both native and British. They had