that refused to be put to rights; towing-ropes were called into
requisition, but the best had been left behind, and those we had were
rotted, and broke on every hill. Lastly a broken axle put one of the
tenders definitely out of commission, and, of course, I had to wait behind
with it. To add to everything, a veritable hurricane set in, with thunder
and lightning and torrents of rain. The wind blew so hard that I thought
the car would be toppled over. What made us more gloomy than anything else
was the thought of all the dry river courses that would be roaring floods
by morning, and probably hold up the ration supply indefinitely.

Two days later the orders for which we had been waiting came through. We
were to march upon a town called Taza Khurmatli, lying fifteen miles
beyond Tauq and ten short of Kirkuk. If we met with no opposition there we
were to push straight on. From all we could hear Taza was occupied only by
cavalry, which would probably fall back without contesting our advance.
The cars had been out on reconnaissance near the town for the last two
days, and had come in for artillery and machine-gun fire; but it was
believed that the Turks had everything ready to withdraw their guns on our
approach.

In the gray light that preceded dawn we saw shadowy columns of infantry
and artillery and cavalry passing by our camp. The costumes of the
different regiments made a break in the drab monotony. The Mesopotamian
Expeditionary Force was composed of varied components. Steel helmets could
be worn only in winter. In many of the native regiments the British
officers wore tasselled pugrees, and long tunics that were really shirts,
and an adaption of the native custom of wearing the shirt-tails outside
the trousers. The Gurkhas were supplied with pith helmets. It was
generally claimed that this was unnecessary, but the authorities felt that
coming from a cold, high climate they would be as much affected by the