_they'll_ go on writing to _me_ though.

* * * * *


"P.S.S. KARA DEUIZ,"
BASRA,

To N.B.
_August 29, 1915._

I hope you will be indulgent if I write less regularly now: and by
indulgent I mean that you will go on writing to me, as I do enjoy your
letters so much. I expect I shall have slack times when there will be
plenty of leisure to write: but at others we are likely to be busy,
and you never can be sure of having the necessary facilities. And
personally I find my epistolary faculties collapse at about 100° in
the shade. I wrote quite happily this morning till it got hot; and
only now (4.45) have I found it possible to resume. We get it 102 to
104° every day from about noon to four, and it oppresses one much more
than at Agra as there is no escaping from it and flies are plentiful:
but about now a nice breeze springs up, and the evenings are fairly
pleasant. I thought we were leaving for Amarah to-day, so I told Mama
my letter to her would have to do all-round duty, which is mean, I
admit, but I had no day off till to-day.

Not that I've been really busy, but I've been out a lot, partly
getting things and partly seeing the place.

I've just heard I must go ashore with another sick man immediately