SURRENDER 15
We concentrated in the palm-groves by the river-
bank. There we spent a night of terror. For the first
time for many years I was defenceless and unarmed.
We had eaten no food at all that day, and the heart sinks
when the belly is empty. A low thick fog lay over
everything, and out of it now and again loomed groups
of men on horses, uncanny and terrible, because they
were unknown and spoke in a strange tongue. We
set sentries with sticks, who would have been useless
in real danger, but it seemed better to be wakened than
to be murdered in our sleep.
At last that long night came to an end, and in the
dawn I dropped asleep, to be wakened by the sound of
a scuffle. A short sturdy Turk was endeavouring to
tear his water-bottle away from a huge Sikh, The sepoy
looked to me for protection. Suddenly I realized that
I was helpless; and I was ashamed. A little way off
sat a Turkish officer on the side of a water-wheel. I
ran to him and called his attention in French, which
by the grace of God he more or less understood. He
called to his Turk to leave the water-bottle alone. He
strode up to the man and beat him on the face. But
the fellow obstinately carried on. The officer's hand
flew to his belt, but his revolver was not there. Seeing
a pickaxe lying near he caught it up and drove the point
through the man.
Towards late afternoon we filed out of Kut. The
Turks had told us that if we got to Shamran, some
eight miles away, we should find food. The Turkish
commander KLhalil Pasha and his Staff, with the German
officers on it, watched us march out in fours. Right