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[Page 68]
Hyde Park. Mules munched their caked fodder within their lines or drowsily whisked away with their tufted tails the incessant hordes of flies, which seemed to us visitors at least to cause more inconvenience than the whole Turkish Army.
About a mile away from G.H.Q. towards Aden a hangar had been built. This hangar bound housed a captive observation Balloon which, attached to a traction engine was a source of considerable annoyance to Abdul. Every morning this balloon ascended and was drawn about the country at the will of the observers. The Turks having no Arctives Archies or anti-aircraft guns of any description could only trust that Allah would see fit to hide from the eyes of the English observers what Abdul had no desire to be seen. But Allah did not always do so, for every morning at dawn or shortly after the "strafe" would commence, and directed by the observer in the balloon our artillery would serve up something hot for Abdul's petit dejeuner, and the wretched Abdul dare not reply for the afore mentioned reasons in addition to which his own guns fell short of ours by a mile or more.
Occasionally when our "strafe" was more than usually successful and Abdul grew rather peevish he would as already mentioned, bring a small field piece down to the Water on his end side of the harbour and in a spirit of childish retaliation make water spouts in the harbour mostly with dud shells. It is recorded that he once got within fifty yards of the guard ship there. He never lingered long though in this amusement, knowing well that the natural reply to it was a salvoe of six inch shells from the cruiser, and these he had learnt to respect.