Produced by Al Haines [Illustration: Cover art] [Frontispiece: A DASH FOR LIBERTY] CARRY ON! _A STORY OF THE FIGHT FOR BAGDAD_ BY HERBERT STRANG ILLUSTRATED BY H. K. ELCOCK AND H. EVISON HUMPHREY MILFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, EDINBURGH, GLASGOW TORONTO, MELBOURNE, CAPE TOWN, BOMBAY PRINTED 1917 IN GREAT BRITAIN BY R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD. BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E. 1, AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. CONTENTS CHAP. I A TELL NEAR BABYLON II THE GAPING JAWS III THE BARBER'S APPRENTICE IV THE SHAVING OF BURCKHARDT V SECRET SERVICE VI THE DERVISH HEZAR VII A MAD RACE VIII ACROSS THE EUPHRATES IX FRIENDS OR FOES? X THE TRYST XI THE TRAP XII A REARGUARD ACTION XIII IN THE BRITISH LINES XIV THE ENEMY'S GUNS XV A RAID XVI CLOSING IN XVII RAISING THE SIEGE XVIII THE TIMELY BOMB LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS COLOUR FRONTISPIECE BY H. K. ELCOCK. A DASH FOR LIBERTY (see p. 102), DRAWINGS IN LINE BY H. EVISON. THE STRUGGLE ON THE TELL A MOUTHFUL OF SOAP THE PRISONER THE LAST SHOT A CAPTIVE IN BONDS STRANDED MAJOR BURCKHARDT IS DISTURBED THE DASH FOR THE MACHINE-GUN THE BARBER IS MOBBED CHAPTER I A TELL NEAR BABYLON Mesopotamia, "the land between the rivers," has been brought by Time's revolution once more into the foreground of the history of the world. The plains where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob tended their flocks and herds; where the hosts of Sennacherib, Shalmaneser and Alexander contended for "world-power" in their day; where the Arabs, heirs of ancient civilisations, reared a civilisation of their own until it fell under the blight of Turkish dominion: have become once more the battle-ground of opposing armies, the representatives of conflicting spirits and ideals. This fertile land, whose history dates back many thousands of years, has long lain desolate. Swamps and marshes and the floods of the Tigris and the Euphrates cover immense tracts that were once the granary of the middle East. The old canals and irrigation works constructed by Babylonians and Assyrians are now obliterated by sand. Where once large populations throve and cultivated literature and the arts, now roam only a few tribes of Arabs, degenerate descendants of the race that at one time led the world in the things of the mind. Mesopotamia is the "abomination of desolation." Here and there a mound--known to archæologists as a _tell_--marks the site of a buried city, and excavation has brought to light the remains of palaces and monumental tombs, and temples where "pale-eyed priests" chanted incantations to Assur and Ishtar and Merodach--the Baalim and Ashtoreth of the Bible. It was at one such _tell_ that the story to be unfolded in the following pages had its beginning.