(4) The piquet commander must tell patrols how long they are to stay out and any places he thinks must be visited, in addition to what they themselves may find advisable, on closer acquaintance with the ground. A suitable formation for a night patrol of six men would be four in the advanced party, followed at ten to fifty paces by the rear party or two. The reason for the stronger party being ahead is, firstly, that fighting at night begins with suddenness and ends rapidly, while reinforcement of one party by another is slow and uncertain, and, secondly, to ensure that some part of the patrol may have a good chance of getting away with news, whatever happens to the rest: Bayonets should be fixed and rifles sloped on the right shoulder, the right hand holding the small of the butt so as to come to the charge at once, and not to have any chance of a rifle falling on the ground. Tell patrol commanders to get their patrols into formation and practise movement in silence along a road and on ordinary road. If along a road, let them move on each side of it, off the metal on the roadside grass or dust, and under trees or close to the hedge or wall. On ordinary country the ball of the foot should be put down first as if to feel the surface, before putting the full weight of the body on the advanced foot. A stick or broom-handle, _à la_ “boy scout,” is invaluable in moving over unexplored ground, as by it the real nature of objects dimly seen at one’s feet can be made out, and awkward spills thereby avoided. The movement of patrols under these conditions will be very slow over any but quite level ground. As the patrols move let them practise the code of signals, halting, advancing, coming up into one line, etc., also the keeping up of communication by one file moving back and forward between the two parts of the patrol. They should practise also breaking up and scattering as if attacked by overwhelming numbers, each individual getting away as quickly and quietly as possible, and the whole rallying again at some place in rear. The patrol commander as he goes out must fix these rallying places, usually one is enough over the whole of a patrol’s beat, and they should be _outside_ the outpost line. Have the patrols moved so that on their beats they may meet each other once or twice, and use the sign to reply when challenge is made. As a second practice, direct one of the meeting patrols to consider itself hostile, and let the commander of the other patrol excogitate how he would deal with men who did not stand fast on being told to halt and could not give the countersign.