The enemy, who had suffered very heavily in the attack of the 26th, resumed the offensive on the 31st, when he bit another slice out of the thinly held line and captured the position known as Vinigradi Hill. After this the Turk advanced from success to success, slowly driving back the garrison on the inner defensive line. [Illustration: GROUP OF THE STAFFORDS, WHOSE HEROIC ATTEMPT TO RECOVER THE SITUATION FOLLOWING THE ARMENIAN RETIREMENT WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED AT BAKU. THE SCENE WAS AT BALADADAR STATION.] His crowning victory was the storming of the Voltchi Vorota sector on the morning of September 14th. An Arab officer who deserted two days previously furnished full particulars of the impending attack, but his information was regarded with suspicion. It proved, however, to be absolutely correct, for the enemy made a feigned attack on the neighbouring Baladjari sector and delivered his main blow against Voltchi Vorota. He got home at once, driving out the Russian troops, who retreated in some confusion. An armoured car, however, intervened between the retiring troops and the oncoming enemy, and, although heavily shelled by the Turkish batteries, {217} it manoeuvred adroitly, paralyzing the advance by its deadly fire and allowing the broken Russians time to reform with a leavening of British bayonets. The Turks later in the day converted the feigned into a real attack, and broke through at Baladjari. This series of reverses contracted the daily shrinking perimeter still more. It was now clear to Dunsterville that his troubled occupancy of Baku had come to an end, and orders were issued for an immediate evacuation. The Bolsheviks had got the upper hand again. Their attitude was doubtful and, in the first instance, they had objected to the troops being withdrawn, threatening to use the Caspian fleet of gunboats to fire on the laden transports should the latter attempt to sail. It was not exactly altruism, nor the promptings of a generous nature, that led them to do this. On the contrary, it was rather a tender regard for their own cowardly skins. Should the victorious enemy storm the town the British would serve as a useful chopping-block upon which the Turks might expend their fury; and, if the worst came to the worst, and there was no other way out of a disagreeable dilemma, grace and favour might be won from the Osmanli by uniting with him in administering the _coup de grâce_ to the trapped and betrayed remnant of Dunsterville's Army of Occupation. Although the town lay defenceless and at their mercy, the Turks--victims probably of their periodical inertia--did not follow up their advantage. The {218} Bolsheviks hesitated to strike, and, after the motor-cars, stores, and transport had been destroyed, the evacuation was successfully carried out under the menacing guns of the Caspian Fleet.