barbed wire so that if any Turk tried to get through he would make a
noise like the cowbells at milking-time. Talking about barbed wire,
Johnny Turk played a huge joke on us on one occasion. As the staking
down of wire was too risky, we prepared some "knife-rests" (hedges of
wire shaped like a knife rest) and rolled them over our parapet, but
opened our eyes in amazement to find in the morning that they had only
stopped a few feet from the Turkish trenches. The Turks had sneaked
out and tied ropes to them and hauled them over to protect themselves.
Thereafter we took care to let Abdul do his own wiring.




CHAPTER XVI

"SHIPS THAT PASS . . ."

Although we did not capture the Narrows (that narrow stream of water
through which a current runs so swiftly that floating mines are carried
down into it faster than the mine-sweepers could gather them up), this
did not prevent at least one representative of the navy from passing
that barrier. This was the Australian submarine, A2. It may not be
generally known that Australia had two submarines at the outbreak of
war. These would appear antediluvian alongside the latest underwater
monster, but, nevertheless, one of these accomplished a feat such as no
German submarine has ever approached. The first of our submarines met
an unknown fate as it disappeared somewhere near New Guinea. There has
been much speculation as to what happened to it, but its size can be
guessed at when I mention that a naval officer told me he thought it
probable that a shark had eaten it. As was the same type, but it