LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

KASTAMUNI	[Frontispiece]
THE CASTLE ROCK, KASTAMUNI		["]
	TO FACE PAGE
ELMEY BEY		[48]
MAP USED ON JOURNEY TO THE BLACK SEA		[126]
MAP SHOWING ROUTE OF ESCAPE		[180]
BIHGAR BEY		[196]
BOAT IN WHICH THE PARTY CROSSED THE BLACK SEA		[210]
MAP OF BLACK SEA		[214]
ALUPKA		[220]
ALUPKA BATHS		[220]
YALTA		[224]
THE THREE OFFICERS AND THREE OF THEIR RESCUERS		[226]
THE THREE OFFICERS AND THE AKHARDASH		[228]

A KUT PRISONER

CHAPTER I

CTESIPHON

In India, in the early days of the war, a newly gazetted subaltern of the Indian Army Reserve of Officers was sent for a month's preliminary training to one of the few remaining British regular battalions. Afterwards he was attached to an Indian Regiment, and, if fortunate, went on service with the same battalion. A great number, however, were sent off to join other units in the field. In this way I found myself arriving in Basra on October 2nd, 1915, with a draft for a regiment [1] of whom I had known nothing a few days before leaving India. However, the "Nobody's Child" feeling was very soon a thing of the past, and I was welcomed by a mess full of the best comrades any fellow could desire.