After starting, we cantered for three unbroken hours. That had shaken down our bellies3 far enough for us to hold more food, and we stopped and ate bread and drank coffee till sunset, while Abd el Kerim rolled about his carpet in a dog-fight with one of the men. When he was exhausted4 he sat up; and they told stories and japed, till they were breathed enough to get up and dance. Everything was very free, very good-tempered, and not at all dignified5.
When we re-started, an hour’s mad race in the dusk brought us to the end of the Tehama, and to the foot of a low range of rock and sand. A month ago, coming from Hamra, we had passed south of this: now we crossed it, going up Wadi Agida, a narrow, winding6, sandy valley between the hills. Because it had run in flood a few days earlier, the going was firm for our panting camels; but the ascent8 was steep and we had to take it at walking pace. This pleased me, but so angered Abd el Kerim, that when, in a short hour, we reached the watershed9 he thrust his mount forward again and led us at break-neck speed down hill in the yielding night (a fair road, fortunately, with sand and pebbles10 underfoot) for half an hour, when the land flattened11 out, and we came to the outlying plantations12 of Nakhl Mubarak, chief date-gardens of the southern Juheina.
As we got near we saw through the palm-trees flame, and the flame-lit smoke of many fires, while the hollow ground re-echoed with the roaring of thousands of excited camels, and volleying of shots or shoutings in the darkness of lost men, who sought through the crowd to rejoin their friends. As we had heard in Yenbo that the Nakhl were deserted13, this tumult14 meant something strange, perhaps hostile. We crept quietly past an end of the grove15 and along a narrow street between man-high mud walls, to a silent group of houses. Abd el Kerim forced the courtyard door of the first on our left, led the camels within, and hobbled them down by the walls that they might remain unseen. Then he slipped a cartridge16 into the breech of his rifle and stole off on tiptoe down the street towards the noise to find out what was happening. We waited for him, the sweat of the ride slowly drying in our clothes as we sat there in the chill night, watching.
He came back after half an hour to say that Feisal with his camel corps17 had just arrived, and we were to go down and join him. So we led the camels out and mounted; and rode in file down another lane on a bank between houses, with a sunk garden of palms on our right. Its end was filled with a solid crowd of Arabs and camels, mixed together in the wildest confusion, and all crying aloud. We pressed through them, and down a ramp18 suddenly into the bed of Wadi Yenbo, a broad, open space: how broad could only be guessed from the irregular lines of watch-fires glimmering19 over it to a great distance. Also it was very damp; with slime, the relic20 of a shallow flood two days before, yet covering its stones. Our camels found it slippery under foot and began to move timidly.
We had no opportunity to notice this, or indeed anything, just now, except the mass of Feisal’s army, filling the valley from side to side. There were hundreds of fires of thorn-wood, and round them were Arabs making coffee or eating, or sleeping muffled21 like dead men in their cloaks, packed together closely in the confusion of camels. So many camels in company made a mess indescribable, couched as they were or tied down all over the camping ground, with more ever coming in, and the old ones leaping up on three legs to join them, roaring with hunger and agitation22. Patrols were going out, caravans23 being unloaded, and dozens of Egyptian mules24 bucking25 angrily over the middle of the scene.
We ploughed our way through this din7, and in an island of calm at the very centre of the valley bed found Sherif Feisal. We halted our camels by his side. On his carpet, spread barely over the stones, he was sitting between Sherif Sharraf, the Kaimmakam both of the Imaret and of Taif, his cousin, and Maulud, the rugged27, slashing28 old Mesopotamian patriot29, now acting30 as his A.D.C. In front of him knelt a secretary taking down an order, and beyond him another reading reports aloud by the light of a silvered lamp which a slave was holding. The night was windless, the air heavy, and the unshielded flame poised31 there stiff and straight.
Feisal, quiet as ever, welcomed me with a smile until he could finish his dictation. After it he apologized for my disorderly reception, and waved the slaves back to give us privacy. As they retired32 with the onlookers33, a wild camel leaped into the open space in front of us, plunging34 and trumpeting35. Maulud dashed at its head to drag it away; but it dragged him instead; and, its load of grass ropes for camel fodder36 coming untied37, there poured down over the taciturn Sharraf, the lamp, and myself, an avalanche38 of hay. ‘God be praised,’ said Feisal gravely, ‘that it was neither butter nor bags of gold.’ Then he explained to me what unexpected things had happened in the last twenty-four hours on the battle front.
The Turks had slipped round the head of the Arab barrier forces in Wadi Safra by a side road in the hills, and had cut their retreat. The Harb, in a panic, had melted into the ravines on each side, and escaped through them in parties of twos and threes, anxious for their threatened families. The Turkish mounted men poured down the empty valley and over the Dhifran Pass to Bir Said, where Ghalib Bey, their commander, nearly caught the unsuspecting Zeid asleep in his tent. However, warning came just in time. With the help of Sherif Abdulla ibn Thawab, an old Harith campaigner, Emir Zeid held up the enemy attack for long enough to get some of his tents and baggage packed on camels and driven away. Then he escaped himself; but his force melted into a loose mob of fugitives39 riding wildly through the night towards Yenbo.
Thereby40 the road to Yenbo was laid open to the Turks, and Feisal had rushed down here only an hour before our arrival, with five thousand men, to protect his base until something properly defensive41 could be arranged. His spy system was breaking down: the Harb, having lost their wits in the darkness, were bringing in wild and contradictory42 reports from one side and another about the strength of the Turks and their movements and intention. He had no idea whether they would strike at Yenbo or be content with holding the passes from Wadi Yenbo into Wadi Safra while they threw the bulk of their forces down the coast towards Rabegh and Mecca. The situation would be serious either way: the best that could happen would be if Feisal’s presence here attracted them, and caused them to lose more days trying to catch his field army while we strengthened Yenbo. Meanwhile, he was doing all he could, quite cheerfully; so I sat down and listened to the news; or to the petitions, complaints and difficulties being brought in and settled by him summarily.
Sharraf beside me worked a busy tooth-stick back and forward along his gleaming jaws43, speaking only once or twice an hour, in reproof44 of too-urgent suitors. Maulud ever and again leaned over to me, round Feisal’s neutral body, eagerly repeating for our joint45 benefit any word of a report which might be turned to favour the launching of an instant and formal counter-attack.
This lasted till half-past four in the morning. It grew very cold as the damp of the valley rose through the carpet and soaked our clothes. The camp gradually stilled as the tired men and animals went one by one to sleep; a white mist collected softly over them and in it the fires became slow pillars of smoke. Immediately behind us, rising out of the bed of mist, Jebel Rudhwa, more steep and rugged than ever, was brought so close by the hushed moonlight that it seemed hanging over our heads.
Feisal at last finished the urgent work. We ate half-a-dozen dates, a frigid47 comfort, and curled up on the wet carpet. As I lay there in a shiver, I saw the Biasha guards creep up and spread their cloaks gently over Feisal, when they were sure that he was sleeping.
An hour later we got up stiffly in the false dawn (too cold to go on pretending and lying down) and the slaves lit a fire of palm-ribs to warm us, while Sharraf and myself searched for food and fuel enough for the moment. Messengers were still coming in from all sides with evil rumours48 of an immediate46 attack; and the camp was not far off panic. So Feisal decided49 to move to another position, partly because we should be washed out of this one if it rained anywhere in the hills, and partly to occupy his men’s minds and work off their restlessness.
When his drums began to beat, the camels were loaded hurriedly. After the second signal everyone leaped into the saddle and drew off to left or right, leaving a broad lane up which Feisal rode, on his mare26, with Sharraf a pace behind him, and then Ali, the standard-bearer, a splendid wild man from Nejd, with his hawk’s face framed in long plaits of jet-black hair falling downward from his temples. Ali was dressed garishly50, and rode a tall camel. Behind him were all the mob of sherifs and sheikhs and slaves — and myself — pell-mell. There were eight hundred in the bodyguard51 that morning.
Feisal rode up and down looking for a place to camp, and at last stopped on the further side of a little open valley just north of Nakhl Mubarak village; though the houses were so buried in the trees that few of them could be seen from outside. On the south bank of this valley, beneath some rocky knolls52, Feisal pitched his two plain tents. Sharraf had his personal tent also; and some of the other chiefs came and lived by us. The guard put up their booths and shelters; and the Egyptian gunners halted lower down on our side, and dressed their twenty tents beautifully in line, to look very military. So in a little while we were populous53, if hardly imposing54 in detail.
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1
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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bellies
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| n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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watershed
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| n.转折点，分水岭，分界线 | |
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pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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ramp
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| n.暴怒，斜坡，坡道；vi.作恐吓姿势，暴怒，加速；vt.加速 | |
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19
glimmering
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| n.微光，隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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caravans
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| （可供居住的）拖车（通常由机动车拖行）( caravan的名词复数 )； 篷车； （穿过沙漠地带的）旅行队（如商队） | |
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24
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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25
bucking
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| v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的现在分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃 | |
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mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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slashing
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| adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减 | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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onlookers
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| n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 ) | |
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plunging
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| adj.跳进的，突进的v.颠簸( plunge的现在分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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35
trumpeting
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| 大声说出或宣告（trumpet的现在分词形式） | |
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36
fodder
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| n.草料；炮灰 | |
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untied
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| 松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决 | |
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38
avalanche
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| n.雪崩，大量涌来 | |
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fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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40
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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42
contradictory
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| adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立 | |
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jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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47
frigid
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| adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的 | |
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48
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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49
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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50
garishly
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| adv.鲜艳夺目地，俗不可耐地；华丽地 | |
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51
bodyguard
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| n.护卫，保镖 | |
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52
knolls
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| n.小圆丘，小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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53
populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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