Accordingly, I wandered into Abdulla’s tent, announcing my complete recovery and an ambition to do something to the Hejaz railway. Here were men, guns, machine-guns, explosives and automatic mines: enough for a main effort. But Abdulla was apathetic8. He wanted to talk about the Royal families of Europe, or the Battle of the Somme: the slow march of his own war bored him. However, Sherif Shakir, his cousin and second in command, was fired to enthusiasm, and secured us licence to do our worst. Shakir loved the Ateiba, and swore they were the best tribe on earth; so we settled to take mostly Ateiba with us. Then we thought we might have a mountain gun, one of the Egyptian Army Krupp veterans, which had been sent by Feisal to Abdulla from Wejh as a present.
Shakir promised to collect the force, and we agreed that I should go in front (gently, as befitted my weakness) and search for a target. The nearest and biggest was Aba el Naam Station. With me went Raho, Algerian officer in the French Army, and member of Bremond’s mission, a very hard-working and honest fellow. Our guide was Mohammed el Kadhi, whose old father, Dakhil-Allah, hereditary9 lawman of the Juheina, had guided the Turks down to Yenbo last December. Mohammed was eighteen, solid and silent natured. Sherif Fauzan el Harith, the famous warrior10 who had captured Eshref at Janbila, escorted us, with about twenty Ateiba and five or six Juheina adventurers.
We left on March the twenty-sixth, while Sir Archibald Murray was attacking Gaza; and rode down Wadi Ais; but after three hours the heat proved too much for me, and we stopped by a great sidr tree (lote or jujube, but the fruit was scarce) and rested under it the midday hours. Sidr trees cast heavy shade: there was a cool east wind, and few flies. Wadi Ais was luxuriant with thorn trees and grass, and its air full of white butterflies and scents11 of wild flowers; so that we did not remount till late in the afternoon, and then did only a short march, leaving Wadi Ais by the right, after passing in an angle of the valley a ruined terrace and cistern12. Once there had been villages in this part, with the underground waters carefully employed in their frequent gardens; but now it was waste.
The following morning we had two hours’ rough riding around the spurs of Jebel Serd into Wadi Turaa, a historic valley, linked by an easy pass to Wadi Yenbo. We spent this midday also under a tree, near some Juheina tents, where Mohammed guested while we slept. Then we rode on rather crookedly14 for two more hours, and camped after dark. By ill luck an early spring scorpion16 stung me severely17 on the left hand while I lay down to sleep. The place swelled18 up; and my arm became stiff and sore.
At five next morning, after a long night, we restarted, and passed through the last hills, out into the Jurf, an undulating open space which ran up southward to Jebel Antar, a crater19 with a split and castellated top, making it a landmark20. We turned half-right in the plain, to get under cover of the low hills which screened it from Wadi Hamdh, in whose bed the railway lay. Behind these hills we rode southward till opposite Aba el Naam. There we halted to camp, close to the enemy but quite in safety. The hill-top commanded them; and we climbed it before sunset for a first view of the station.
The hill was, perhaps, six hundred feet high and steep, and I made many stages of it, resting on my way up: but the sight from the top was good. The railway was some three miles off. The station had a pair of large, two-storied houses of basalt, a circular watertower, and other buildings. There were bell-tents, huts and trenches21, but no sign of guns. We could see about three hundred men in all.
We had heard that the Turks patrolled their neighbourhood actively22 at night. A bad habit this: so we sent off two men to lie by each blockhouse, and fire a few shots after dark. The enemy, thinking it a prelude23 to attack, stood-to in their trenches all night, while we were comfortably sleeping; but the cold woke us early with a restless dawn wind blowing across the Jurf, and singing in the great trees round our camp. As we climbed to our observation point the sun conquered the clouds and an hour later it grew very hot.
We lay like lizards24 in the long grass round the stones of the foremost cairn upon the hill-top, and saw the garrison25 parade. Three hundred and ninety-nine infantry26, little toy men, ran about when the bugle27 sounded, and formed up in stiff lines below the black building till there was more bugling28: then they scattered29, and after a few minutes the smoke of cooking fires went up. A herd30 of sheep and goats in charge of a little ragged31 boy issued out towards us. Before he reached the foot of the hills there came a loud whistling down the valley from the north, and a tiny, picture-book train rolled slowly into view across the hollow sounding bridge and halted just outside the station, panting out white puffs34 of steam.
The shepherd lad held on steadily35, driving his goats with shrill36 cries up our hill for the better pasture on the western side. We sent two Juheina down behind a ridge32 beyond sight of the enemy, and they ran from each side and caught him. The lad was of the outcast Heteym, pariahs37 of the desert, whose poor children were commonly sent on hire as shepherds to the tribes about them. This one cried continually, and made efforts to escape as often as he saw his goats straying uncared-for about the hill. In the end the men lost patience and tied him up roughly, when he screamed for terror that they would kill him. Fauzan had great ado to make him quiet, and then questioned him about his Turkish masters. But all his thoughts were for the flock: his eyes followed them miserably38 while the tears made edged and crooked15 tracks down his dirty face.
Shepherds were a class apart. For the ordinary Arab the hearth39 was a university, about which their world passed and where they heard the best talk, the news of their tribe, its poems, histories, love tales, lawsuits40 and bargainings. By such constant sharing in the hearth councils they grew up masters of expression, dialecticians, orators41, able to sit with dignity in any gathering42 and never at a loss for moving words. The shepherds missed the whole of this. From infancy43 they followed their calling, which took them in all seasons and weathers, day and night, into the hills and condemned44 them to loneliness and brute45 company. In the wilderness46, among the dry bones of nature, they grew up natural, knowing nothing of man and his affairs; hardly sane47 in ordinary talk; but very wise in plants, wild animals, and the habits of their own goats and sheep, whose milk was their chief sustenance48. With manhood they became sullen49, while a few turned dangerously savage50, more animal than man, haunting the flocks, and finding the satisfaction of their adult appetites in them, to the exclusion51 of more licit affections.
For hours after the shepherd had been suppressed only the sun moved in our view. As it climbed we shifted our cloaks to filter its harshness, and basked52 in luxurious53 warmth. The restful hill-top gave me back something of the sense-interests which I had lost since I had been ill I was able to note once more the typical hill scenery, with its hard stone crests54, its sides of bare rock, and lower slopes of loose sliding screens, packed, as the base was approached, solidly with a thin dry soil. The stone itself was glistening55, yellow, sunburned stuff; metallic56 in ring, and brittle57; splitting red or green or brown as the case might be. From every soft place sprouted58 thorn-bushes; and there was frequent grass, usually growing from one root in a dozen stout59 blades, knee-high and straw-coloured: the heads were empty ears between many-feathered arrows of silvery down. With these, and with a shorter grass, whose bottle-brush heads of pearly grey reached only to the ankle, the hill-sides were furred white and bowed themselves lowly towards us with each puff33 of the casual wind.
Verdure it was not, but excellent pasturage; and in the valleys were bigger tufts of grass, coarse, waist-high and bright green when fresh though they soon faded to the burned yellow of ordinary Me. They grew thickly in all the beds of water-ribbed sand and shingle60, between the occasional thorn trees, some of which stood forty feet in height. The sidr trees, with their dry, sugary fruit, were rare. But bushes of browned tamarisk, tall broom, other varieties of coarse grass, some flowers, and everything which had thorns, flourished about our camp, and made it a rich sample of the vegetation of the Hejaz highlands. Only one of the plants profited ourselves, and that was the hemeid: a sorrel with fleshy heart-shaped leaves, whose pleasant acidity61 stayed our thirst.
At dusk we climbed down again with the goat-herd prisoner, and what we could gather of his flock. Our main body would come this night; so that Fauzan and I wandered out across the darkling plain till we found a pleasant gun-position in some low ridges62 not two thousand yards from the station. On our return, very tired, fires were burning among the trees. Shakir had just arrived, and his men and ours were roasting goat-flesh contentedly63. The shepherd was tied up behind my sleeping place, because he had gone frantic64 when his charges were unlawfully slaughtered65. He refused to taste the supper; and we only forced bread and rice into him by the threat of dire66 punishment if he insulted our hospitality. They tried to convince him that we should take the station next day and kill his masters; but he would not be comforted, and afterwards, for fear lest he escape, had to be lashed67 to his tree again.
After supper Shakir told me that he had brought only three hundred men instead of the agreed eight or nine hundred. However, it was his war, and therefore his tune68, so we hastily modified the plans. We would not take the station; we would frighten it by a frontal artillery69 attack, while we mined the railway to the north and south, in the hope of trapping that halted train. Accordingly we chose a party of Garland-trained dynamiters who should blow up something north of the bridge at dawn, to seal that direction; while I went off with high explosive and a machine-gun with its crew to lay a mine to the south of the station, the probable direction from which the Turks would seek or send help, in their emergency.
Mohammed el Khadi guided us to a deserted70 bit of line just before midnight. I dismounted and fingered its thrilling rails for the first time during the war. Then, in an hour’s busy work, we laid the mine, which was a trigger action to fire into twenty pounds of blasting gelatine when the weight of the locomotive overhead deflected71 the metals. Afterwards we posted the machine-gunners in a little bush-screened watercourse, four hundred yards from and fully13 commanding the spot where we hoped the train would be derailed. They were to hide there; while we went on to cut the telegraph, that isolation72 might persuade Aba el Naam to send their train for reinforcements, as our main attack developed.
So we rode another half-hour, and then turned in to the line, and again were fortunate to strike an unoccupied place. Unhappily the four remaining Juheina proved unable to climb a telegraph pole, and I had to struggle up it myself. It was all I could do, after my illness; and when the third wire was cut the flimsy pole shook so that I lost grip, and came slipping down the sixteen feet upon the stout shoulders of Mohammed, who ran in to break my fall, and nearly got broken himself. We took a few minutes to breathe, but afterwards were able to regain73 our camels. Eventually we arrived in camp just as the others had saddled up to go forward.
Our mine-laying had taken four hours longer than we had planned and the delay put us in the dilemma74 either of getting no rest, or of letting the main body march without us. Finally by Shakir’s will we let them go, and fell down under our trees for an hour’s sleep, without which I felt I should collapse75 utterly76. The time was just before daybreak, an hour when the uneasiness of the air affected77 trees and animals, and made even men-sleepers turn over sighingly. Mohammed, who wanted to see the fight, awoke. To get me up he came over and cried the morning prayer-call in my ear, the raucous78 voice sounding battle, murder, and sudden death across my dreams. I sat up and rubbed the sand out of red-rimmed aching eyes, as we disputed vehemently79 of prayer and sleep. He pleaded that there was not a battle every day, and showed the cuts and bruises80 sustained during the night in helping81 me. By my blackness and blueness I could feel for him, and we rode off to catch the army, after loosing the still unhappy shepherd boy, with advice to wait for our return.
A band of trodden untidiness in a sweep of gleaming water-rounded sand showed us the way, and we arrived just as the guns opened fire. They did excellently, and crashed in all the top of one building, damaged the second, hit the pump-room, and holed the water-tank. One lucky shell caught the front waggon82 of the train in the siding, and it took fire furiously. This alarmed the locomotive, which uncoupled and went off southward. We watched her hungrily as she approached our mine, and when she was on it there came a soft cloud of dust and a report and she stood still. The damage was to the front part, as she was reversed and the charge had exploded late; but, while the drivers got out, and jacked up the front wheels and tinkered at them, we waited and waited in vain for the machine-gun to open fire. Later we learned that the gunners, afraid of their loneliness, had packed up and marched to join us when we began shooting. Half an hour after, the repaired engine went away towards Jebel Antar, going at a foot pace and clanking loudly; but going none the less.
Our Arabs worked in towards the station, under cover of the bombardment, while we gnashed our teeth at the machine-gunners. Smoke clouds from the fire trucks screened the Arab advance which wiped out one enemy outpost, and captured another. The Turks withdrew their surviving detachments to the main position, and waited rigorously in their trenches for the assault, which they were in no better spirit to repel83 than we were to deliver. With our advantages in ground the place would have been a gift to us, if only we had had some of Feisal’s men to charge home.
Meanwhile the wood, tents and trucks in the station were burning, and the smoke was too thick for us to shoot, so we broke off the action. We had taken thirty prisoners, a mare84, two camels and some more sheep; and had killed and wounded seventy of the garrison, at a cost to ourselves of one man slightly hurt. Traffic was held up for three days of repair and investigation85. So we did not wholly fail.
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1
butting
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| 用头撞人（犯规动作） | |
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yoked
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| 结合（yoke的过去式形式） | |
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laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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6
evacuate
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| v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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apathetic
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| adj.冷漠的，无动于衷的 | |
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hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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scents
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| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
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cistern
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| n.贮水池 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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crookedly
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| adv. 弯曲地，不诚实地 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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16
scorpion
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| n.蝎子，心黑的人，蝎子鞭 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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19
crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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20
landmark
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| n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标 | |
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trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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prelude
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| n.序言，前兆，序曲 | |
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lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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27
bugle
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| n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集 | |
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bugling
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| 吹号（bugle的现在分词形式） | |
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29
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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herd
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| n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起 | |
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ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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34
puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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35
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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pariahs
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| n.被社会遗弃者( pariah的名词复数 )；贱民 | |
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miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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lawsuits
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| n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 ) | |
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orators
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| n.演说者，演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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42
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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44
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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45
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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47
sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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48
sustenance
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| n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计 | |
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49
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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50
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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51
exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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52
basked
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| v.晒太阳，取暖( bask的过去式和过去分词 )；对…感到乐趣；因他人的功绩而出名；仰仗…的余泽 | |
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53
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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54
crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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55
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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56
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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brittle
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| adj.易碎的；脆弱的；冷淡的；(声音)尖利的 | |
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58
sprouted
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| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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60
shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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acidity
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| n.酸度，酸性 | |
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62
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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63
contentedly
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| adv.心满意足地 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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68
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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69
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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70
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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71
deflected
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| 偏离的 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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73
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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74
dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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75
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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76
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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raucous
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| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
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79
vehemently
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| adv. 热烈地 | |
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80
bruises
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| n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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81
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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82
waggon
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| n.运货马车，运货车；敞篷车箱 | |
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83
repel
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| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
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84
mare
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| n.母马，母驴 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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