not let them move or mass or sortie out against us cheaply. They could do nothing valid in return. We were no targets for their rifles, since we moved with speed, eccentrically. Also we were able to laugh at the little mountain guns which they fired up at us. The shells passed over our heads, to burst behind us in the air; and yet, of course, for all that they could see from their hollow place, fairly amongst us above the hostile summits of the hill.
Just after noon I had a heatstroke, or so pretended, for I was dead weary of it all, and cared no longer how it went. So I crept into a hollow where there was a trickle of thick water in a muddy cup of the hills, to suck some moisture off its dirt through the filter of my sleeve. Nasir joined me, panting like a winded animal, with his cracked and bleeding lips shrunk apart in his distress: and old Auda appeared, striding powerfully, his eyes bloodshot and staring, his knotty face working with excitement.
He grinned with malice when he saw us lying there, spread out to find coolness under the bank, and croaked at me harshly, “Well, how is it with the Howeitat? All talk and no work?” “By God, indeed,” spat I back again, for I was angry with everyone and with myself, “they shoot a lot and hit a little.” Auda almost pale with rage, and trembling, tore his headcloth off and threw it on the ground beside me. Then he ran back up the hill like a madman, shouting to the men in his dreadful strained and rustling voice.
They came together to him, and after a moment scattered away downhill. I feared things were going wrong, and struggled to where he stood alone on the hilltop, glaring at the enemy: but all he would say to me was, “Get your camel if you want to see the old man’s work.” Nasir called for his camel and we mounted.
The Arabs passed before us into a little sunken place, which rose to a low crest; and we knew that the hill beyond went down in a facile slope to the