Evening star., 1926-03-28

camped a few miles away from the
| village. Two hours march on the
following morning brought ussinto the
oasis. On the outskirts we passed
patch of ground on which the sand
was encroaching, some palms lying
on the north OF it being almost en-
| tirely submerged.
/ We camped on the northern side OF
the village. A large crowd of natives
came out and stood watching us while
the tent was being pitched. Among
! them was a sulkylooking fellow
who, I was told was the lomd8; so, as
soon as the tent was pitched. l invited
him and some of the other men stand
| ing by to come In.
We had foolishly camped too close to
| the village, with the result that
| throughout the greater part of the
day the camp was surrounded by
| crowd of men and children watching
! all our actions. peering into the tent,
| round the theodolite, when / began
| to take observations, and generally
showing an ill-ma nnered curiosity that
was in great contrast to the conduct
of the natives OF the other oases in
which we stayed.
| 1t was not until ] got to Blu Mungar,
about two days journey from Qasr
| men in my caravan belonged to the
| Senussia. Qwaytin and his three men,
/ knew, had always been Of that per
! suasion, and, while In Farafra, Add
er Rahman, Ibra him and eDahab had
| all been so worked upon by Sheykh
! lbn ed Dris that, just before we left
that oasis. they too had Joined the
order, and showed all the fanaticism to
be expected from nav converts.
a party of 80 Tibbus, sent from
kufara for my entertainment, by
Sheykh Ahmed Esh Sher.f, at that
time head of the Senussia, were hang
ing round somewhere in the neighbor.
hood of Blu Mungar, close enough for
| Qwaytin TO start signaling to them
by firing shots at imaginary pigeons
| and lighting an enormous and quite
unnecessary bonfire at dusk-a well
| known Arab signal.
Twenty more men had been sent
from kufara to reinforce the Nav
hubs at their ezba, in the northwest
| corner of Dakhla, which / should have
TO pass in order to enter the oasis on
my way to Egypt; while the inhab-
| itants of Fardfra-the only other
oasis l could fall back upon with my
small caravan-were members of the
order almost to a man, and were on
! the lookout for me If | returned that
way
1t was explained to me that they had
allowed me to go to Blu Mungar in
stead of to Iddaila-my original inten-
| tion-in order that I should leave
| Egypt, and then, as l had altered my
| plans. no one would know where it
| happened"'
1t was neat little trap that had
! foolishly walked into; but it had its
weak points. 1t was nearly dusk when
| QWaytir fired his signal shots that
| led to my inquiries, and, better still,
| a bowling sandstorm was blowing. II
| once we got out into the desert in
these circumstances. l felt confident
of getting away without difficulty.
But the prospect of having the camp
rushed before we could get off gave
me such bad attack of cold feet that
| decided to start running as soon as
| possible in order to get them warm.
Qwaytin and his men, however,
when told to do so, fatty refused to
! leave the hattia. But he and his
crowd were such a feeble lot that l
! had little difficulty in reducing them
| to order. We lost so little time that l
| got the tanks filled and the caravan
| off just after sunset
Before starting, it occurred to me
that | might borrow trick from Add
er Rahman. So finding a sand.free
space near the well, scratched the
Senussi wasm with a stick deeply into
| the ground, and then, to mislead the
Senussi when they came as to the
direction in which we had gone. drew
a line from 1t pointing toward the
| weSt-the direction in which | knew
| they feared that l should go-and
then set out toward the southeast to
| Dakhla.
ION the evening of the fifth day after
~ leaving Blu Mungar we arrived In
Nut. having lost some of the baggage,
two men and two out of our seven
! camels, and with the rest of the cara
van pretty we'll foundered from over
driving.
The day after our arrival Qwaytin
asked permission to go for the day to
the village of Hindau. There was,
knew, a small Senussi zawia there, but
1t would have been useless for me to
refuse him permission, so long as he
was at liberty, and with the existing
state of affairs in the oasis II, was quite
out of the question to try and get him
arrested. So / thought 1t best to pre-.
tend l did not see what he was driving
at and allowed him to 60
Later in the day / was In my room
in the upper floor of the store when,
rather to my surprise, ] heard Qway-
tins voice in the court below talking
to Dahab and Add err Rahman. AS
had not expected him back so soon,
I suspected that he was up to some
mischief so had no hesitation at all
in listening to the conversation, espe-
cially as | wished to know more
exactly the terms on which he stood
with my men.
They were Immediately below my
window; but Qwaytin was speaking in
such a low voice that I could only
catch word here and there of what
he was saying. But 1 caught enough
of the conversation to become greatly
interested.
He was apparently giving them in
structions from a certain Sheykh
Ahmed, whose identity / was unable
to ascertain. Repeatedly heard him
mention a certain kafir dnfideD and
once "a dog" of whose identity / en-.
tertained no doubt at all--listeners
proverbially hear no good OF them
selves.
i ksEaral times / heard him state