Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-27
ethods Dwarfed by Motor Dash Across Arabia to Bagd
rFnmBa

a rifle, and our convoy was now com
plete.
1t grew hot While we moved it was
bearable. but when for any purpose
the car halted the heat was intoler-
able. We stopped for water for the
cars in an Arab village, stuck at
street corner the car could not turn.
backed and tried another way, and
were at last on the desert itself. 1t
stretched away to the east of us. 500
miles of it. to the Valley of the Rivers.
where the Euphrates pours down its
yellow flood and Bagdad sits alone be-
side the Tigris
At 10 o'clock that night we drove
safely into the ruins of Palmyra, and
under what is left of the Temple OF
the Sun found the rest house and
clean beds.
WE had no more than begun to hunt
our soap and toothbrushes than
an Arab appeared at our door and
summoned US. We were TO go some
| where.
1t was hair-raising. Behind him in
the darkness we slid and stumbled
groped and clutched. And at last we
were in a small building with French
officer in uniform behind a real desk
At the moment l could have kissed
him. Later OH
We had no wise for Irak! We had
so many vises an our passports that
the space had run out, but somebody
had slipped up on 1rak.
The matter seemed serious. In vain
we pleaded. The officer turned to
gorgeous individual in a white silk
turban and brilliant aba, with his eyes
heavily made up with kohl, and this
parsonage eyed us and evidently con-
sidered us highly suspicious.
In the end, however, we paid some
$40. the French officer poured some
water into the drying ink. signed on
the dotted line, and doubtfully let us
go.
Almost before it was fully light we
were off again on the long run De
tween Palmyra and Quebeissa. We
had picked up another passenger in
PALMYRA, a British official bound for
Bagdad, and the captain and his COM
forting revolver had moved to the car
ahead.
The heart of the desert now. AS
the sun rose higher the heat became
intense. The water in the canteens
was tepid and horrible. Mirages OF
cool lakes and tiny islands formed in
front of us only to dissolve into the
dry and empty earth. and we sank
into q lethargy from which we reused
only at the sound Of shooting ahead.
It turned out, however, that the cap
tain was firing at a wolf, and our
hearts went back to normal again.
Seated on the running board of the
car for shade, at noon we ate what re-
NAMED of our dried sandwiches from
Beirut and drank our hot tea. The
country was empty. Not even camels
now relieved the monotony. Here and
there a skeleton lay, for unlike the
Sahara this desert does not bury Its
dead beneath kindly drifting sands.
But of life there was little or none. |
Sometime after lunch, however, we |
did see life. Four Bedouins. without |
the excuse of herds to guard, were |
to our left quarter OF mile |
away, quietly watching us. And as |
four Bedouins had constituted the |
party which had attacked the car the
week before, the fact was suspicious.
They made no hostile move. how
ever. They merely stood and watched
US with a sort of concentrated in
and once again monOtony |
seized us, and fatigue, and almost
despair.
At in the afternoon we were
brought to sudden halt. Half asleep,
we reused to see the track barred by
Arabs on camels, and heavily armed.
Now l have always maintained that
In a crisis can keep my head. There.
lore I at once proceeded carefully to
tuck our last remaining bottle Of min
eral water under the seat cushion be-
1ind me, and the Head. believe, grab
bed the camera. After the excitement
vas over, found my purse on the car
1oor, but we did not find the mineral
water until we no longer needed it.
After all this, 1t turned out to be the
Arab desert patrol, out on their cam
lis after the murderers.
They made dramatic picture. Per-
naps 40 camels and their riders, in
he picturesque dress of the Arab po-
ice. fully armed and grimly intent on
heir errand, they stopped only long
enough to gather our information, and
hen to push on again.
Late the next afternoon we reached
Bagdad. We had crossed the Eu-