Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/187



On Wednesday, June 22, 1910, I had all our baggage deposited under the trees and gave orders for the tents to be struck and rolled up. ʻAbdarraḥmân Effendi sent two assistants who were to move our effects to the quarantine. The mudîr and Sâlem were glad that I was remaining for a long time at Tebûk and that they would be able to go on fleecing me comfortably. While my companions were busy arranging our baggage, aided by the guide Sbejḥ I sketched all the roads with which he was familiar.

At one o’clock the shepherd Muṭalleḳ drove up the camels upon which our baggage was to be transported to the quarantine. I then sent Ǧwâd for the gendarme Ḫalîl, to whom I handed two telegrams, one to the Minister of the Interior at Constantinople and the other to the Commander of the Gendarmerie at Damascus, informing both of them that I was just leaving Tebûk for Medâjen Ṣâleḥ, accompanied by the gendarme Ḫalîl. Ǧwâd read them to Ḫalîl and went with him to hand them in at the Telegraph Office. I instructed Ḫalîl to join us before two o’clock, as we were leaving at two. If he should be late or if he refused to accompany me, then let him tremble before his Commander at Damascus! The unfortunate Ḫalîl was so astonished at these proceedings that he trembled from head to foot. After a while Ǧwâd returned and announced that Ḫalîl had handed in the two telegrams and had gone to the mudîr to ask for his advice. The mudîr was asleep, just as everybody else was at Tebûk during the heat of noon. When Ḫalîl disturbed him from his slumbers and brought him such an unpleasant piece of news, the angry mudîr told him to go to the devil. Ḫalîl departed, taking his arms and his saddle sack, and came to me.

At two o’clock we left Tebûk. Except for two guards from the quarantine and one small boy, nobody took any notice of us. All the rest of the inhabitants of Tebûk were