Then he sat down on a rock and burst into tears. Richard
had dismissed him for disobeying orders. My heart ached for him, and
I cried too.
Shaykh Ahmad and I descended the steep mountain-side and then galloped
over the plain till we came to water and some Bedawin feeding their
flocks. The Shaykh gave one fine fellow a push, and roughly ordered him
to hold my horse and milk his goats for me. The man refused. "What,"
I said very gently, "do you, a Bedawin, refuse a little hospitality to
a tired and thirsty woman?" "O Lady," he replied quickly, "I will do
anything for you--you speak so softly; but I won't be ordered about by
this Druze fellow." I was pleased with his manliness, and he attended
to my wants and waited on me hand and foot.
We camped out that night, and the night after. I was always fond of
sleeping in the tent, and would never go into the house unless compelled
to do so. This time, however, our tents were pitched on low ground close
to the river, with burning heat by day and cold dews by night. So I got
the fever, and I lay in a kind of stupor all day. The next morning I
heard a great row going on outside my tent. It turned out to be the
Druze Shaykh and our dragoman quarrelling. Shortly after Shaykh Ahmad
came into my tent, and in a very dignified way informed me that he wished
to be relieved of his duty and return home. I laughed, and refused to
allow him to depart. "What, O Shaykh," said I, "will you leave a poor,
lone woman to return with no escort but a dragoman"; and he immediately
recanted.
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