xt day our
men came up with thick tongues, feverish, and crying 'Water! water!'
But each one received only a little cupful three times a day. If our
water supply was exhausted, we would have to sally from our camp and
fight our way through. Then we should have gone to pot under superior
numbers. The Arab gendarmes simply cut the throats of those camels
that had been wounded by shots, and then drank the yellow water that
was contained in the stomachs. Those fellows can stand anything. At
night we always dragged out the dead camels that had served as cover,
and had been shot. The hyenas came, hunting for dead camels. I shot
one of these, taking it for an enemy in the darkness.

"That continued about three days. On the third day there were new
negotiations. Now the Bedouins demanded arms no longer, but only
money. This time the negotiations took place across the camp wall.
When I declined, the Bedouin said: 'Beaucoup de combat,' (lots of
fight.) I replied:

"'Please go to it!'

"We had only a little ammunition left, and very little water. Now it
really looked as if we would soon be dispatched. The mood of the men
was pretty dismal. Suddenly, at about 10 o'clock in the morning, there
bobbed up in the north two riders on camels, waving white cloths. Soon
afterward there appeared, coming from the same direction, far back, a
long row of camel troops, about a hundred; they draw rapidly near by,
ride singing toward us, in a picturesque train. They were the
messengers and troops of the Emir of Mecca.

"Sami Bey's wife, it developed, had, in the course of the first
negotiations, dispatched an Arab boy to Jeddah. From that place the
Governor had telegraphed to the Emir. The latter at once sent camel
troops, with his two sons and his personal surgeon; the elder,
Abdullah, conducted the negotiations; the surgeon acted as
interpreter, in French. Now things proceeded in one-two-three order,
and the whole Bedouin band speedily disappeared. From what I learned
later, I know definitely that they had been corrupted with bribes by
the English. They knew when and where we would pass and they had made
all preparations. Now our first act was a rush for water; then we
cleared up our camp, but had to harness our camels ourselves, for the
camel drivers had fled at the very beginning of the skirmish. More
than thirty camels were dead. The saddles did not fit, and my men know
how to rig up schooners, but not camels. Much baggage remained lying