28 THE SECRET OF SAHARA: KUFARA 



delightful cavalry lieutenant who was political officer at 

 Zuetina was naturally bored at having to drive his heavy 

 camion three or four times a week from his little camp 

 by the ocean to see what a mysterious Englishwoman 

 might be doing in the debatable country on the fringe 

 of civilisation. As the days wore on they tried by every 

 means in their power to lure me from Jedabia, but my 

 exceedingly swollen foot did me good service. "The 

 stirrup hurt it so much riding here that I don't want to 

 risk it again till it is quite recovered," I explained. 

 They suggested camions, and I assured them I had so 

 much work to do that I was only too glad of the peace 

 and quiet of my Arab house to do it in. 



It was a ludicrous situation. Five young people used 

 to forgather in the house of the doctor to partake of 

 M. Omar's delicious zabaglion^s, and not one of them 

 ever uttered one word of truth! Each felt instinctively 

 that the other was lying, but none knew exacth^ how 

 far he was bluffing or what card he had up his sleeve. 

 Perhaps we were a little better off than they, for we 

 knew their game and they luckily had failed to under- 

 stand ours. The political aspect was always before their 

 eyes. In their anxiety to know whether Hassanein 

 Bey was plotting a Pan-Islamic empire with the thirty 

 Egyptian ex-coastguards who had taken refuge with 

 the Senussi during the war, thej^ overlooked other possi- 

 bilities. I think the idea did occur to them that I 

 wanted to go much farther into the desert than they 

 cared to permit, but I doubt if they suspected our real 

 goal. This used to surprise me immensely at the time. 

 Looking back, I realise that it would have been very 

 difficult for them to imagine that the woman they saw 

 in a panniered frock, with her French hat veiled in 

 drooping lace and liigh heels to match the red of her 

 striped cloak, would metamorphose herself into a Beduin 



