When next I heard of ’Abdul ’Ati, he was very busy in Tripoli fighting against the Italians, and apparently making very good indeed. The Camel Corps shot him eventually.
My caravan reached Kharga a day or two after my arrival, having come across the desert from Assiut by a road that enters the oasis at its northern end.
In Kharga I met Sheykh Suleyman, and, as I was camped not far from his tent, rode over and spent an evening with him. Qway, of course, accompanied me in hopes of a free meal, but was most frigidly received by the sheykh, who treated him in the most contemptuous manner. We had supper, consisting of bread and treacle and hard boiled eggs, followed by coffee and cigarettes. After which we sat for a time and talked.
“You had better take me as a guide instead of Qway,” suddenly suggested Sheykh Suleyman.
Qway looked quickly up, evidently greatly annoyed, and the social atmosphere became distinctly electric.
I explained that I could not well do that as I had found Qway an excellent guide the year before, and had already signed an agreement to take him on again for the season. Qway rather hotly added some expostulation that I could not quite catch; but the gist of it apparently was that Sheykh Suleyman was not quite playing the game.
The sheykh laughed. “Maleysh” (never mind), he said, “if you want another guide, write me a letter, and I will send Abdulla abu Reesha. He’s a good man—better than Qway.”
Qway commenced a heated reply, only to be laughed at by Sheykh Suleyman. As the interview threatened to become distinctly stormy, I took the earliest opportunity of returning to camp.
The sheykh insisted on providing my breakfast the next morning. Qway, for once, effaced himself, while breakfast and the subsequent tea were in progress. He seemed to have seen as much of Sheykh Suleyman as he wanted for the moment.
We got off at about ten in the morning, and after a short march pitched our camp early in the day at Qasr Lebakha, a small square mud-built keep on a stone foundation, having circular towers at the four corners, all in a fairly good state of preservation. The walls at the top of the tower were built double, with a kind of parapet walk round the top, which may originally have been a mural passage of which the roof had fallen in.