As trading in Government stores is a criminal offence, I felt fairly sure that he would not tell the Senussi for what purpose that extra four ardebs was being bought.
The result of this transaction was that, in spite of the barley boycott that the Senussi had engineered against me, I was eventually able to start off again to explore the desert, whose secrets they were so jealously guarding, with my camels literally staggering under the weight of some really magnificent grain, bought, if they had only known it, from the Senussi themselves!
The plan for the journey was as follows: we were to leave Dakhla with every camel in the caravan, including the hagins, loaded to their maximum carrying capacity with water-tanks and grain. At the end of every day’s march a small depot was to be left, consisting of a pair of the small tanks I had had made for the journey, and sufficient barley for the camels and food for the men for a day’s supply. The reduction in the weight of the baggage entailed by the making of these depots, added to that of the water and grain consumed by the caravan on the journey, I calculated would leave two camels free by the time that we reached the five bushes.
Qway and Abdulla, who were to accompany the caravan up to this point, were then to go on ahead of the caravan with their hagins loaded with only enough water and grain to take them out to the main depot at Jebel el Bayed. Here they were to renew their supplies, go on for another day together and then separate. Qway was to follow Abdulla’s tracks out to the second hill—Jebel Abdulla as the men called it—that the Sudani had reached alone on his scouting journey, and was to go on as much farther as he felt was safe in the same direction, after which he was to retrace his steps until he met the caravan coming out along the same route, bringing out water and supplies for his relief. Abdulla’s instructions were to go due south when he parted from Qway for two or, if possible, three days. Then he was to strike off west till he cut Qway’s track, which we should be following, and return upon it till he met the caravan, which would then go on along the line of the old road we had found to complete our fifteen days’ journey, and, if possible, push on till we had got right across the desert into the French Sudan.
I was not expecting great results from Qway’s journey, but he knew too much about our plans and was too useful a man in the desert to make it advisable to leave him behind us in Dakhla, where the Senussi might have made great use of him. Abdulla was well armed, an experienced desert fighter, and, in spite of his “feathery” appearance, was a man with whom it would not be safe to trifle. As there was a considerable amount of friction between him and Qway, owing to the Arab’s overbearing attitude towards the Sudanese in general, I had little fear of their combining.
Abdulla, too, had special instructions to keep an eye on Qway, and, as there was not much love lost between them, I felt sure he would do so. While Abdulla was with him on the journey out to the depot, and for a day beyond, Qway, I felt, would be powerless; while if, after parting from him, he turned back to Jebel el Bayed to try and get at the depot, he would have us on top of him, as we should get there before him. When once the caravan had reached the depot we should pick up all the water and grain it contained and take it along with us following his tracks.
I had made him dependent on the caravan, by only giving him about five days’ water for his own use, and none at all for his camel. So long as he adhered to his programme he was quite safe, as we could water his camel as soon as he rejoined us. But if he tried to follow some plan of his own, he would at once run short of water and find himself in trouble.
I felt that the precautions I had taken would effectually prevent any attempt at foul play on his part. My whole scheme had been thought out very carefully, and had provided, I thought, for every possible contingency, but “the best laid plans o’ mice and men gang aft agley”—especially when dealing with a Senussi guide.