"In God's name, understand!" "We cannot go back!" "I can." "Take the boys." "If you go back, you kill yourself, is all." "Gasim you have killed already." "Get out of my way." "Gasim's time is come, Lawrence." "It is written." "Nothing is written!" "Go back, then!" "What did you bring us here for with your blasphemous conceit?" "English blasphemer!" "Aqaba?" "Was it Aqaba?" "You will not be at Aqaba, English!" "Go back, blasphemer but you will not be at Aqaba." "I shall be at Aqaba." "That is written." "In here." "English!" "English!" "Lawrence!" "Daud!" "Nothing is written." "Al Lawrence." "Farraj." "Wash." "Al Lawrence." "Truly, for some men nothing is written unless they write it." "Not Al Lawrence." "Just Lawrence." "AI Lawrence is better." "True." "Your father too, just Mr. Lawrence?" "My father is Sir Thomas Chapman." "Is that a lord?" "A kind of lord." "Then when he dies, you too will be a lord." "No." "You have an elder brother." "But then, I do not understand this." "Your father's name is Chapman." "He didn't marry my mother." "I see." "I'm sorry." "It seems to me that you are free to choose your own name, then." "Yes, I suppose I am." "Al Lawrence is best." "All right, I'll settle for Al Lawrence." "They are the robes of a sherif of the Beni Wejh." "Very fine." "Great honour." "The honour is to us." "Salaam, sherif." "Is it permitted?" "Surely." "He for whom nothing is written may write himself a clan." "They are good for riding." "Try." "What are you doing, Englishman?" "As you see." "Are you alone?" "Almost." "Are you with those dogs drinking at my well?" "Yours?" "I am Auda Abu Tayi." "I've heard of another man of that name." "Other?" "What other?" "The Auda I'd heard of wouldn't need to summon help to look after his wells." "He must be a great hero." "He is." "He wouldn't refuse water to men coming out of Nefud Desert." "Now, would he not?" "No, that must be some other man." "Here is my help." "Son, what fashion is this?" "Harith, Father." "What manner of Harith?" "A Beni Wejh sherif." "And is he Harith?" "No, Father, English." "Son they are stealing our water." "Tell them we are coming." "Tell them." "Empty that!" "Do not!" "It is Auda of the Howeitat who speaks." "It is Ali of the Harith who answers." "Harith." "Ali." "Does your father still steal?" "No." "Does Auda take me for one of his own bastards?" "No." "There is no resemblance." "Alas, you resemble your father." "Auda flatters me." "You are easily flattered." "I knew your father well." "Did you know your own?" "We are 50, you are two." "How if we shot you down?" "Why, then you have a blood feud with the Howeitat." "Do you desire it?" "Not the generals in Cairo nor the sultan himself desire that." "Call off your men." "This honours the unworthy." "I've only just begun to teach him." "And what are you teaching him today?" "Howeitat hospitality?" "Be not clever with me, English." "Who is he?" "A friend of Prince Feisal's." "So you desire my hospitality?" "Yes." "Is he your tongue?" "We do desire it." "Then it is given, if you will take it." "I'm at my summer camp, a poor place." "Well, to me it seems a poor place." "Some men find it marvellous." "Tomorrow, maybe I will allow the Turks to buy you, friends of Feisal." "But dine with me." "Dine with Auda, English." "Dine with the Howeitat, Harith." "It is my pleasure that you dine with me in Wadi Rumm!" "This thing you work against Aqaba what profit do you hope from it?" "We work it for Feisal of Mecca." "The Harith do not work for profit." "Well, if it is in a man to be a servant, Sherif Ali he could find worse masters than Feisal." "But I...." "I cannot serve." "You permit the Turks to stay in Aqaba." "Yes, it is my pleasure." "We do not work this thing for Feisal." "No?" "For the English, then?" "For the Arabs." "The Arabs?" "The Howeitat, Ageyil, Ruala, Beni Sahkr, these I know." "I have even heard of the Harith." "But the Arabs?" "What tribe is that?" "They're a tribe of slaves." "They serve the Turks." "Well, they are nothing to me." "My tribe is the Howeitat." "Who work only for profit." "Who work at Auda's pleasure." "And Auda's pleasure is to serve the Turks." "Serve?" "I serve?" "It is the servant who takes money." "I am Auda Abu Tayi." "Does Auda serve?" "No!" "Does Auda Abu Tayi serve?" "No!" "I carry 23 great wounds, all got in battle." "75 men have I killed with my own hands, in battle." "I scatter, I burn my enemies tents." "I take away their flocks and herds." "The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor!" "Because I am a river to my people." "Is that service?" "No." "And yet now it seems Auda has grown old." "And lost his taste for fighting." "It is well you say it in my tent, thou old tulip." "Yet this is a tulip that the Turks could not buy." "Why should they wish to?" "Now...." "I will tell you what they pay me, and you will tell me if this is a servant's wages." "They pay me, month by month 100 golden guineas." "150, Auda." "Who told you that?" "I have long ears." "And a long tongue between them." "100, 150, what matters?" "It's a trifle." "A trifle which they take from a great box they have." "In Aqaba." "In Aqaba?" "Where else?" "You trouble me like women." "Friends, we've been foolish." "Auda won't come to Aqaba." "For money?" "No." "For Feisal?" "No!" "Nor to drive away the Turks." "He will come because it is his pleasure." "Thy mother mated with a scorpion." "Make God your agent!" "Aqaba!" "Aqaba!" "God be with you." "God be with you." "God be with you." "God be with you." "Yes." "Aqaba." "Tomorrow we will go and get it." "Do you think we shall?" "Yes." "If you are right about the guns." "He killed." "He dies." "This is the end of Aqaba." "One of our men murdered Auda's man." "Why?" "Theft?" "Blood feud?" "It makes no matter why." "Ali!" "It is an ancient wound." "I didn't come here to watch a tribal bloodbath." "It is the law, Lawrence." "The law says the man must die." "If he dies, will that content the Howeitat?" "Yes." "Sherif Ali!" "If none of Lord Auda's men harms any of yours..." "...will that content the Harith?" "Yes." "Then I will execute the law." "I have no tribe." "And no one is offended." "Gasim." "Did you do it?" "Well, Lawrence...." "What ails the Englishman?" "That that he killed was the man he brought out of the Nefud." "It was written, then." "Better to have left him." "It was execution, Lawrence." "No shame in that." "Besides, it was necessary." "You gave life and you took it." "The writing is still yours." "Auda Abu Tayi!" "The miracle is accomplished." "Garlands for the conqueror." "Tribute for the prince." "Flowers for the man." "I'm none of those things, Ali." "What, then?" "Don't know." "Thanks." "My God, I love this country." "What!" "No gold in Aqaba!" "Auda, I found it!" "That's a pity." "Ali, get a message down the coast to Yenbo." "Tell Feisal to find boats, any boats and bring the Arab army here to Aqaba, quickly." "And you?" "I'm going to tell the generals in Cairo." "Yes, cross Sinai." "Come on!" "Sinai?" "Yes." "With these?" "They'll be all right with me." "Look, Ali." "If any of your Bedouin arrived in Cairo and said:" ""We've taken Aqaba," the generals would laugh." "I see." "In Cairo you will put off these funny clothes." "You'll wear trousers and tell stories of our quaintness and barbarity and then they will believe you." "You're an ignorant man." "Paper." "Paper!" "There is no gold in Aqaba." "No gold." "No great box!" "Did Auda come to Aqaba for gold?" "For my pleasure, as you said." "But gold is honorable and Lawrence promised gold." "Lawrence lied." "See, Auda." ""The Crown of England promises to pay 5000 golden guineas to Auda Abu Tayi."" "Signed in His Majesty's absence by me." "In 1 0 days I'll be back with the gold." "With gold, with guns, with everything." "Ten days." "You'll cross Sinai?" "Why not?" "Moses did." "And you will take the children?" "Moses did." "Moses was a prophet and beloved of God." "He said there was gold here." "He lied." "He is not perfect." "Lord, can we not rest?" "I told you, no rest till they know that I have Aqaba." "Have you two slept in beds?" "Farraj?" "Daud?" "With sheets?" "Tomorrow the finest sheets in the finest room and hotel in Cairo." "I promise." "Then it shall be so, lord." "Look!" "Pillar of fire." "No, lord." "Dust." "My compass." "No matter." "If we ride west, we must strike the canal." "Due west." "Come on!" "Lawrence!" "Farraj!" "Farraj, don't!" "Don't!" "Don't!" "Why do you walk?" "But why, lord?" "But why, lord?" "There is room for both." "It serves no purpose." "Lawrence, look!" "It's all right, Farraj." "It's all right." "Who are you?" "Who are you?" "Daud!" "We're here, sir." "You taking him in there?" "Yes." "Here!" "Here." "You!" "And where the hell do you think you're going to, Mustapha?" "We are thirsty." "Mr." "Lawrence, is it?" "Yes." "Are you going to the officers' bar?" "Yes." "You can't take him in there, sir." "What do you think you look like?" "No, no." "You must go." "No, no." "Go, effendi, go!" "Get out!" "You must get out!" "Get out!" "We want two large glasses of lemonade." "This is a bar for British officers." "We are not particular." "Are you off your head?" "No." "Oddly enough I'm not." "Just clear out of here, will you?" "Get that boy out of here." "Corporal, we'll have this one out anyway." "Get that wog out of here." "Clear off." "What's going on?" "It's Lawrence, sir." "Lemonade with ice." "Explain yourself." "We've taken Aqaba." "Taken Aqaba?" "Who has?" "We have." "Our side in this war has." "The wogs have." "We have." "He likes your lemonade." "You mean the Turks have gone?" "No, they're still there but they've no boots." "Prisoners, sir." "We took them prisoners." "The entire garrison." "That's not true." "We killed some." "Too many, really." "I'll manage it better next time." "There's been a lot of killing one way or another." "Cross my heart and hope to die, it's all perfectly true." "It isn't possible." "Yes, it is." "I did it." "You'd better talk to Allenby." "General Allenby?" "He's in command." "Murray's gone." "That's a step in the right direction." "First I want a room." "With a bed, with sheets." "Yes, of course." "It's for him." "Right." "You want a bed yourself, don't you?" "See Allenby first, though." "Will he see me?" "I think so." "Do that, then." "I'd better shave." "Yes, you had." "You'd better get into some trousers too." "" Undisciplined." "Unpunctual." "Untidy." "Several languages." "Knowledge of music literature." "Knowledge of...." "You're an interesting man, there's no doubt about it." "Who told you to take Aqaba?" "Nobody." "Sir." "Sir." "Then why did you?" "Aqaba's important." "Why is it important?" "It's the Turkish route to the canal." "Not anymore." "They're coming through Beersheba." "I know, but we've gone to Gaza." "So?" "So that left Aqaba behind your right." "True." "And it will be further behind your right when you go for Jerusalem." "Am I going for Jerusalem?" "Yes." "Very well." "Aqaba behind my right." "It threatened EI' Arîsh and Gaza." "Anything else?" "Yes." "Aqaba's linked with Medina." "Do you think we should shift them out of Medina now?" "No." "I think you should leave them there." "You acted without orders, you know." "Shouldn't officers use their initiative at all times?" "Not really." "It's awfully dangerous." "Yes, I know." "Already?" "Yes." "I'm promoting you major." "I don't think that's a very good idea." "I didn't ask you." "I want you to go back and carry on the good work." "No." "Thank you, sir." "Why not?" "Well, I, it's...." "Let me see now...." "I killed two people." "I mean, two Arabs." "One was a boy." "That was yesterday." "I led him into a quicksand." "The other was a man." "That was before Aqaba, anyway." "I had to execute him with my pistol." "There was something about it I didn't like." "Well, naturally." "No." "Something else." "That's all right." "Let it be a warning." "No." "Something else." "What, then?" "I enjoyed it." "Rubbish." "Rubbish and nerves." "You're tired." "What do you mean coming dressed like that?" "Amateur theatricals?" "Yes." "Entirely." "Let me see that hat thing or whatever it is." "Fascinating gear they wear." "How would I look in this, Harry?" "Damn ridiculous, sir." "Here, you keep it." "What I'm trying to say is I don't think I'm fit for it." "Really?" "What do you think, Dryden?" "Before he did it, sir, I'd have said it couldn't be done." "Brighton?" "I know what he thinks." "I think you should recommend a decoration, sir." "I don't think it matters what his motives were." "It was a brilliant bit of soldiering." "Mr." "Perkins!" "Sir!" "Let's have a drink, gentlemen." "You've heard about this, Mr. Perkins?" "Yes, sir." "What do you think about it?" "Bloody marvellous, sir." "Well done." "Thank you, Mr. Perkins." "Sir!" "Come on, then." "You're a clever man, sir." "No, but I know a good thing when I see one." "That's fair, surely?" "If I need a breakthrough to Jerusalem, I must concentrate, not dissipate." "Bravo." "You know better?" "I fight like Clausewitz, then you fight like Saxe." "We should do very well indeed, shouldn't we?" "Easy, gentlemen, please." "Give us a drink." "Of course, sir." "I'm here at the invitation of Major Lawrence." "Tracy." "Shall we go outside?" "So you hold bound the Turkish desert army?" "Yes." "With 1 000 Arabs?" "1 000 Arabs means 1 000 knives." "Delivered anywhere, day or night." "It means 1 000 camels." "That means 1 000 packs of high explosives and 1 000 crack rifles." "We can cross Arabia while Johnny Turk is still turning round." "I'll smash his railways." "While he mends, I'll smash them somewhere else." "In 1 3 weeks I can have Arabia in chaos." "You are going back, then?" "Yes." "Of course I'm going back." "Well, if we can see it, so can the Turk." "If he finds he's using four divisions to fend off a handful of bandits he'll withdraw." "He daren't withdraw." "Arabia's part of his empire." "If he gets out now, he'll never get back again." "I wonder who will." "No one will." "Arabia's for the Arabs now." "That's what I've told them anyway." "That's what they think." "That's why they're fighting." "Oh, surely." "They've only one suspicion."