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that we had no one in our party who knew the way to
Thamut or Qabr Hud, the southern wells which I regarded as
our obvious destination, and that we had no one qualified to
introduce us to the Manahil or Sa'ar, whom we might expect
to encounter in that direction. To walk into their camps
without introduction would be tantamount, said Zayid, to
delivering their ' bread and butter at their door-step.^?1
We were in fact more or less ^e stymied \ but it was worth
taking a risk. Zayid however was unhelpful and Salih,
though blatantly obsequious, was useless. We deferred
further argument till next day when ^?Ali Jahman would
have returned from his cold vigil far out in the desert. So
I left them to ruminate the proposition that it would be
worth their while not to be too frightened.
After the dawn prayer—the night having passed without
alarm—we resumed the pow-wow. Zayid and the others had
made up their minds not to venture further south on the line
suggested by me, and I was compelled to admit to myself—
though I did not do so publicly—that there were reasonable
grounds for their attitude. They suggested as an alternative
that we should travel south-east with Dhufar as our ultimate
objective. There, at any rate, they would find provisions
wherewith to replenish our depleted stores. That was a
pleasant prospect, while the return journey might be made by
sea if it had by then become too hot to prolong our desert
wanderings. Eor me such a plan had but little attraction
beyond the possibility that we might light upon the Rashid
and Hamad ibn Sultan near the Shisar well and with their
help arrange to cut back westward into the Hadhramaut
border, whence we might strike up across the waterless
desert—an essential objective of our expedition. Otherwise
we should be merely covering ground already fully explored
by Mr. Thomas. Another alternative was to turn north-east
into the eastern Khiran area in the hope of finding grazing
tribes settled on the wells. But that would take us farther
away from the waterless area and I feared it might be difficult
to entice my companions back to Shanna—especially if we
found no Arabs—for the great adventure, though I was
^1Rizguhwn and ahlihim.