248 ARABIA PETKJBA [DAMASCUS
increased, as the roads to Damascus lay on the other
side. By nightfall we had only reached Namir al
Hawa, five miles to the east of the direct road from
Damascus to Deraa, and to my dismay the force
off-saddled and prepared to camp for the night.
I walked over to Lawrence and Nasir and begged
them to agree that we should march at moonrise.
I am afraid Lawrence thought me very persistent.
Shaikh Saad was only twelve and a half miles away,
and, travelling light as he always did, he could
easily reach it in three hours. He tried to ride me
off, but I held him to his promise that we should
get to Shaikh Saad that night, and in the end the
detachment was ordered to march with the moon
at about ten. I was so anxious that I could not lie
down, and kept pacing restlessly about with my
watch in my hand, torturing myself with visions of
the confusion that would be caused by a night attack
on our tired force. When the moon rose I looked
for some movement, and finding none I walked
round and roused the sleepers, all except Lawrence
and Nasir and their light-moving followers. With
some difficulty Nuri and I at last got the detach-
ment started, and a painful night-march began.
The moon was as bright as day, but the going was
very bad for the camels, and we were delayed by
some wretched prisoners who had been dragged
with us all the way from Taiyibe, so that our
progress was very slow.
We crossed the road at Shaikh Miskin a little after
midnight, and halted at 3 a.m. about five miles short
of Shaikh Saad. We were all too tired to go on,
and lay down just as we were to get a few hours'
sleep. Even now we were only two or three miles
from the main road, but we were at least across it,