Chapter 29 LABBAYK!

As Nissr slowed near the oasis, the frightened Arabs-who had been at their ghanda, or mid-day meal-swarmed into the open. They left their mutton, cous-cous, date-paste, and lentils, their chibouques with perfumed vapor and their keef-smoking, and manifested extreme fear by outcries in shrill voices. Under the shadows of the palms, that stood like s