United States or Ethiopia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Whatever they did say, they managed to prolong the interview until within ten minutes of Deraa, when the Syrian returned to his companions smiling smugly and Narayan Singh strode after him, to stand in the corridor and by ostentatiously watching them prevent their examining the letter. Grim and Jeremy, all grins, joined us at once in Mabel's compartment.
That does not sound like Feisul, but the French agent in Deraa assured me that he will have the original letter in his hands within a day or two." Grim smiled over at Mabel. "You might show him the letter?" he suggested. So Mabel dug down into the mysteries beneath her shirtwaist and produced the document wrapped in a medical bandage of oiled silk.
The places of tactical importance on the enemy lines of communication behind his advanced bases were, therefore, the railway junctions at Deraa and El Afule, the ford of Jisr ed Damie, and the towns of Beisan, Jenin and Nazareth.
At the critical moment these swooped down upon the junction at Deraa, where they destroyed the railway in all directions, completely depriving the enemy of their main line of retirement. Throughout the operations our airmen had the time of their lives. Some hovered all day over the enemy aerodrome at Jenin, and effectually prevented enemy machines from leaving the ground.
"So that ends that," he said at last, with the gesture of a man who sweeps the pieces from a board, to set them up anew and start again. "Luckily we're not the only fools in Asia. Those six rascals know now that Mabel and we are one party." "Pooh!" sneered Jeremy. "What can the devils do?" "Not much this side of the border at Deraa," Grim answered. "After Deraa pretty well what they're minded.
The English are in favour of Feisul, and would help him if they could. The French are against him and would rather have him a dead saint than a living nuisance. The most disturbing rumour I have heard was here in Deraa, to the effect that Feisul sent a letter to Jerusalem calling on all Moslems to rise and massacre the Jews.
"Did you see the devil smirk as he went off with it?" asked Jeremy. "Golly, he thinks we're fools! The theory is that we two had betrayed you, Rammy, and swapped the letter against his bare promise to pay us in Damascus. He chucked in a little blackmail about sicking his mates on to murder us if we didn't come across, and I tell you we fairly love him! Lordy, here's Deraa!
On the 27th our cavalry, pushing north from Tiberias, swam the river both to the south and to the north of this crossing, and surprised and captured many of the enemy. They then, with armoured cars, pushed forward along the main Tiberias-Damascus road. On the same day, other cavalry joined hands with the Arab army at Deraa. From this point, also, cavalry and armoured cars pushed northward.
If they appeal to him this train will go on without us. "Ramsden, you and Narayan Singh go and sit with Mabel in her compartment. Jeremy, you go forward and bring Yussuf Dakmar back here to me; we'll let him have that fake letter just before we reach Deraa, taking care somehow to let the other five know he has it. They won't discover it's a fake until after leaving Deraa " "Why not?"
I interrupted. "What's to prevent their opening it at once?" "Two good reasons: for one, we'll have Narayan Singh keep a careful eye on them, and they'll keep it hidden as long as he snoops around; for another, they'll be delighted not to have to let the French agent at Deraa into the secret, because of the higher price they hope to get by holding on.
Word Of The Day