April-June, 1917

Lawrence raids the railway from Abdulla's camp--He returns to Feisal's camp to find a
plan in development for a narrowly concentrated attack on the railway--Disliking
this plan, he privately concerts a long-range alternative--He sets off with a few Arab
chiefs on a ride to the Syrian desert--While a force is being raised in the Sirhan,
Lawrence makes a still more daring ride through Syria itself past Baalbek and
Damascus

AS SOON as Lawrence was well enough he began to discuss future
action with Abdulla. Instead of suggesting an attack on the Medina
garrison, still safely there, he proposed a series of raids on the rail-
way, and offered to show the way himself. The kind he had in mind
would be "enough to annoy the enemy without making him fear its
final destruction." But he found that he had no need to dissuade
Abdulla from more severe measures.

Abdulla's theory of war seemed to be that the tongue is mightier
than the sword, and although he revealed a fluidity of thought that
should have pleased Lawrence, it never crystallized into positive
action. He was certainly full of projects. In a conversation on March
20th with Lawrence and Captain Raho, an officer from French
Africa, he spoke of moving into the Yemen, to free it from the
Turkish yoke, but apparently it was only another of his verbal
smoke-screens to hide his real intention--of sitting still. He was,
however, definite in rejecting French demands for a bombardment
of Medina, saying that he would reduce it by famine. From Law-
rence's new point of view Abdulla's evasions were most reassuring;
they were, also, a practical confirmation that his new theory was in
accord with reality.

There was, however, among Abdulla's assistants a more energetic
warrior in Sherif Shakir, "a very centaur on horseback," who, despite
great wealth, affected a nomadic simplicity of life to match his reck-
less disposition. Shakir needed little prompting to make a raid
against the railway; and promised to bring eight or nine hundred of

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