Dora Says Edward Talks About Qabihah

Dear Readers,

Edward wrote me that Lawrence ran into an assassin in the desert. He and Lawrence were out there blowing up railroad tracks. A train went past full of Turks. They did not shoot at Lawrence. But a sniper behind a rock did.

Edward ran to help Lawrence. He found him rolling on the ground laughing. The Colonel declared that no one could assassinate him. God had sent him to defend the Arabs. Edward argued with him that he was not immortal and would probably get killed. He would make his adjutant get killed, too, and his fiancee wouldn't like it.

Lawrence was finally persuaded to come back to the encampment where he found two Bedouin brothers arguing with each other over a piece of jewelry. One accused the other of having the Evil Eye. He sat on the ground and judged the case, pretending that he had powers to see into their souls and minds. They feared him greatly, especially his famous powers for fighting the Evil Eye.

An old crone, a lady who was visiting the encampment, by the name of Qabihah appeared to tell Sidi Lawrence that he had blue eyes like the sky peeking through the vacant eyes of a cow's skull lying in the desert. She thought he had special supernatural powers.

The two discussed how Lawrence had acquired such powers. Qabihah decided he had gotten them in Carchemish when he was excavating the Hittite ruin with Leonard Woolley before the Great War. One of the ancient Babylonian kings on a carved stela had looked at him and given him more than mortal insight into human affairs. Qabihah said that was the danger of associating with the ancient, hoary dead.

Just at that moment Edward saw the sniper raise his gun behind another plinth. Metal flashed. Edward fired.

Sincerely yours,

Dora Benley
P.S. You may read about my adventures in the first volume of my memoirs, King Abdullah's Tomb.