Page 317 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

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Pen Pictures of a Doctor’s Travels

l)u. Louis l\ Damk

H WKRIl responding to an urgent call to treat some sick
W people in Katit, forty-live miles distant by sea. The early
morning was beautiful, and as the boatmen came to get our
luggage we were given the hope of arriving on the mainland
that evening. But they had no more than gone when a sudden North-
wester started. By the time we arrived at the pier the wind was blow­
ing a gale but the sea still looked sailable. The captain, strange to say,
did not refuse to start, but left it to us, though he advised us to wait.
But we said we’d go. \\ e poled away from the pier, pulled up >uil
and shot away. But the wind was head-on. We tacked and relacked,
hauled down the sail and pulled it up again and all the time the wind
was increasing, it was howling; the boat shook and creaked as though
it would break into splinters and waves were beating oxer the gun­
wales. The crew grumbled and said it was useless to go on. Not
another sail was there on the sea. The captain said nothing, only looked
at us now and then, and some faces were already beginning to change
color. We were now getting into deeper water and the waves were i
getting more angry, Some of the larger sail boats were anchored here
and we were passing between them. Just ahead of us was a very large
one about tour or live times the size of ours and it seemed as though
we would hit it amidships. The captain with all his might pulled on
the rudder pule to get it over another inch, but yet we were heading
directly for that boat. He gave a sudden shout and two sailors sprang
to his help and pulled over the rudder another inch or two. We were
guing very fast hut still aiming at that anchored boat. One more
heave on the rudder and we shot behind that boat so close that wc l
could have touched it. and its Hag pole nailed to the stern was hit by 1
our mast and splintered as if it had been a match stick. We could ted
the captain look at us. He had said it xvould be up to us to baV|
“enough” since it was by our orders that he had started. We looked
back to the shore line and realized that in about two and a half hour*'
sailing we were not yet more than two miles from shore. Again thc
sail had to be let down and as for a moment we turned with the wind
and waves, a tremendous wave broke over the boat so that not a dr>
spot was left inside. Our bedding, our clothes and everything cl*,
already well sprinkled were now dripping, and as though to tell us what
to do the boat’s proxv turned towards shore and home. And we shouted,
“Home Yusif!”

Sviiem and Aqaab, brothers, caught up with our caravan on out
a&jg

S* SSiSli?•
h s bv slow marches to Kiadh. From there they were sent by 0,
Suit in with a letter to Hofhuf from where they would be sent u,
Bahrein But the governor at Hofhuf told them that the doctor lud
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