"I care not what you or anyone else did in Mecca," Mimico went on. "None
of us may truly know what lies beyond this mortal life until we have
taken leave of it and may find out for ourselves. Getting back to
earthly matters, which are the only ones I admit to understanding, I
hear the journey will be long."
"I have heard the same," Ali declared. "But the longer it is, the
better. I do not like this place."
Mimico said fervently, "Nor do I! Aside from being wearisome, it has
been most absurd. I wonder at the Amirs who have made it so."
Ali told himself that that was also true. Major Wayne, in command at
Camp Verde, was a thoroughly competent officer who maintained a smoothly
running organization when left alone. But various officers who ranked
Wayne, of whom few had any real knowledge of camels but all cherished
pet theories, had visited from time to time and insisted on trying
their ideas.
One had convinced himself--and submitted an official report that he hoped
would convince others--that camels were greatly inferior to horses. He
arrived at such a conclusion by arranging a race, a quarter-mile sprint,
between a racehorse and a riding camel. The horse finished before the
camel was fairly started, it is true, but the officer in question refused
to recognize the sound fact that quarter-mile sprints would not be
especially valuable to the proposed Camel Corps. Nor could he be convinced
that, although a good horse may outdistance a camel in the first half day
of travel, the camel will overtake and pass the horse before night.
Furthermore, the camel will be fresh for the next day's start and will be
going on long after the horse is worn out.
Another officer had proved conclusively that, due to peculiarities of
the terrain, camels would be worse than useless in the Southwest because
they quickly became sore-footed. This officer derived such an opinion by
requisitioning six camels that hadn't been outside the khan for six
weeks, having them packed and sending them off on a fifty-mile trip. The
camels went lame solely because they had had no trail work to harden
their feet.
In a similar fashion, it had been demonstrated that the gait of a riding
camel is so stiff and jarring that Americans couldn't possibly get used
to it; that camels are subject to a bewildering variety of ailments;
that they are too vicious to be practical, and that there were a few
dozen other reasons why the whole project couldn't possibly work and the
camels had better be disposed of right now! Throughout, those who had
originally had faith in a camel corps persisted in battling all skeptics
and going ahead.
At long last, this proper expedition was organized and a true test was
at hand. What happened afterward, Ali told himself, depended in great
measure on Lieutenant Beale. If he was one of those officers whose every
thought is already written in the Manual of Regulations--Ali had seen
for himself that the American Army has a full quota of such--his report
might very well doom future expeditions. If Beale was able to think for
himself, if he was capable of honest analysis and could adapt to new
situations, it was wholly possible that his favorable report would
remove all obstacles and be the making of the Camel Corps.
Mimico asked wistfully, "What think you of the savage tribesmen, whose
country you are to enter?"
"I have never met them," Ali answered seriously. "But I have met and
fought the Druse, and I know well the bandits of the caravan routes.
It is difficult to suppose that these savages are more fierce."
"Difficult indeed," Mimico said. "I am most envious, Ali."