Shauby, the Premier Desert Driver & Mechanic
Walt drove a pickup followed by our mechanic, Shauby, who drove another pickup with a soldier named Saud. Shauby comes from the Hejaz, the western province of Arabia, and is quite a character. He is the only one of our crew who has been abroad, he worked on the coaling gang of a British steam ship for a year or two. He has a wife in Mecca, but, being diplomatic, he took another wife from the town of Jubail on this coast; so he’s one of the hometown guys now. Because his first wife is coming from Mecca to find out what it’s all about, Shauby told Walt that he’s glad to be out here in the desert. Of course, any man is entitled to four wives but sometimes the old ones don’t approve of the new one.