midday
We cross that valley on the first leg , and that 's merely a sample ! '' But it 's easy enough to be driven forward in comfort to a new experience , never mind what past years have taught , nor what imagination can depict ; if that were not so no new battles would be fought , and women would refuse to restock the world with trouble 's makings . A reasoning animal man may be , but he is n't often guided by his reason , and at that early stage in the proceedings you could n't have argued me out of them with anything much less persuasive than brute force . We rolled down the white road into Hebron in a cloud of dust before midday , and de Crespigny , the governor of the district , came out to greet us like old friends ; for it was only a matter of weeks since he and we and some others had stood up to death together , and that tie has a way of binding closer than conventional associations do . But there were other friends who were equally glad to see us . Seventeen men came out from the shadow of the governorate wall , and stood in line to shake hands -- and that is a lengthy business , for it is bad manners to be the first to let go of an Arab 's hand , so that tact is required as well as patience ; but it was well worth while standing in the sun repeating the back-and-forth rigmarole of Arab greeting if that meant that Ali Baba and his sixteen sons and grandsons were to be our companions on the adventure . They followed us at last into the governorate , and sat down on the hall carpet with the air of men who know what fun the future holds .