Sherif, I caught them. They have tracked us.
They were here. I caught them.
Why are you here? Boy!
To serve Lord Lawrence, sherif.
This is true, Lawrence. They do wish it.
You have been tracking us.
- You were told to stay. - No, sherif.
Our camel strayed. We followed her.
She led us here to be Lord Lawrence's servants.
- It is the will of Allah. - Blasphemy.
Don't do that.
No, Lawrence, these are not servants. These are outcasts, parent-less.
Be warned. They are not suitable.
They sound very suitable. You can ride with the baggage.
These are not servants. These are worshippers.
One shilling, every week?
That is fair.
- Each? - No.
- That is too much. - All right.
They will be lucky for you. Allah favours the compassionate.
There is the railway.
And that is the desert.
From here until the other side, no water but what we carry.
For the camels, no water at all.
If the camels die...
...we die.
And in 20 days they will start to die.
There's no time to waste, then, is there?
I was thinking.
You were drifting.
Yes. It will not happen again.
Be warned, you were drifting.
It will not happen again.
That water is wasted.
From now on, we must travel by night...
...and rest while it is too hot to travel.
A few hours each day.
Why don't we start now?
No. We will rest now.
Three hours.
Fine.
I'll wake you.
Do we rest here?
There is no rest now short of water.
The other side of that.
And how much of that is there?
I'm not sure.
But however much, it must be crossed before tomorrow's sun gets up.
This is the sun's anvil.
Have we done it?
No, but we're off the anvil.
Thank God for that anyway.
Yes, thank Him.
Lawrence, I do not think you know how you have tempted Him.
I know.
We've done it.
God willing.
When do we reach the wells?
God willing, midday.
- Then we've done it. - Thank Him, Lawrence. Thank Him.
Gasim's.
What's happened to him?
God knows.
Why don't you stop?
For what? He will be dead by midday.
We must go back.
What for, to die with Gasim?
In one hour comes the sun.
In God's name, understand! We cannot go back!
I can.
Take the boys.
If you go back, you kill yourself, is all.
Gasim you have killed already.
Get out of my way.
Gasim's time is come, Lawrence. It is written.
Nothing is written!
Go back, then!
What did you bring us here for with your blasphemous conceit?
English blasphemer!
Aqaba?
Was it Aqaba?
You will not be at Aqaba, English!
Go back, blasphemer...
...but you will not be at Aqaba.
I shall be at Aqaba.
That is written.
In here.
English!
Lawrence! Daud!
Nothing is written.
Al Lawrence.
Farraj.
Wash.
Al Lawrence.
Truly, for some men nothing is written unless they write it.
Not Al Lawrence. Just Lawrence.
- AI Lawrence is better. - True.
Your father too, just Mr. Lawrence?
My father is Sir Thomas Chapman.
- Is that a lord? - A kind of lord.
Then when he dies, you too will be a lord.
No.
You have an elder brother.
But then, I do not understand this. Your father's name is Chapman.
He didn't marry my mother.
I see.
I'm sorry.
It seems to me that you are free to choose your own name, then.
Yes, I suppose I am.
Al Lawrence is best.
All right, I'll settle for Al Lawrence.
They are the robes of a sherif of the Beni Wejh.
Very fine.
- Great honour. - The honour is to us. Salaam, sherif.
- Is it permitted? - Surely.
He for whom nothing is written may write himself a clan.
They are good for riding. Try.
What are you doing, Englishman?
As you see.
Are you alone?
Almost.
Are you with those dogs drinking at my well?
Yours?
I am Auda Abu Tayi.
I've heard of another man of that name.
Other? What other?
The Auda I'd heard of wouldn't need to summon help to look after his wells.
He must be a great hero.
He is.
He wouldn't refuse water to men coming out of Nefud Desert.
Now, would he not?
No, that must be some other man.
Here is my help.
Son, what fashion is this?
- Harith, Father. - What manner of Harith?
A Beni Wejh sherif.
And is he Harith?
No, Father, English.
Son...
...they are stealing our water.
Tell them we are coming.
Tell them.
- Empty that! - Do not!
It is Auda of the Howeitat who speaks.
It is Ali of the Harith who answers.
Harith.
Ali.
Does your father still steal?
No.
Does Auda take me for one of his own bastards?
No. There is no resemblance.
Alas, you resemble your father.
- Auda flatters me. - You are easily flattered.
I knew your father well.
Did you know your own?
We are 50, you are two. How if we shot you down?
Why, then you have a blood feud with the Howeitat.
- Do you desire it? - Not the generals in Cairo...
...nor the sultan himself desire that.
Call off your men.
This honours the unworthy.
I've only just begun to teach him.
And what are you teaching him today? Howeitat hospitality?
Be not clever with me, English.
- Who is he? - A friend of Prince Feisal's.
- So you desire my hospitality? - Yes.
Is he your tongue?
We do desire it.
Then it is given, if you will take it.
I'm at my summer camp, a poor place.
Well, to me it seems a poor place. Some men find it marvellous.
Tomorrow, maybe I will allow the Turks to buy you, friends of Feisal.
But...
...dine with me.
Dine with Auda, English.
Dine with the Howeitat, Harith.
It is my pleasure that you dine with me in Wadi Rumm!
This thing you work against Aqaba...
...what profit do you hope from it?
We work it for Feisal of Mecca.
The Harith do not work for profit.
Well, if it is in a man to be a servant, Sherif Ali...
...he could find worse masters than Feisal.
But I... I cannot serve.
You permit the Turks to stay in Aqaba.
Yes, it is my pleasure.
We do not work this thing for Feisal.
No?
- For the English, then? - For the Arabs.
The Arabs?
The Howeitat, Ageyil, Ruala, Beni Sahkr, these I know.
I have even heard of the Harith.
But the Arabs?
What tribe is that?
They're a tribe of slaves. They serve the Turks.
Well, they are nothing to me.
My tribe is the Howeitat.
Who work only for profit.
Who work at Auda's pleasure.
And Auda's pleasure is to serve the Turks.
Serve?
I serve?
It is the servant who takes money.
I am Auda Abu Tayi.
- Does Auda serve? - No!
- Does Auda Abu Tayi serve? - No!
I carry 23 great wounds, all got in battle.
75 men have I killed with my own hands, in battle.
I scatter, I burn my enemies tents. I take away their flocks and herds.
The Turks pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor!
Because I am a river to my people.
Is that service?
No.
And yet now it seems Auda has grown old.
And lost his taste for fighting.
It is well you say it in my tent, thou old tulip.
Yet this is a tulip that the Turks could not buy.
Why should they wish to?
Now...
I will tell you what they pay me, and you will tell me if this is...
...a servant's wages.
They pay me, month by month...
...100 golden guineas.
150, Auda.
- Who told you that? - I have long ears.
And a long tongue between them.
100, 150, what matters? It's a trifle.
A trifle which they take from a great box they have.
In Aqaba.
- In Aqaba? - Where else?
You trouble me like women.
Friends, we've been foolish. Auda will not come to Aqaba.
- For money? - No.
- For Feisal? - No!
Nor to drive away the Turks.
He will come...
...because it is his pleasure.
Thy mother mated with a scorpion.
Make God your agent!
Aqaba!
God be with you.
Yes.
Aqaba.
Tomorrow we will go and get it.
- Do you think we shall? - Yes.
If you are right about the guns.
He killed. He dies.
This is the end of Aqaba.
One of our men murdered Auda's man.
Why?
Theft? Blood feud? It makes no matter why.
Ali!
It is an ancient wound.
I didn't come here to watch a tribal bloodbath.
It is the law, Lawrence.
The law says the man must die.
If he dies, will that content the Howeitat?
Yes.