176
CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
horror, soldiers and civilians alike began to discharge their
pistols and rifles indiscriminately. Sharpshooters on the walls
took up the racket. I sought refuge in a doorway. I was convinced this was no hanging party, but good news of some sort,
which the Arabs were celebrating in their own peculiar way.
It was like our Fourth of July—except that live ammunition
was going off in all directions. What was the good news? I
stopped a policeman. "Castel! It is ours!" he screamed, and
fired his pistol, splitting