Readers of P.S. Allfree"s previous book of Arabian memoirs, Warlords of Oman, will recall his closing words "I was going to see more of Arabia." In these pages he recounts a year and a half spent as a political officer among the Bedouin of the south-eastern Rub" al-Khali, the "Empty Quarter." The many fascinating characters in this ancient land spring happily to life: the wise Judge of the Saar who chewed tobacco and whose name was "Son of the jerboa;" Sulayim, the serpent-subtle eminence grise of the desert, whom the author employs as a secret key to unlock the doors of the Mahra, a wild and inhospitable race; "Aunty" Hussein, the motherly Secretary of State in the Sultanate of Sayun, and many others. Notable among a crowded chronicle of incidents are the Case of the Hamstringed Camel, which nearly leads to a tribal war; the author’s embroilment with a terrifying tribe of what he calls "nightmare Teddy-boys, armed to the eyebrows;" and the final exciting expedition, which is the climax of this work, the coup de main which brings the government to the wild and anarchic Mahra.