by James A. Cox
*
They went into the larger of the two Tuareg tents, and Isobel pouredwater from a girba into the coffee pot which she placed on a heatunit, flicking its switch. She said sarcastically, from the side ofher mouth, "A message, O El Hassan, from the Department of Logistics,subdepartment Commissary of Headquarters of the Commander in Chief.Unless you get around to capturing some supplies in the near future,your food is going to be prepared over a camel dung fire. This heatunit is fading out on me."
"Don't bother me with trivialities," Homer told her. "I've got _big_things on my mind."
She looked at him suspiciously. "Hm-m-m. Such as what?"
"Such as whether to put my face on the postage stamps profile orfull."
She said, under her breath, "I shoulda known. Already, delusions ofgrandeur."
"Holy Mackerel," Cliff protested. "Aren't we ever serious around thisplace? You two will wind up gagging with the firing squad."
Crawford chuckled softly but let his face go serious. "Sorry, Cliff.What's on your mind?"
Cliff said impatiently, "From the radio reports, the Arab Union isconsolidating its position. El Hassan is being discredited by theminute. Your followers were in control for a time in Mopti and Bamako,but they're falling away because of lack of direction. The best way Ican put reports together, the Reunited Nations is in completeconfusion. Everybody accusing everybody of double-dealing."
Isobel said dryly, "Any other good news?"
Cliff said glumly, "Rumors, rumors, rumors. Half the marabouts inNorth Africa are proclaiming a jihad in support of the Pan-Islamprogram of the Arab Union. Listen, Homer, we've got to get thebacking of the Moslem leaders."
Homer Crawford grunted. "We need Islam in this part of the world likewe need a hole in the head. That's one of the things already wrongwith North Africa."
"What's wrong with Islam? It was probably the most dynamic religionever to sweep the world."
"_Was_ is right," Crawford growled, now on one of his favorite peevesubjects. "The Moslem religion exploded out of Arabia with some newconcepts that set the world in ferment from India to Southern France.For all practical purposes Islam _invented_ science. Sure, the Greekshad logic and the Romans had engineering--without applying theGreek-style logic. But the Arabs amalgamated the two concepts to yieldexperimental science. They were able to take the intellectual productsof a dozen cultures and wield them into one. For a hundred years or soit looked as though they had something."
When he hesitated for a moment, Isobel said, questioningly, "And ..."
"And they couldn't get away from that Q'ran of theirs. They took itseriously. They started off in their big universities, such as thoseat Fez, being the greatest scientists and scholars the world had everseen. But the fundamentalists won out, and in a couple of hundredyears the only thing being taught at Fez was the Q'ran. To evensuggest that all necessary information isn't contained therein, isenough to have you clobbered. Islam became the most reactionary forceto suppress progress in the civilized world. In fact, by this periodin world history, we don't even think of the Moslem world asparticularly civilized."
Cliff said defensively, "The Bible doesn't encourage original thinkingeither. A fundamentalist ..."
"Sure," Crawford interrupted. "Those elements who take the Bible theway Islam took the Q'ran wind up in the same rut. But _as a whole_,Europe was sparked enough by the original Islamic explosion that theRenaissance resulted, with what world results we all know. Be ..."
* * * * *
There was a roar of confusion outside. A blasting of guns, a shriekingof _Ul-Ul-Ul-Allah Akbar!_
Crawford came to his feet unhappily. "Another contingent of Tuareg,"he said. "I'll have to give them a quick welcoming to the colorsspeech."
The guns outside continued their booming.
"Confound it," he growled, "I wish I could break them of that habit ofblasting away their ammunition. They'll have better targets before theweek is out."
He pushed open the tent flap and, followed by Isobel and Cliff,emerged into the stretch of clearing between his tents and thehovercraft, and the growing Tuareg encampment. His diagnosis had beencorrect. A contingent of possibly two score Tuareg camelmen had comea-galloping up, shaking rifles above their heads in a small scalegymhana, or fantasia as the Moors called them.
"At least it's a larger group than usual," Cliff said from behind."But at this rate, it'll still take a month for us to equal the ArabLegion in Tamanrasset." He added in disgust, "And look at this bunchof ragamuffins. Half of them are carrying muzzleloaders."
The booming muskets and the cracking rifles suddenly began to fall offin intensity and the camelmen and the hordes of Tuareg women and nakedchildren who had swarmed from the tents to greet them were fallingsilent. Here and there a hand pointed upward.
Homer, Cliff and Isobel swung their own eyes up to the sky in dreadedanticipation. The hover-lorry was camouflaged to blend in with thesands and rock outcroppings of this area, but it was possible that anaircraft might have determined that this was El Hassan's base,possibly through some act of a traitor, in which case ...
They found the spot in the sky that the tribesmen were pointing out.It seemed to move slowly for a military craft, but for that matter itmight be a helio-jet and considerably more dangerous, so far as theybeing spotted was concerned, than a fast moving fighter.
Guemama, was barking to his men to take cover. Two days beforeCrawford had checked out several of the more bright-eyed on the flacrifle and now three of them ran to where it was set up at a highpoint.
But hardly had the confused milling got under way than it fell offagain. Movement stopped, and the Tuareg faced the approaching dot inthe sky.
"Djinn...!"
"Afrit...!"
Cliff had darted back into the tent, now he emerged with binoculars.
"What the devil is it?" Crawford snapped. Desert trained eyes wereevidently considerably more effective than his own. He couldn't seewhat the tribesmen were gaping at.
"It's the smallest heliohopper _I've_ ever seen," Cliff snorted. "It'sso small practically all you can see are the rotors and the passenger.He doesn't even look as though he's got a seat."
Guemama came hurrying up, his eyes wide beneath his teguelmoust. "ElHassan! A witchman ... come out of the sky!"
Homer said evenly, "It is nothing. Only post men ready to obey mycommands."
Guemama hesitated as though to waver out another protest, but thenspun and hurried off--military-like, glad to have an order to obey tokeep his mind from the impossible.
"I'm beginning to have a sneaking suspicion--" Crawford began withoutfinishing. "Come on Isobel, Cliff. We're going to have to make themost of this."
* * * * *
Rex Donaldson, ex-field man for the African Department of the BritishCommonwealth, dropped the lift lever of his heliohopper and settled tothe ground immediately before Homer Crawford who stood there flankedby Isobel Cunningham and Cliff Jackson. Further back and in the formof a crescent were possibly two or three hundred Tuareg of all agesand both sexes.
Donaldson, in the garb of a Dogan juju man consisting of little morethan a wisp of cloth about his loins, played it straight, not knowingthe setup. On the face of it, he had just flown out of the sky_personally_. The size of his equipment so small as to be all butmeaningless.
He unstrapped himself from the thin, bicyclelike seat, and,expressionlessly, folded the rotors of his tiny craft back overthemselves and the engine, collapsed the whole thing into a manageablepacket of some seventy-five pounds, the seat now becoming a handle,and then turned and faced Crawford.
Donaldson screwed his wizened face into an expression of respect andmade a motion of obeisance. Then he waited.
Isobel said, "El Hassan bids you speak."
That was the tip-off, then. Crawford had already revealed himself tothese people as El Hassan. Very well.
Donaldson spoke in Arabic, not knowing the Tamaheq tongue. "Aselamu,Aleikum, El Hass
an. I come to obey your wishes."
A sigh had gone through the Tuareg. "Aiiiii." _Wallahi, even thedjinn obeyed El Hassan!_
With dignity, Homer Crawford said, "Keif halak, all in my house isyours."
Rex Donaldson inclined his small bent body again, in respect.
Crawford said in English, "Let's not carry this _too_ far. Come oninto the tent."
Ignoring the Tuareg, who still gaped but held their distance, the fourEnglish-speaking Negroes headed for the larger of the two tents thathad been set up for El Hassan.
As they passed Guemama who stood slightly aside from the other Tuaregwith his uncle Melchizedek, the Amenokal,
