them."
"No," Homer said decisively. "Nothing like that number. Possibly athousand, if that many. Logistics simply doesn't allow a greaternumber, not on such short notice. They've put a thousand or so oftheir crack troops into the town. No more."
Cliff wailed, "What's the difference between a thousand and twentythousand, so far as five men and a girl are concerned?"
The rest were saying nothing, but following the debate.
Crawford explained, not to just Cliff but to all of them. "Actually,the Arab Union is doing part of our job for us. They've openlydeclared that El Hassan is attempting to take over North Africa, thathe's raising the tribes. Well, good. We didn't have the facilities tomake the announcement ourselves. But now the whole world knows it."
* * * * *
"That's right," Elmer said, his face characteristically sullen. "Everynews agency in the world is playing up the El Hassan story. In amatter of days, the most remote nomad encampment in the Sahara willknow of it, one way or the other."
Homer Crawford was pacing, socking his right fist into the palm of theleft. "They've given us a rallying _raison d'etre_. These people mightbe largely Moslem, especially in the north, but they have no love forthe Arab Union. For too long the slave raiders came down from thenortheast. Given time, Islam might have moved in on the whole of NorthAfrica. But not this way, not in military columns."
He swung to Bey. "You worked over in the Teda country, before joiningmy team, and speak the Sudanic dialects. Head for there, Bey.Proclaim El Hassan. Organize a column. We'll rendezvous at Tamanrassetin exactly two weeks."
Bey growled, "How am I supposed to get to Faya?"
"You'll have to work that out yourself. Tonight we'll drop you near InGuezzam, they have one of the big solar pump, afforestationdevelopments there. You should be able to, ah, requisition a truck, orpossibly even a 'copter or aircraft. You're on your own, Bey."
"Right."
Homer spun to Kenny Ballalou. "You're the only one of us who getsalong in the dialect of Hassania. Get over to Nemadi country and raisea column. There are no better scouts in the world. Two weeks fromtoday at Tamanrasset."
"Got it. Drop me off tonight with Bey, we'll work together until weliberate some transport."
Bey said, "It might be worth while scouting in In Guezzam for a day ortwo. We might pick up a couple of El Hassan followers to help us alongthe way."
"Use your judgment. Elmer!"
Elmer groaned sourly, "I knew my time'd come."
"Up into Chaambra country for you. Take the second lorry. You've got adistance to go. Try to recruit former members of the French CamelCorps. Promise just about anything, but only remember that one daywe'll have to keep the promises. El Hassan can't get the label ofphony hung on him."
"Chaambra country," Elmer said. "Oh great. Arabs. I can just see whatluck I'm going to have rousing up Arabs to fight other Arabs, and mewith a complexion black as ..."
Homer snapped at him, "They won't be following you, they'll befollowing El Hassan ... or at least the El Hassan dream. Play up thefact that the Arab Union is largely not of Africa but of the MiddleEast. That they're invading the country to swipe the goats and violatethe women. Dig up all the old North African prejudices against theSyrians and Egyptians, and the Saudi-Arabian slave traders. You'llmake out."
Cliff said, nervously, "How about me, Homer?"
Homer looked at him. Cliff Jackson, in spite of his fabulous build,hadn't a fighting man's background.
Homer grinned and said, "You'll work with me. We're going into Tuaregcountry. Whenever occasion calls for it, whip off that shirt and gostrolling around with that overgrown chest of yours stuck out. TheTuareg consider themselves the best physical specimens in the Sahara,which they are. They admire masculine physique. You'll wow them."
Cliff grumbled, "Sounds like vaudeville."
Isobel said softly, "And me, El Hassan? What do I do?"
Homer turned to her. "You're also part of headquarters staff. TheTuareg women aren't dominated by their men. They still have a strongelement of descent in the matrilinear line and women aren'tsecond-class citizens. You'll work on pressuring them. Do you speakTamaheq?"
"Of course."
Homer Crawford looked up into the sky, swept it. The day was rapidlycoming to an end and nowhere does day become night so quickly as inthe ergs of the Sahara.
"Let's get underway," Crawford said. "Time's a wastin'."
* * * * *
The range of the Ahaggar Tuareg was once known, under Frenchadministration, as the Annexe du Hoggar, and was the most difficultarea ever subdued by French arms--if it was ever subdued. At thebattle of Tit on May 7, 1902 the Camel Corps, under Cottenest, brokethe combined military power of the Tuareg confederations, but thismeant no more than that the tribes and clans carried on nomadicwarfare in smaller units.
The Ahaggar covers roughly an area the size of Pennsylvania, New York,Virginia and Maryland combined, and supports a population of possiblytwelve thousand, which includes about forty-five hundred Tuareg, fourthousand Negro serf-slaves, and some thirty-five hundred scornedsedentary Haratin workers. The balance of the population consists of ahandful of Enaden smiths and a small number of Arab shopkeepers in thelargest of the sedentary centers. Europeans and other whites are allbut unknown.
It is the end of the world.
Contrary to Hollywood-inspired belief, the Sahara does not consistprincipally of sand dunes, although these, too, are present, and allbut impassable even to camels. Traffic, through the millennia, hasheld to the endless stretches of gravelly plains and the rock ribbedplateaus which cover most of the desert. The great sandy wastes orergs cover roughly a fifth of the entire Sahara, and possibly twothirds of this area consists of the rolling sandy plains dottedoccasionally with dunes. The remaining third, or about one fifteenthof the total Sahara, is characterized by the dune formations ofpopular imagination.
It was through this latter area that Homer Crawford, now with but onehover-lorry, and accompanied by Isobel Cunningham and CliffordJackson, was heading.
For although the spectacular major dune formations of the Great Erghave defied wheeled vehicles since the era of the Carthaginianchariots, and even the desert born camel limits his daily travel inthem to but a few miles, the modern hovercraft, atop its air cushionjets, finds them of only passing difficulty to traverse. And thehovercraft leaves no trail.
Cliff Jackson scowled out at the identical scenery. Identical for morethan two hundred miles. For twice that distance, they had seen noother life. No animal, no bird, not a sprig of cactus. This was theGreat Erg.
He muttered, "This country is so dry even the morning dew isdehydrated."
Isobel laughed--she, too, had never experienced this country before."Why, Cliff, you made a funny!"
They were sitting three across in the front seat, with Homer Crawfordat the wheel, and now all three were dressed in the costume of the KelRela tribe of the Ahaggar Tuareg confederation. In the back of thelorry were the jerry-cans of water and the supplies that meant thedifference between life and mummification from sun and heat.
Cliff turned suddenly to the driver. "Why here?" he said bitterly."Why pick this for a base of operations? Why not Mopti? Ten thousandSudanese demonstrated for El Hassan there less than two weeks ago.You'd have them in the palm of your hand."
Homer didn't look up from his work at wheel, lift and accelerationlevers. To achieve maximum speed over the dunes, you worked constantlyat directing motion not only horizontally but vertically.
He said, "And the twenty and one enemies of the El Hassan movementwould have had us in their palms. Our followers in Mopti can take careof themselves. If this movement is ever going to be worth anything,the local characters are going to have to get into the act. Thecurrent big thing is not to allow El Hassan and his immediate troupeto be eliminated before full activities can get under way. For thepresent, we're hiding out until we can gather forces enough to freeTamanrasset."
>
"Hiding out is right," Cliff snorted. "I have a sneaking suspicionthat not only will they never find us, but we'll never find themagain."
Homer laughed. "As a matter of fact, we're not so far right now fromSilet where there's a certain amount of water--if you dig for it--anda certain amount of the yellowish grass and woody shrubs that thebedouin depend on. With luck, we'll find the Amenokal of the Tuaregthere."
"Amenokal?"
"Paramount chief of the Ahaggar Tuaregs."
* * * * *
The dunes began to fall away and with the butt of his left