o the driver. "Why here?" he said bitterly.
"Why pick this for a base of operations? Why not Mopti? Ten thousand
Sudanese 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 acceleration
levers. To achieve maximum speed over the dunes, you worked constantly
at directing motion not only horizontally but vertically.

He said, "And the twenty and one enemies of the El Hassan movement
would have had us in their palms. Our followers in Mopti can take care
of themselves. If this movement is ever going to be worth anything,
the local characters are going to have to get into the act. The
current big thing is not to allow El Hassan and his immediate troupe
to be eliminated before full activities can get under way. For the
present, we're hiding out until we can gather forces enough to free
Tamanrasset."

"Hiding out is right," Cliff snorted. "I have a sneaking suspicion
that not only will they never find us, but we'll never find them
again."

Homer laughed. "As a matter of fact, we're not so far right now from
Silet where there's a certain amount of water--if you dig for it--and
a certain amount of the yellowish grass and woody shrubs that the
bedouin depend on. With luck, we'll find the Amenokal of the Tuareg
there."

"Amenokal?"

"Paramount chief of the Ahaggar Tuaregs."

* * * * *

The dunes began to fall away and with the butt of his left hand
Crawford struck the acceleration lever. He could make more time now
when less of his attention was drawn to the ups and downs of erg
travel.

Patches of thorny bush began to appear, and after a time a small herd
of gazelle were flushed and high tailed their way over the horizon.

Isobel said, "Who is this Amenokal you mentioned?"

"These are the real Tuareg, the comparatively untouched. They've got
three tribes, the Kel Rela, the Tegehe Mellet and the Taitoq, each
headed by a warrior clan which gives its name to the tribe as a whole.
The chief of the Kel Rela clan is also chief of the Kel Rela tribe and
automatically paramount chief, or Amenokal, of the whole
confederation. His name is Melchizedek."

"Do you think you can win him over?" Isobel said.

"He's a smart old boy. I had some dealings with him over a year ago.
Gave him a TV set in the way of a present, hoping he'd tune in on some
of our Reunited Nations propaganda. He's probably