dvantage,
monetary or otherwise, to be gained by exploiting a stranger is well
within desert mores.

He might as well bring it to the point. Crawford said evenly, "And I
have entered your camp alone except for two followers. Your people are
many. So why, O Amenokal, have you not seized me for the reward the
Roumi offer?"

* * * * *

There was a moment of silence and Homer Crawford sensed that the
sub-chieftains had leaned forward in anticipation, waiting for their
leader's words. Possibly they, too, could not understand.

The Tuareg leader finished his tea.

"Because, El Hassan, we yet have not heard the message which the Roumi
are so anxious that you not be allowed to bring the men of the desert.
The Roumi are great liars, and great thieves, as each man knows. In
the memory of those still living, they have stolen of the bedouin and
robbed him of land and wealth. So now we would hear of what you say,
before we decide."

"Spoken like a true Amenokal, a veritable Suliman ben Davud," Homer
said with a heartiness he could only partly feel. At least they were
open to persuasion.

For a long moment he stared down at the rug upon which they sat, as
though deep in contemplation.

"These words I speak will be truly difficult to hear and accept, O men
of the veil," he said at last. "For I speak of great change, and no
man loves change in the way of his life."

"Speak, El Hassan," Melchizedek said flatly. "Great change is
everywhere upon us, as each man knows, and none can tell how to
maintain the ways of our fathers."

"We can fight," one of the younger men growled.

The Amenokal turned to him and grunted scorn. "And would you fight
against the weapons of the djinn and afrit, O Guemama? Know that in my
youth I was distant witness to the explosion of a great weapon which
the accursed Franzawi discharged south of Reggan. Know, that this
single explosion, my sister's son, could with ease have destroyed the
total of all the tribesmen of the Ahaggar, had they been gathered."

"And the Roumi have many such weapons," Crawford added gently.

The eyes of the tribal headmen came back to him.

"As each man knows," Crawford continued, "change is upon the world. No
matter how strongly one wills to continue the traditions of his
fathers, change is upon us all. And he who would press against the
sand storm, rather than drifting with it, lasts not long."

One of the subchiefs growled, "We Tuareg