milar mind to my
own, and then I'm going to join El Hassan," the little man snapped.
"Good-bye, Sir Winton."

He clicked the set off and then looked down at it. His dour face broke
into a rare grin. "Now there's an ambition I've had for donkey's
years," he said aloud. "To hang up on a really big mucky-muck."

IV

Following the attack of the unidentified rocketcraft, El Hassan's
party was twice again nearly flushed by reconnoitering planes of
unknown origin. They weren't making the time they wanted.

Beneath a projecting rock face over a gravel bottomed wadi, the two
hover-lorries were hidden, whilst a slow-moving helio-jet made
sweeping, high-altitude circlings above them.

[Illustration]

The six stared glumly upward.

Cliff Jackson who was on the radio called out, "I just picked him up.
He's called in to Fort Lamy reporting no luck. His fuel's running
short and he'll be knocking off soon."

Homer Crawford rapped, "What language?"

"French," Cliff said, "but it's not his. I mean he's not French, just
using the language."

Bey's face was as glum as any and there was a tic at the side of his
mouth. He said now, "We've got to come up with something. Sooner or
later one of them will spot us and this next time we won't have any
fantastic breaks like Homer being able to knock him off with a
Tommy-Noiseless. He'll drop a couple of neopalms and burn up a square
mile of desert including El Hassan and his whole crew."

Homer looked at him. "Any ideas, Bey?"

"No," the other growled.

Homer Crawford said, "Any of the rest of you?"

Isobel was frowning, bringing something back. "Why don't we travel at
night?"

"And rest during the day?" Homer said.

Kenny said, "Parking where? We just made it to this wadi. If we're
caught out in the dunes somewhere when one of those planes shows up,
we've had it. You couldn't hide a jackrabbit out there."

But Bey and Homer Crawford were still looking at Isobel.

She said, "I remember a story the Tuaregs used to tell about a raid
some of them made back during the French occupation. They stole four
hundred camels near Timbuktu one night and headed north. The French
weren't worried. The next morning, they simply sent out a couple of
aircraft to spot the Tuareg raiders and the camels. Like Kenny said,
you couldn't hide a jackrabbit in dune country. But there was nothing
to be seen. The French couldn't believe it, but they still weren't
really worried. After all a camel herd