point and
all that jazz."

They started for the elevator and Isobel said to Abe, "If you'd just be
consistent with that pseudo-beatnik chatter of yours, I wouldn't mind.
But half the time you talk like an English lit major when you forget to
put on your act."

"Man," Abe said to her, "maybe I was wrong inviting you to sit in on
this bull session. I can see you're in a bad mood."

In the living room of the suite, Isobel took an easy-chair and Abe threw
himself full length on his back on a couch. Homer Crawford paced the
floor.

"Well?" Isobel said.

Crawford said abruptly, "Somebody tried to poison me last night. Got
into this room somehow and put cyanide in a bottle of cognac Abe and I
were drinking out of earlier in the evening."

Isobel stared at him. Her eyes went from him to Abe and back.
"But ... but, why?"

Crawford ran his hand back over his wiry hair in puzzlement. "I ... I
don't know. That's what's driving me batty. I can't figure out why
anybody would want to kill me."

"I can," Abe said bluntly. "And that interview we just had with Sven
Zetterberg just bears me out."

"Zetterberg," Isobel said, surprised. "Is he in Africa?"

Crawford nodded to her question but his eyes were on Abe.

Abe put his hands behind his head and said to the ceiling, "Zetterberg
just gave Homer's team the assignment of bringing in El Hassan."

"El Hassan? But you boys told us all in Timbuktu that there was no El
Hassan. You invented him and then the rest of us, more or less
spontaneously, though unknowingly, took up the falsification and spread
your work."

"That's right," Crawford said, still looking at Abe.

"But didn't you tell Sven Zetterberg?" Isobel demanded. "He's too big a
man to play jokes upon."

"No, I didn't and I'm not sure I know why."

"I know why," Abe said. He sat up suddenly and swung his feet around and
to the floor.

The other two watched him, both frowning.

Abe said slowly, "Homer, you _are_ El Hassan."

His chief scowled at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"

The younger man gestured impatiently. "Figure it out. Somebody else
already has, the somebody who took a shot at you from that mosque. Look,
put it all together and it makes sense.

"These North Africans aren't going to make it, not in the short period
of time that we want them to, unless a leader appears on the scene.
These people are just beginning to emerge from tribal society. In the
tribes, people live by rituals and tabo