ust needs attend the schools. And that
way lay disaster!

The five smiths took out overland in the direction of Djanet on the
border of what had once been known as Libya and famed for its cliffs
which tower over twenty-five hundred feet above the town. Their solar
powered, air cushion, hover-lorries, threw up their clouds of dust and
sand to right and left, but they made good time over the _erg_. A good
hovercraft driver could do much to even out a rolling landscape,
changing his altitude from a few inches here to as much as twenty-five
feet there, given, of course, enough power in his solar batteries,
although that was little problem in this area where clouds were
sometimes not seen for years on end.

This was back of the beyond, the wasteland of earth. Only the interior
of the Arabian peninsula and the Gobi could compete and, of course, even
the Gobi was beginning to be tamed under the afforestation efforts of
the teeming multitudes of China who had suffered its disastrous storms
down through the millennia.

* * * * *

Omar checked and checked again with the instrument on his wrist, asking
and answering, his voice worried.

Finally they pulled up beside a larger than usual wadi and Omar ben
Crawf stared thoughtfully out over it. The one they had named Abrahim el
Bakr stood beside him and the others slightly to the rear.

Abrahim el Bakr nodded, for once his face unsmiling. "Those cats'll come
down here," he said. "Nothing else would make sense, not even to an
Egyptian."

"I think you're right," Omar growled. He said over his shoulder, "Bey,
get the trucks out of sight, over that dune. Elmer, you and Kenny set
the gun up over there. Solid slugs, and try to avoid their cargo. We
don't want to set off a Fourth of July here. Bey, when you're finished
with the trucks, take that Tommy-Noiseless of yours and flank them from
over behind those rocks. Take a couple of clips extra, for good
luck--you won't need them, though."

"How many are there supposed to be?" Abrahim el Bakr asked, his voice
empty of humor now.

"Eight half-trucks, two armed jeeps, or land-rovers, one or the other.
Probably about forty men, Abe."

"All armed," Abe said flatly.

"Um-m-m. Listen, that's them coming. Right down the _wadi_. Get going
men. Abe, you cover me."

Abe Bakr looked at him. "Wha'd'ya mean, cover you, man? You slipped all
the way round the bend? Listen, let me plant a couple quick land mines