e ergs, they must stick to the hard ground, to the
tire-destroying gravel.

They came to a halt and Moussa-ag-Amastan drew up his teguelmoust
turban-veil even closer about his eyes. He had no desire to let the
newcomers witness his shocked surprise at the fact that the desert
lorries had no wheels, floated instead without support, and now that
they were at a standstill settled gently to earth.

There was further surprise when the five who issued forth from the two
seemingly clumsy vehicles failed to be Rouma. They looked more like the
Teda to the south, and the Targui's eyes thinned beneath his
teguelmoust. Since the French had pulled out their once dreaded Camel
Corps there had been somewhat of a renaissance of violence between
traditional foes.

However, the newcomers, though dark as Negro Bela slaves, wore Tuareg
dress, loose baggy trousers of dark indigo-blue cotton cloth, a loose,
nightgownlike white cotton shirt, and over this a _gandoura_ outer
garment. Above all, they wore the teguelmoust though they were
shockingly lax in keeping it properly up about the mouth.

Moussa-ag-Amastan knew that he was backed by ten or more of his
clansmen, half of whom bore rifles, the rest Tuareg broadswords,
Crusader-like with their two edges, round points and flat rectangular
cross-members. Only two of the strangers seemed armed and they
negligently bore their smallish guns in the crooks of their arms. The
clan leader spoke at strength, then, but he said the traditional "_La
bas_."

"There is no evil," repeated the foremost of the newcomers. His Tamabeq,
the Berber language of the Tuareg confederations, seemed perfect.

Moussa-ag-Amastan said, "What do you do in the lands of the Taitoq
Tuareg?"

The stranger, a tall, handsome man with a dominating though pleasant
personality, indicated the vehicles with a sweep of his hand. "We are
Enaden, itinerant smiths. As has ever been our wont, we travel from
encampment to encampment to sell our products and to make repair upon
your metal possessions."

Enaden! The traveling smiths of the Ahaggar, and indeed of the whole
Sahara, were a despised and ragged lot at best. Few there were that ever
possessed more than a small number of camels, a sprinkling of goats,
perhaps a sheep or two. But these seemed as rich as Roumas, as Europeans
or Americans.

Moussa-ag-Amastan muttered, "You jest with us at your peril, stranger."
He pointed an aged but still strong hand at the vehicles. "Ena