den do not
own such as these."

The newcomer shrugged. "I am Omar ben Crawf and these are my followers,
Abrahim el Bakr Ma el Ainin, Keni Ballalou and Bey-ag-Akhamouk. We come
today from Tamanrasset and we are smiths, as we can prove. As is known,
there is high pay to be earned by working in the oil fields, at the dams
on the Niger, in the afforestation projects, in the sinking of the new
wells whose pumps utilize the rays of the sun, in the developing of the
great new oases. There is much Rouma money to be made in such work and
my men and I have brought these vehicles specially built in the new
factories in Dakar for desert use."

"Slave work!" one of Moussa-ag-Amastan's kinsmen sneered.

Omar ben Crawf shrugged in obvious amusement, but there was a warmth and
vitality in the man that quickly affected even strangers. "Perhaps," he
said. "But times change, as every man knows and today there no longer
need be hunger, nor illness, nor any want--if a man will but work a
fraction of each day."

"Work is for slaves," Moussa-ag-Amastan barked.

The newcomer refused to argue. "But all slaves have been freed, and
where in the past this meant nothing since the Bela had no place to go,
no way to live save with his owner, today it is different and any man
can go and find work on the many projects that grow everywhere. So the
slaves slip away from the Tuareg, and the Teda and Chaamba. Soon there
will be no more slaves to do the work about your encampments. And then
what, man of the desert?"

"We'll fight!" Moussa-ag-Amastan growled. "We Tuareg are warriors,
bedouin, free men. We will never be slaves."

"_Inshallah._ If God wills it," the smith agreed politely.

"Show us your wares," the old chieftain snapped. "We chatter like women.
Talk can wait until the evening meal and in the men's quarters of my
tent." He approached the now parked vehicles and his followers crowded
after him. From the tents debouched women and children. The children
were completely nude, and the Tuareg women were unveiled for such are
the customs of the Ahaggar Tuareg that the men go veiled but women do
not.

* * * * *

One of the lorries was so constructed that a side could be raised in
such fashion to display a wide variety of tools, weapons, household
utensils, and textiles. Ohs and ahs punctuated the air, women being the
same in every land. Two of the smiths brought forth metal-working
equipment of strange design