articulate Dogon lad said.

Dolo Anah chuckled and shook his head. "They will not believe you, boy.
They will be afraid to believe you. And besides, men are almost
everywhere the same. It is difficult for an older man to learn from a
younger one, especially his own son. It is vanity, but it is true." His
mouth twisted in memory. "When I was a lad myself, on the beaches of an
island far from here in the Bahamas, my father beat me on more than one
occasion, indignant that I should wish to attend the white man's
schools, while he and his father before him had been fishermen. Beneath
his indignation was the fear that one day I would excel him."

"You are right," Hinnan said uncomfortably, "they would not believe us."
Instinctively, the son of the head chief assumed leadership of the
others. "We will keep this secret between us," he said to them.

Dolo Anah came to his feet, yawned, stretched his legs and began to pack
his gadgets into the small valise he carried. "Good luck, boys," he said
unthinkingly in English.

As he left the hut, he emerged into a respectfully cleared area around
the hut. Without looking left or right he approached his folded
helio-hopper, made the few adjustments that were needed to make it
air-borne, strapped himself into the tiny saddle, flicked the start
control and to the accompaniment of a gasp from the entire village of
Ireli, took off in a swoop.

In a matter of moments, he had disappeared to the north in the direction
of the Mosse villages.

III

The Emir Alhaji Mohammadu, the Galadima Dawakin, Kudo of Kano, boiled
furiously within as his gold plated Rolls Royce progressed through the
Saba N'Gari section of town, the quarter outside the dirt walls of the
millennium old city. He rode seated alone in the middle of the rear seat
and his single counselor sat beside the chauffeur. Before them, a jeep
load of his bodyguard, dressed in their uniforms of red and green,
cleared the way. Another jeep followed similarly laden.

They entered through one of the ancient gates and swept up the principal
street. They stopped before the recently constructed luxury hotel in the
center of town and the bodyguard leapt from the jeeps and took positions
to each side of the entry. The counselor popped out from his side of the
car and beat the chauffeur to the task of opening the Emir's door.

Emir Alhaji Mohammadu was a tall man and a heavy one, his white robed
figure towered some six and a half