about supplies."

"Bey's a top man," Homer told him. "The best. He'll have some ideas on
our tactics. Meanwhile, we can turn over most of his men to one of the
new recruits, and head them down to take Fort Lamy. With Fort Lamy and
Lake Chad in our hands we'll control a chunk of Africa so big
everybody else will start wondering why they shouldn't jump on the
bandwagon while the going is good."

Dave said, "Well, that brings up something else, Homer. These new
recruits. In the past couple of days, forty or fifty men who used to
be connected with African programs sponsored by everybody from the
Reunited Nations to this gobblydygook outfit Cliff and Isobel once
worked for, the AFAA, have come over to El Hassan. The number will
probably double by tomorrow, and triple the next day."

"Fine," Homer said. "What's wrong with that? These are the people
that will really count in the long run."

"Nothing's wrong with it, within reason. But we're going to have to
start becoming selective, Homer. We've got to watch what jobs we let
these people have, how much responsibility we give them."

Homer Crawford was frowning at him. "How do you mean?"

"See here," the wiry South African said plaintively, "when El Hassan
started off there were only a half dozen or so who had the dream, as
you call it. O.K. You could trust any one of them. Bey, Kenny, Elmer,
Cliff, this Jake Armstrong that you've sent to New York, Rex
Donaldson, then Jimmy and Jack Peters and myself. We all came in when
the going was rough, if not impossible. But now things are different.
_It looks as though El Hassan might actually win._"

"So?" Homer didn't get it.

"So from now on, you're going to have an infiltration of cloak and
dagger lads from every outfit with an interest in North Africa.
Potential traitors, potential assassins, subversives and what not."

Homer was scowling at him. "Confound it, what do you suggest? That
these Johnny-Come-Latelies be second-class citizens?"

"Not exactly that, but this isn't funny. We've got to screen them. The
trouble with this movement is that it's a one-man deal, and has to be.
The average African is either a barbarian or an actual savage, one
ethnic degree lower. He wants a hero-symbol to follow. O.K., you're
it. But remember both Moctezuma and Atahualpa. Their socio-economic
systems pyramided up to them. The Spanish conquistadores, being old
hands at sophisticated European-type intrigue, quickly sized up the
situation