Rex Donaldson, the British Commonwealth man, came to his feet. "That was
a matter I was going to bring up before this meeting."
Homer Crawford, fully accompanied by Abe Baker and the rest of their
team, even Elmer Allen, burst into uncontrolled laughter.
V
When Homer Crawford, Abe Baker, Kenny Ballalou, Elmer Allen and
Bey-ag-Akhamouk had laughed themselves out, Frederic Ostrander, the
C.I.A. operative stared at them in anger. "What's so funny?" he snapped.
From his seat in the middle of the hall, Pierre Dupaine, operative for
the French Community, said worriedly, "_Messieurs_, this El Hassan is
not amusing. I, too, have heard of him. His followers are evidently
sweeping through the Sahara. Everywhere I hear of him."
There was confirming murmur throughout the rest of the gathering.
Still chuckling, Homer Crawford said, a hand held up for quiet, "Please,
everyone. Pardon the amusement of my teammates and myself. You see,
there is no such person as El Hassan."
"To the contrary!" Ostrander snapped.
"No, please," Crawford said, grinning ruefully. "You see, my team
_invented_ him, some time ago."
Ostrander could only stare, and for once his position was backed by
everyone in the hall, Crawford's team excepted.
Crawford said doggedly, "It came about like this. These people need a
hero. It's in their nomad tradition. They need a leader to follow. Given
a leader, as history has often demonstrated, and the nomad will perform
miracles. We wished to spread the program of the African Development
Project. Such items as the need to unite, to break down the old
boundaries of clan and tribe and even nation, the freeing of the slave
and serf, the upgrading of women's position, the dropping of the veil
and haik, the need to educate the youth, the desirability of taking jobs
on the projects and to take up land on the new oases. But since we
usually go about disguised as Enaden itinerant smiths, a poorly thought
of caste, our ideas weren't worth much. So we invented El Hassan and
everything we said we ascribed to him, this mysterious hero who was
going to lead all North Africa to Utopia."
Jake Armstrong stood up and said, sheepishly, "I suppose that my team
unknowingly added to this. We heard about this mysterious El Hassan and
he seemed largely to be going in the same direction, and for the same
reason--to give the rumors we were spreading weight--we ascribed the
things we said to him."