He said, "You know the answer to that as well as I do. It's like giving medical care to Typhoid Mary, in spite of the fact that she didn't want it and didn't believe such things as typhoid microbes existed. We had to protect the community against her. In the world today, such backward areas as Africa are potential volcanoes. We've got to deal with them before they erupt." The waiter came with the bill and Homer took it. Isobel said, "Let's go Dutch on that." He grinned at her. "Consider it a donation to the AFAA." Out on the street again, they walked slowly in the direction of the old administration buildings where both had left their means of transportation. Isobel, who was frowning thoughtfully, evidently over the things that had been said, said, "Let's go this way. I'd like to see the old Great Mosque, in the Dyingerey Ber section of town. It's always fascinated me." Crawford said, looking at her and appreciating her attractiveness, all over again, "You know Timbuktu quite well, don't you?" "I've just finished a job down in Kabara, and it's only a few miles away." "Just what sort of thing do you do?" She shrugged and made a moue. "Our little team concentrates on breaking down the traditional position of women in these cultures. To get them to drop the veil, go to school. That sort of thing. It's a long story and--" Homer Crawford suddenly and violently pushed her to the side and to the ground and at the same time dropped himself and rolled frantically to the shelter of an adobe wall which had once been part of a house but now was little more than waist high. "Down!" he yelled at her. She bug-eyed him as though he had gone suddenly mad. There was a heavy, stub-nosed gun suddenly in his hand. He squirmed forward on elbows and belly, until he reached the corner. "What's the matter?" she blurted. He said grimly, "See those three holes in the wall above you?" She looked up, startled. He said, grimly, "They weren't there a moment ago." What he was saying, dawned upon her. "But ... but I heard no shots." He cautiously peered around the wall, and was rewarded with a puff of sand inches from his face. He pulled his head back and his lips thinned over his teeth. He said to her, "Efficiently silenced guns have been around for quite a spell. Whoever that is, is up there in the mosque. Listen, beat your way around by the back streets and see if you can find the members of my team, especially Abe Baker or Bey-ag-Akhamouk. Tell them what happened and that I think I've got the guy pinned down. That mosque is too much out in the open for him to get away without my seeing him." "But ... but who in the world would want to shoot you, Homer?" "Search me," he growled. "My team has never operated in this immediate area." "But then, it must be someone who was at the meeting." VI