Isobel said, her voice low. "In Timbuktu, when Abe saw the way things were going, he realized you'd have to be liquidated, otherwise El Hassan would be a leader the Party couldn't control. He tried to eliminate you, and then tried again with the cognac. Last night, however, he checked with local party leaders and they decided that he'd acted too precipitately. They suggested you be given the opportunity to line up with the Party." "And if I didn't?" Homer said. "Then you were to be liquidated." "So the finger is still on me, eh?" "Yes, you'll have to be careful." He looked full into her face. "How do you stand now?" She returned his frank look. "I'm the first follower to dedicate her services to El Hassan." "So you want to come along?" "Yes," she said simply. "And you remember what Abe said? That in the end the Hero invariably gets clobbered? Sooner or later, North Africa will outgrow the need for a Hero to follow and then ... then El Hassan and his closest followers have a good chance of winding up before a firing squad." "Yes, I know that." Homer Crawford ran his hand back over his short hair, wearily. "O.K., Isobel. Your first instructions are to contact those two friends of yours, Jake Armstrong and Cliff Jackson. Try to convert them." "What are you going to be doing ... El Hassan?" "I'm going over to the Reunited Nations to resign from the African Development Project. I have a sneaking suspicion that in the future they will not always be seeing eye to eye with El Hassan. Nor will the other organizations currently helping to advance Africa--whilst still at the same time keeping their own irons in the fire. Possibly the commies won't be the only ones in favor of liquidating El Hassan's assets." End of Project Gutenberg's Black Man's Burden, by Dallas McCord Reynolds