johnny mccord was a man who didn't like to be thrown out of routine. he resented the interference with his schedule of the past few days. by nature he was methodical, not given to inspiration.

all of which was probably the reason that he spent a sleepless night trying to find rhyme and reason where seemingly there was none.

at dawn, he stepped from the door of his quonset hut quarters and looked for a moment into the gigantic red ball which was the saharan sun. neither dawn nor sunset at bidon cinq were spectacular, nor would they become so until the sahara reforestation commission began to return moisture to desert skies. johnny wondered if he would live to see it.

he made his way over to the huge steel shed which doubled as garage and aircraft hanger. as yet, none of the native mechanics were stirring, although he could hear sounds of activity in the community kitchen.

derek mason looked up from his inspection of hélène desage's air-cushion land rover.

johnny mccord scowled at him. "what in the hell are you doing here?"

the lanky canadian came erect and looked for a long moment at his superior. he said finally, soberly, "it occurs to me that i'm probably doing the same thing you came to do."

"what have you found?"

"that a small bomb has been attached to the starter."

johnny didn't change expression. it fitted in. "what else?" he said.

derek handed him a steel ring.

johnny mccord looked at it, recognized it for what it was and stuck it in his pocket. "let's go back to the office. yell in to the cook to send some coffee over, and call pierre. we've got some notes to check."

mademoiselle desage was a late riser. when she entered the office, the three sahara reforestation commission officers were already at work.

she said snappishly to johnny mccord, "today i would like to see these destroyed pumps."

johnny said, his eyebrows questioning, "how did you know they were destroyed?"

"it doesn't seem to be much of a secret. the story is all about the camp."

"oh?" johnny sighed, then drawled to derek, "i say, si, you better go get the hired hand, we might as well finish this up so we can get back to work."

derek nodded and left.

johnny mccord left the collator he'd been working with, went around behind his desk and sat down. "take a chair, miss desage. i want to say a few things in the way of background to you."

she sat, but said defiantly, "i have no need of a lengthy lecture on the glories of the sahara reforestation commission."

"coffee?" pierre marimbert said politely.

"no, thank you."

johnny said, his voice thoughtful, "i imagine the real starting point was back about 1957 when the chinese discovered that a nation's greatest natural resource is its manpower."

she frowned at him. "what in the world are you talking about?"

he ignored her and went on. "originally, appalled by the job of feeding over half a billion mouths, they had initiated a birth control plan. but after a year or two they saw it was the wrong approach. they were going to succeed, if they succeeded, in their great leaps forward by utilizing the labor of every man, woman and child in the country. and that's what they proceeded to do. the lesson was brought home to the rest of the world in less than ten years, when such other countries as india and indonesia failed to do the same."

johnny leaned back in his chair, and his eyes were thoughtful but unseeing. "even we of the west learned the lesson. the most important factor in our leadership was our wonderful trained labor force. as far back as 1960 we had more than 65 million americans working daily in industry and distribution. even the russkies, with their larger population, didn't begin to equal that number."

"what are you driveling about?" the reporter demanded.

"to sum it up," johnny said mildly, "the battle for men's minds continues and each of the world's great powers has discovered that it can't afford to limit its population—its greatest resource. so population continues to explode and the world is currently frantically seeking sources of food for its new billions. the amazon basin is being made into a tropical garden; the japanese, landless, are devising a hundred methods of farming the sea; australia is debouching into its long unpopulated interior, doing much the same things we are here in the sahara. the chinese are over-flowing into sinkiang, mongolia and tibet; the russkies into siberia. we of the west, with the large underdeveloped areas of the western hemisphere have not been so greatly pushed as some others. however, there is always tomorrow."

derek entered with captain mohammed mohmoud. the latter day rudolph valentino had a puzzled expression on his dark face.

"here's the hired man, hiram," derek drawled.

the desert patrol officer nodded questioningly to the men and said, "bonjour," to hélène desage.

johnny went on. "yes, there's tomorrow. and by the time we run out of lebensraum in brazil and alaska, in central america and the argentine, in texas and saskatchewan, we're going to need the three million square miles of the sahara."

she said in ridicule, "it will take you a century at least to reforest the desert."

"at least." johnny nodded agreeably. "and we're willing and able to look that far ahead. possibly by that time our opponents will also be looking for new lands for their expanding peoples. and where will they find them? the advantage will be ours, miss desage."

mohammed mohmoud looked from one to the other, frowning. "what are we discussing?" he said. "i should be getting back to my men."

derek yawned and said, "forget about it, pal. you're never going to be getting back to your men again."

the desert patrol officer's eyes widened. he turned his glare on johnny mccord, "what is all this?"

johnny said, "i'll tell it, derek."

hélène desage was as surprised as the malian. "what is going on? are you trying to whitewash yourselves by casting blame on this gentleman?"

"let me go on," johnny said. "needless to say, there are conflicting interests. the soviet complex obviously would as soon we didn't succeed. however, wars are impractical today, and the russkies and chinese are taken up with their own development. the southeast asia bloc wouldn't mind taking over here themselves, they desperately need land already. but they aren't our biggest opponents. there's another group even more involved—the colons of algeria and morocco and those of even such mali cities as dakar. i suppose it is this last element that you represent, miss desage."

she was staring unbelievingly at him now.

"their interest is to get the sahara reforestation commission out of the way so that they can immediately exploit the area. they are interested in the now, not the potentialities of the future. they resent the use of the niger for reforestation, when they could use it for immediate irrigation projects. they would devote the full resources of the mali federation and algeria to seeking oil and minerals and in the various other ways the country might be exploited. finally, they rather hate to see the western schools, hospitals, and other means used to raise the local living standards. they liked the low wage rates that formerly applied."

johnny nodded. "yes, i imagine that's your angle."

hélène desage stormed to her feet. "i don't have to listen to this!"

derek said, "honey, we sure aren't holding you. you're free to go any time you want. and you can take this pal of yours along with you." he jerked his head contemptuously at mohammed mohmoud.

pierre marimbert said, "mademoiselle, we have no idea of where you two met originally, nor how close your relationship, but the captain should have remembered that i too am french. a gentleman, on first meeting a lady, would never, never address her as tu in our language."

johnny sighed again and looked at his watch. "other things pile up too, miss desage. you let slip a few moments ago that you knew about the pumps being destroyed. you said the rumor was all around camp. but it couldn't be. the only persons who knew about it were myself, pierre and derek. on top of that, there were no signs of bedouin or animals near the exploded pumps; the person who did the job must have come in an aircraft or air-cushion car. and, besides, we found the pin of a hand grenade in your land rover this morning. we had thought at first that dynamite had been used, but evidently you smuggled your much more compact bombs across the desert with you. obviously, no one would have dreamed of searching your vehicle.

"no, miss desage, it's obvious that you detoured from the track on the way down from poste weygand, went over to in ziza, a comparatively short distance, and blew up twenty-five of our pumps."

johnny turned to the malian officer now. "at the same time you were coordinating with her, you and whatever gang is hiring you. someone supplied those tuareg with the livestock and paid them to trek up here. you, of course, turned your back and let them through. the same someone who supplied the livestock also supplied czech weapons."

hélène desage was still sputtering indignation. "ridiculous! why? what would motivate me to such nonsense?"

johnny grimaced. "the whole thing makes a beautiful story at a time when the american government is debating the practicality of the whole project. you could do quite a sob story on the poor, poverty-stricken tuareg having their livestock destroyed. then, quite a tale about the bedouin raiding our pumping stations and blowing them up. and quite a tale about the tuareg being armed with czech weapons. oh, i imagine before it was through you'd have drawn a picture of civil war going on here between the nomads and the commission. blowing up your own car with a small bomb attached to the starter was just one more item. by the way, were you going to do it yourself? or did you intend to allow one of our mechanics to kill himself?"

she flushed. "don't be ridiculous. no one would have been hurt. the bomb is a very small one. more smoke and flash than anything else."

"well, thanks for small favors," derek said sarcastically.

she gave up. "very well," she snapped. "there is nothing you can do. this whole project, as i said before, is nothing but american boon-doggling, a way of plowing endless resources into a hole. your real motivation is an attempt to prevent depression and unemployment in your country."

pierre marimbert said softly, "so you admit to this whole scheme to discredit us?"

"why not?" she turned to the door. "i will still write my articles. it's my word or yours."

derek grinned at her. "i think i could fall in love with you, honey," he said. "life would provide few dull moments. however, you didn't notice how nice and automated this office is. card machines, electric typewriters, all the latest—including tape recorders for office conversations. you talked too much, honey."

"cochon!" she shrilled at him. she whirled and was through the door.

johnny turned to mohammed mohmoud. "i guess the best thing for you would be to turn in your commission, captain."

dark eyes snapped. "and if i say no?"

johnny shook his head. "the mali federation passed some awfully strict laws when it was drawing up its constitution. among them was one involving capital punishment for anyone destroying a source of water in the desert. miss desage did the actual work but you were hand in glove with her. i'd hate to have to report that to your superiors."

derek jumped forward quickly. his hand snaked out and chopped the other's forearm. the heavy military pistol fell to the floor, and the canadian kicked it to one side. "shucks," he drawled, "the hired hand sure is tricky, ain't he?"

"good lord," johnny mccord said disgustedly, "i didn't say i was going to report you. just threatened to if you didn't resign. now get out of here, we've got work to do. i'm three days behind on my reports!"