"We bore them to tears," Homer growled.
They looked at him blankly.
"We assume leadership of the whole thing and put up speakers."
Jake protested, "You sound as though you're sustaining not placating it."
"We put up speakers and they speak and speak, and speak. It's almost like a fillibuster. You don't say anything particularly interesting, and certainly nothing exciting. You agree with the basic feeling of the demonstrating mob, certainly you say nothing to antagonize them. In this case we speak in favor of El Hassan and his great, and noble, and inspiring, and so on and so forth, teachings. We speak in not too loud a voice, so that those in the rear have a hard time hearing, if they can hear at all."
Cliff said worriedly, "Suppose some of the hotheads get tired of this and try to take over?"
Homer said evenly, "We have a couple of bully boys in the crowd to take care of them."
Jake twisted his mouth, in objection. "Might that not strike the spark that would start up violence?"
Homer Crawford grinned and began climbing out of the plane. "Not with the weapons we use."
"Weapons!" Isobel snapped. "Do you intend to use weapons on those poor people? Why, it was you yourself, you and your team, who started this whole El Hassan movement. I'm shocked. I've heard about your reputation, you and the Sahara Development Project teams. Your ruthlessness—"