People ignorant of geometry did not know the sesquialterate ratio of the sphere, cylinder, and cone, and therefor no man could know it […]

The agal he wore on his head gave him away as a Saudi.

Mortars crumped, and from the high ground to the east and south came the shriek of 88-millimeter shells, green fireballs that whizzed through the dunes at half a mile a second, trailing golden plumes of dust.

What does he want, she said, gawmin' at me as if a wor a wild beast show?