CHAPTER XIV
Sign of the Dragon
The convoy formed at dawn. One jeep was left with Pilipil, who hadlearned to drive while working for the United States Air Force. Theother jeep, with Tony, Chahda, and Rick, went ahead as advance guard.The truck, with Scotty, Angel, Balaban, and Dog Meat, carried theequipment.
The earth scanner had been checked. It worked fine. Picks and shovelswere ready, as were Tony's cleaning brushes, knives, and other tools.When electronic science had located the treasure, old-fashioned diggingmethods would have to unearth it.
Rifles, carbines, and the single shotgun were loaded and ready. Huntingknives hung at belts.
Rick, driving the lead jeep, followed the twisting road up into theclouds that always seemed to hover at the top of the divide. It wasbitter cold, but they were warmly dressed in clothing from their campsupplies. They kept a sharp lookout for Ifugao guards, but the road wasdeserted.
As the road descended into the Ifugao country, Tony kept watching forthe first rice terrace. Soon he motioned to Rick. "Around this turn, Ithink. Slow."
Rick rounded the turn and emerged on a natural terrace overlookingBanaue Valley. The sun, just risen, was a golden ball veiled by mist. Itgave the valley a warm, subdued light that reflected from the greenrice, and from the sheen of water in some terraces.
It was a scene of indescribable beauty. For long moments the occupantsof truck and jeep just looked and said nothing. Then Dog Meat andBalaban slipped from the truck and went down the road to take up guardpositions.
Rick and Tony went to the truck and took the earth scanner from Scotty.They carried it to the edge of the natural terrace and set it up. Theothers joined them, weapons in hand.
Chahda watched with special interest as the covers were taken from theportable boxes. He had never seen the earth scanner in operation.
"Plenty magic, I bet. You scientists make poor native boy scared withthis machine."
Rick snorted. "Come on and be useful, poor native boy. Connect theseleads for me. They go into the Fahnestock clips on those A batteries."
Chahda made the connection with the ease of one who has worked withelectronic apparatus before, but he kept muttering about how the poornative boy was "plenty snowed" by wonderful scientists. Rick justgrinned and went ahead with connecting up the scanner. Tony didn't quiteknow what to make of Chahda at first, but soon the Hindu boy's dexterityconvinced him that Chahda was pulling his leg.
Scotty threatened Chahda with the butt end of his rifle. "I'd offer youto the Ifugaos, if I didn't know they can't use empty heads."
"You let that poor native boy alone," Rick said with false concern. Helifted the probe from its foam rubber-lined receptacle and plugged itscord into the control panel. The earth scanner was ready to operate.
Its appearance was not unusual. There was a power pack, consisting ofbatteries and a dynamotor, an amplifier, and a control panel. In thecontrol panel was an oscilloscope. The probe looked like an aluminumpipe but was really a special tube built like a segment of coaxialcable. The sensing unit was in an inner core, surrounded by anatmosphere of pressurized helium. At the tip of the probe was thesensing element which looked very much like the Geiger tube of aradiation detector surrounded by a helical coil.
"Come on, you poor native, and I'll show you how it works," Rickinvited.
"You not expect to find stuff here. You just testing?" Chahda asked.
"We want to get a standard pattern," Rick said. He pointed to thevalley. "The terrace soil and rocks should be no different than thoseright here. So we'll get the typical response of these, and when we getto our location we won't have to take time--which could be important ifwe have Ifugao spear throwers shooting at us."
"What's typical response?" Chahda asked.
Rick showed him the helical coil at the end of the probe. "This coil isan antenna. It's shooting out electro-magnetic waves of very highfrequency. When those waves hit anything, some are reflected. Thereflected waves are picked up by the tube inside the coil. You with me?"
"Way ahead of you," Chahda said. "Not all things reflect these waves thesame, huh? Maybe the more dense, the better reflect. So loose earth notreflect too good, rocks little better, metal very good, and stuff likecrystals best of all."
"Poor native boy," Tony said chidingly. "You knew how it worked allalong."
Rick shook his head. "He's never seen it before, Tony. It's just thathe's pretty quick on the uptake for a poor native boy."
Chahda grinned. "Okay, chums, I'll drop the gag. Go ahead, Rick, I notknow everything yet. Why you testing here?"
"The minerals that make up the rocks and soil here will show a pattern.We'll mark the pattern on this plastic screen." Rick indicated a circleof white plastic, scaled like the face of the oscilloscope. "Then, whenwe go hunting, we'll be looking for deviations from the pattern. Forinstance, there probably is no metal in the ground here. We're lookingfor metal. When we find it, the blip on the scope will stand out veryplainly. Got it?"
"Think so. Sounds easy. Let's see it work."
Rick held the tip of the probe at waist level. Tony adjusted thecontrols until the scope flickered bright green. A vertical line on theface of the scope was a much lighter green, nearly white. Then, as Tonyswitched the activation circuit, the vertical line formed a pattern thatvaried in width from top to bottom. Here and there a blip, a clearhorizontal line, thrust out both ways from the center.
The present pattern was not unlike that of a stylized Christmas tree,with broad blips representing branches at the base, and increasinglynarrower ones representing the branches at the top. Rick quicklysketched the pattern on the plastic circle.
"Now watch," he said, and put his rifle on the ground under the probe.
The Christmas tree pattern developed a new element that ruined thedesign. It was a strong blip, thrusting out from center, about halfwayup the pattern.
"Steel," Rick said. "Other metals with good reflection qualities wouldshow blips slightly higher or lower on the scale."
"Some gadget," Chahda said admiringly. "What else you need know?"
"That's all." Tony was already closing the cover to the control panel."We're ready to move. Rick, suppose we just set this stuff in the backof the jeep instead of disconnecting it? Chahda could carry the probe."
"Good idea. Then it will be ready for use."
Scotty and Angel had been watching for signs of life in the valleybelow. At Rick's hail they joined the group.
"Last instructions," Tony said. "We will try to persuade Nangolat thatour intentions are good, that we do not want to violate taboos, and thatwe will do everything in our power to persuade the authorities that theartifacts should remain in the Ifugao country."
"If Nangolat is not there," Angel added, "I will explain to the Ifugaosthat we are friends, that we are helping them to find sacred things thatwere lost many years ago."
"And if none of this works," Scotty picked up, "we will make one sweepwith the scanner, looking for the cache, while holding off the Ifugaos.If they "attack", that is. If one sweep turns up nothing, we will thenbeat a retreat."
"We'll have to worry about spears," Tony said, "but the Ifugao spear isprimarily a stabbing weapon, and they are not the marksmen that the Zuluis with an assagai. The risk will not be very great. I need not warn youto keep under cover as much as possible. And to shoot low if we mustshoot. A leg wound will put a man out of action just as effectively as ahole in the head, at least when his only weapon is a spear. We don'twant bloodshed. We archaeologists are a peaceful lot."
"Let's go," Scotty said. He climbed into the truck. "Let's make peacewith the Ifugaos."
"Put your truck into four-wheel drive," Rick called. He started thejeep, then shifted into his own four-wheel drive. Then, with a toot ofthe horn, he started off. A few yards down the road Balaban and Dog Meatwere waiting. Scotty slowed to let them climb aboard. Then thetwo-vehicle caravan speeded up to the maximum the mountain road allowed.
Tony leaned forward, watc
hing intently for the turn-off. Rick kept thejeep in second as he led the winding way down the mountainside towardthe bottom of the valley. The road was dirt and badly rutted. If theyshould meet another car, one would have to back up until a turn-aroundwas reached. But it was unlikely that another car would be out at thistime of morning. Chances were that a car passed this way only once in agreat while.
They were among the rice terraces now. No matter which way Rick looked,his eyes met terraces. Some were no bigger than table tops, perhapsfilling a tiny space between bigger terraces. Some retaining walls wereonly a foot high, while the next step up or down the mountain might be atwenty-foot wall. Irregular giant steps, green with growing rice. Hereand there was one with no rice, showing a film of water.
Tony called, "Easy. We turn just a short distance ahead." In anotherquarter mile he pointed. "Take that road."
It was little more than a path that wound a corkscrew way among theterraces, hugging the mountain wall. This was the way Nangolat hadbrought Tony, not even bothering to blindfold him. Rick held the wheeltightly to keep it from jerking out of his hands on impact with a rock.Then, ahead, the road suddenly leveled. Rick recognized the scene. Hehad been here before, last night, during the hours of darkness.
The mist had not yet cleared, and the limits on his vision made thescene seem more like it had last night. He knew that to the left, threeterraces down, was the village. Now he could see that to the right ofthe road was a small meadow or very large terrace. He couldn't tellwhich. The meadow ran perhaps a hundred and fifty feet from the road tothe base of a retaining wall. It was a very high wall, perhaps as muchas sixty feet. Rick hadn't seen another nearly so high.
"Turn right," Tony said. "Go into the meadow."
Rick dropped the jeep back into low gear and swung the wheel. The jeepclimbed over a single row of rocks and moved easily across the meadow.Rick thought the row of rocks probably constituted a retaining wall, sothat made it a terrace instead of a meadow. Anyway, it was firm underthe tires.
Behind the jeep, Scotty look the truck over the row of stones as easilyas he would have negotiated a high curbing at home. He followed Rickacross the meadow.
Rick could see now that in the base of the high retaining wall was aconsiderable recess. He asked, with mounting excitement, "Is the dragonthere?"
Tony nodded. "Let's turn around and back into the recess as far aspossible. We want to be facing out, in case we have to leave in ahurry."
Rick did so, then directed Scotty. Not until the vehicles were in placedid they run into the recess and look.
There on a pedestal, a smaller edition of the one Rick had first seen atAlta Yuan, was the dragon!
The Golden Skull: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story Page 14