Part 23 (1/2)
Sign of the Dragon
The convoy formed at dawn One jeep was left with Pilipil, who had learned to drive while working for the United States Air Force The other jeep, with Tony, Chahda, and Rick, went ahead as advance guard
The truck, with Scotty, Angel, Balaban, and Dog Meat, carried the equipment
The earth scanner had been checked It worked fine Picks and shovels were ready, as were Tony's cleaning brushes, knives, and other tools
When electronic science had located the treasure, old-fashi+oned digging methods would have to unearth it
Rifles, carbines, and the single shotgun were loaded and ready Hunting knives hung at belts
Rick, driving the lead jeep, followed the twisting road up into the clouds that always seemed to hover at the top of the divide It was bitter cold, but they ar frouards, but the road was deserted
As the road descended into the Ifugao country, Tony kept watching for the first rice terrace Soon he motioned to Rick ”Around this turn, I think Slow”
Rick rounded the turn and e Banaue Valley The sun, just risen, was a golden ball veiled by ht that reflected froreen rice, and from the sheen of water in some terraces
It was a scene of indescribable beauty For long moments the occupants of truck and jeep just looked and said nothing Then Dog Meat and Balaban slipped frouard positions
Rick and Tony went to the truck and took the earth scanner froe of the natural terrace and set it up The others joined them, weapons in hand
Chahda watched with special interest as the covers were taken from the portable boxes He had never seen the earth scanner in operation
”Plenty ic, I bet You scientists make poor native boy scared with this machine”
Rick snorted ”Come on and be useful, poor native boy Connect these leads for o into the Fahnestock clips on those A batteries”
Chahda made the connection with the ease of one who has worked with electronic apparatus before, but he keptabout how the poor native boy was ”plenty snowed” by wonderful scientists Rick just grinned and went ahead with connecting up the scanner Tony didn't quite knohat to make of Chahda at first, but soon the Hindu boy's dexterity convinced hi
Scotty threatened Chahda with the butt end of his rifle ”I'd offer you to 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 He lifted the probe froed its cord into the control panel The earth scanner was ready to operate
Its appearance was not unusual There was a power pack, consisting of batteries and a dynamotor, an amplifier, and a control panel In the control panel was an oscilloscope The probe looked like an alu unit was in an inner core, surrounded by an atmosphere of pressurized heliu eleer tube of a radiation detector surrounded by a helical coil
”Come on, you poor native, and I'll show you hoorks,” Rick invited
”You not expect to find stuff here You just testing?” Chahda asked
”We want to get a standard pattern,” Rick said He pointed to the valley ”The terrace soil and rocks should be no different than those right here So we'll get the typical response of these, and e get to our location on't have to take tiao 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 is an antenna It's shooting out electro-h frequency When those waves hit anything, some are reflected The reflected waves are picked up by the tube inside the coil You with s reflect these waves the same, huh? Maybe the more dense, the better reflect So loose earth not reflect too good, rocks little better, ood, and stuff like crystals best of all”
”Poor native boy,” Tony said chidingly ”You kneorked all along”
Rick shook his head ”He's never seen it before, Tony It's just that he's pretty quick on the uptake for a poor native boy”