The Golden Skull: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story

by Harold L. Goodwin

  CHAPTER IX

  Ifugao Country

  There was only one difficulty, but it was a major one. Rick didn't knowwhether or not the district road commissioner could be believed. Santoswas Lazada's man.

  The boys finished their cokes before Rick decided on a course of action.If Santos was lying, they would find out soon enough. So, for thepresent, they would assume that he was telling the truth, and that hecould be trusted.

  "Is the province peaceful up this way?" Rick asked.

  "Oh, yes." Santos replied. "It is usually very peaceful. Sometimes onthe road south there is a holdup, but the Igorots in Bontoc and theIfugaos at Banaue cause no trouble."

  "Glad to hear it," Scotty said. "When we start digging, some of theIfugaos may get upset. I'm glad to hear that they're not often riledup."

  "What are your plans?" Santos asked.

  Rick shrugged. "It is hard to know where to begin. Before we plan ourcampaign to locate the place where we dig, we must survey the terraces.Is there any sort of field where I could land at Banaue?"

  "No," Santos replied with great positiveness. "Once you see the terracesyou will see for yourself that there is no place."

  Rick stood up and Scotty followed suit. "I think perhaps we had betterfly over to Banaue and see the terraces. Then we will have a betterunderstanding of our problems. Thank you for your hospitality, Mr. Delos Santos."

  "It is nothing. But tell me. Isn't there another in your party? AnotherAmerican?"

  "Yes. How did you know?"

  "Oh, the Assistant Secretary of the Interior phoned personally. Hedescribed all of you, and said to do everything possible to make yourvisit interesting and successful."

  "That was very good of him," Rick said. "We will be back again, perhapstomorrow. Will you be here?"

  "I believe so. If I am not, it will be because I am inspecting a roadsection. Never am I gone long."

  Santos lingered to give instructions in the native language to one ofhis men, and Rick took advantage of the few seconds to whisper toScotty:

  "I'll stall him. Get back to the plane. Have Angel make a deal withthose Igorot boys to keep an eye on the road. I want another spy inBontoc besides someone we know is Lazada's man. You know what's needed."

  Scotty did. He hurried off to do what was necessary. Rick waited forSantos, then asked the commissioner to point out the road to Banaue. "Iplan to follow the road in my plane. Do you think that is all right?"

  Santos did. "You may lose the road in the clouds as you cross the top ofthe mountain range that divides the Igorot tribe from the Ifugaos, butyou should then be able to see Banaue. Will you come back here after youhave seen the terraces?"

  "Not today. We probably will be back tomorrow in a jeep. The plane ishandy, but we can't land at Banaue, you say."

  "You will see. And I will see you tomorrow. Then you can tell me how theterraces look from the air."

  "Better still," Rick promised. "Next time I have the plane here, I'lltake you to see for yourself."

  Scotty winked as Santos and Rick approached the plane, and Rick knewthat Scotty and Angel had been able to make a deal with Pilipil, theIgorot boy, and his friend. The party shook hands with Santos, thenclimbed into the plane. The crowd of natives moved away from the road asRick started the engine, then turned the plane and taxied down the roadto the take-off point he had selected. He was a little nervous, for feara child might dart into the road while he was picking up flying speed,but the crowd was well-disciplined and held steady as the Sky Wagonroared past and climbed.

  "We now have Pilipil and his pal working for us," Scotty said when theywere air-borne.

  "They're smart boys," Angel added. "They'll be able to report on everycar and every person passing through Bontoc from now until we get back."

  Rick nodded. "Good. But I'm still worried. We've done everything wecould think of, but there's no pay-off. We still haven't found Tony. Wewere sure whoever kidnaped him would head for the Ifugao country, butthere were no sedans on the road today. How do we know Tony isn't hiddensomewhere near Baguio? How do we know he's still alive?"

  Scotty put a hand on his shoulder. "Why wouldn't he be alive? Who wouldgain anything by his death? We have to remember that the gimmick in thiswhole business is a golden skull. Nast wants it, Nangolat wants it,Lazada wants it, and we want it. No one has it."

  Rick gained altitude steadily, keeping an eye on the twisting roadbelow. "All right. I'll go along with your reasoning. Whoever wants thegolden skull has to go to Banaue to find it. It can't be found--unlessby a lucky accident--without the earth scanner. And who has thescanner?"

  "Nangolat."

  "Can he use it?"

  "No."

  Rick shrugged. "Tony can use the scanner, though. We suspect that Nasthas Tony. The question is what is the relationship between Nangolat andNast?"

  Below the Sky Wagon the high green mountains marched in a series ofridges from horizon to horizon. This was the divide between Igorot andIfugao country. Rick let the conversation lag as he searched below andahead for a landmark. There was a little cloud cover around him, asSantos had predicted.

  Then the cloud was past and the three looked down into the great valleyof Banaue.

  Rick and Scotty gasped. It was incredible! As far as they could see, themountains on either side of the valley were sculptured into irregulargreen steps, or terraces. The smallest terrace was perhaps only a fewfeet square, while the larger ones were the size of a football field.They rose in an irregular triangle right to the base of the clouds.There was no particular pattern. The Ifugao farmers had simply usedevery possible inch of space to make terraces for the growing of rice.In some places the step from one terrace to the next was only a foot ortwo. In other places the step up to the terrace above was forty feet.

  The retaining walls of the terraces were native stone, irregular pieceslaid together by expert Ifugao masons without benefit of mortar orconcrete. The same method had been used to make the great wall of China.

  Rick found his voice. "I've seen pictures, but they didn't tell evenpart of the story. This is fantastic!"

  "It's the most wonderful job of engineering I've ever seen," Scottyagreed. "And when you think that the engineers are primitive people,with only hand tools, that makes it even more wonderful."

  Angel Manotok had seen the terraces before, he said, but added, "I'mglad to see them from the air. You can understand now why Santos saidthere was no place to land."

  Rick certainly could understand. The only level places in the entirevalley were the flat surfaces of the terraces, and no terrace was largeenough to land on. In fact, most terraces were too small even for acarabao, the native water buffalo, to drag a plow across them. TheIfugao rice planters had to farm their terraces by hand.

  There was no use looking for a landing place in the immediate vicinityof Banaue.

  "We'd better take a swing down the valley, just to get a good look, thenhead back for Baguio," Rick said.

  "Good idea," Scotty agreed. "We need to lay some plans and then getbusy. Can you fly fairly low?"

  "Yes. There's room enough in the valley to make turns, so we won't gettrapped. Let's go down and look."

  The town of Banaue was easy to find. A double row of stores was situatedon a single unpaved street atop a slight plateau in the valley bottom.The Sky Wagon sped over it, bringing the storekeepers and their fewcustomers running out to look.

  "The Ifugaos live in villages around the valley," Angel said. He pointedto one or two of them, clinging to the mountainside between terraces.The huts were of straw bundles, discolored by smoke and dust. "Thestores have kerosene, thread, matches, tobacco, salt, oil, perhaps alittle cloth. The Ifugaos do not need much--or, if they need it, they donot know that they do."

  Rick thought that one over as he climbed out of the valley and set acompass course south to Baguio. The course would intersect the BontocRoad, which he would then follow into town.

  "What's our next step?" he asked.

  "We've got to fi
nd Tony, of course. I have a hunch that we weren'tthorough enough in looking over the Bontoc Road. Nangolat _had_ to be onit. Where else could he go? Or where else _would_ he go?"

  "That lumber could have been camouflage," Angel offered.

  Rick's first reaction was to ask what lumber, then he remembered that anArmy truck like theirs, but loaded with lumber, had been on the BontocRoad.

  "Of course! Who would suspect a load of lumber, especially since this islumber country?"

  Scotty nodded. "It's possible. Tomorrow we'll go back to Bontoc, and ifNangolat was driving that lumber truck, Pilipil and company will knowit. Tonight we'll cover Baguio again to make sure our enemies aren'tstill around. Perhaps we can find Chahda."

  "If we haven't found Dr. Briotti by tomorrow night," Angel said, "weshould go to the police."

  "There's someone else we'll visit first," Rick said grimly. "And that'sMr. Irineo Lazada!"