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

Rick and Scotty gasped. It was incredible! As far as they could see, the
mountains on either side of the valley were sculptured into irregular
green steps, or terraces. The smallest terrace was perhaps only a few
feet 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 used
every 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 or
two. In other places the step up to the terrace above was forty feet.

The retaining walls of the terraces were native stone, irregular pieces
laid together by expert Ifugao masons without benefit of mortar or
concrete. 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 even
part of the story. This is fantastic!"

"It's the most wonderful job of engineering I've ever seen," Scotty
agreed. "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'm
glad to see them from the air. You can understand now why Santos said
there was no place to land."

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

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

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

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

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

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

"The Ifugaos live in villages around the valley," Angel said. He poi