e between bigger terraces. Some retaining walls were
only a foot high, while the next step up or down the mountain might be a
twenty-foot wall. Irregular giant steps, green with growing rice. Here
and there was one with no rice, showing a film of water.

Tony called, "Easy. We turn just a short distance ahead." In another
quarter mile he pointed. "Take that road."

It was little more than a path that wound a corkscrew way among the
terraces, hugging the mountain wall. This was the way Nangolat had
brought Tony, not even bothering to blindfold him. Rick held the wheel
tightly to keep it from jerking out of his hands on impact with a rock.
Then, ahead, the road suddenly leveled. Rick recognized the scene. He
had been here before, last night, during the hours of darkness.

The mist had not yet cleared, and the limits on his vision made the
scene seem more like it had last night. He knew that to the left, three
terraces down, was the village. Now he could see that to the right of
the road was a small meadow or very large terrace. He couldn't tell
which. The meadow ran perhaps a hundred and fifty feet from the road to
the base of a retaining wall. It was a very high wall, perhaps as much
as 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 jeep
climbed over a single row of rocks and moved easily across the meadow.
Rick thought the row of rocks probably constituted a retaining wall, so
that made it a terrace instead of a meadow. Anyway, it was firm under
the tires.

Behind the jeep, Scotty look the truck over the row of stones as easily
as he would have negotiated a high curbing at home. He followed Rick
across the meadow.

Rick could see now that in the base of the high retaining wall was a
considerable recess. He asked, with mounting excitement, "Is the dragon
there?"

Tony nodded. "Let's turn around and back into the recess as far as
possible. We want to be facing out, in case we have to leave in a
hurry."

Rick did so, then directed Scotty. Not until the vehicles were in place
did they run into the recess and look.

There on a pedestal, a smaller edition of the one Rick had first seen at
Alta Yuan, was the dragon!

CHAPTER XV

Under the Dragon's Claws

The Spindrift group jumped into action. Rick, Tony, and Chahda carried
the earth scanner into the recess and set it up. Scotty cons