me," Chahda said bitterly. "That Lazada, he move fast."

"We'll never see that skull again," Rick muttered. "What rotten luck!"

The Hindu boy's face tightened with determination. "We get that skull
back. Rick, fly to Bontoc. Open throttle wide and let us go!"

"There's nothing we can do at Bontoc," Rick objected. "No one there, or
in Baguio either, would dare question Lazada."

"Go to Bontoc," Chahda urged. "Leave this to me, Rick. Chahda will take
over."

"But what can you do?"

"I will know when the chance comes. You and Scotty will be ready.
Somehow, some place, we will get our chance--and the golden skull will
be ours again!"

CHAPTER XIX

The Nipa Hut

Colonel Felix Rojas paced the floor of Tony Briotti's room in the Manila
Hotel. He was in uniform now, but his visit, as he made quite clear, was
not official. At least not yet.

Rick had just finished relating the story of how the golden skull had
fallen into the hands of Lazada. "Can't you just go to him and demand
the skull?" he asked.

Rojas smiled sadly. "If only it were that simple. Suppose two Malays
arrived at your Department of Defense and claimed that your Assistant
Secretary of the Interior had stolen a valuable Indian necklace from an
archaeological expedition. What would happen?"

Rick knew perfectly well what would happen. "They would get thrown
out--if they could get anyone to listen to them in the first place."

"Exactly. The situation is not particularly different, except that I'm
sure we pay more attention to Americans here than you would to Malays in
your country. After all, you owned us for nearly half a century."

"You warned us," Scotty said. "Why?"

Rojas shrugged. "I may as well be frank. I knew of Nangolat's visits to
Lazada. In fact, I was present at one meeting. And I knew that our
esteemed Assistant Secretary was hungry for that buried gold. If I could
prove some of the things I know about that man, he would no longer hold
public office. He would be in jail. My hands were tied, officially, but
unofficially I tried to warn you. I couldn't come right out and denounce
Lazada."

"Of course not," Tony agreed. "We're grateful that you were able to say
as much as you did."

Rojas nodded. "Let us continue. After you flew back to Bontoc, what
happened?"

Rick picked up his tale. "Pilipil was on the mountain, waiting. We
dropped down and signaled for him to go to Banaue in the jeep, then we
landed at Bontoc and picke