"That"s a wonderful name," Barby said quickly. "What are they?"
"Another name for them is blue sheep," Steve told her. "They"re bluish-gray, shading to white in the under parts. The horns are unusual, because they curve outward from the sides of the head, then down and backward."
Hartson Brant paused in the act of filling his pipe and asked curiously, "How do you know so much about Asiatic animals, Steve?"
Steve laughed. "Because I used the same gag once myself." He started for the door. "Talk it over, and think up any questions you can. I won"t promise to know the answers, but I"ll try. I"ve got to get Mike started back to Washington to pick up that stuff."
When he had gone, Barby looked enviously at the two boys. "In my next reincarnation," she announced, "I"m going to be a boy. I don"t see why I couldn"t go, too. A girl would make the group look even less suspicious, wouldn"t it?" She scanned the three faces eagerly, then sighed. "All right. I knew it wasn"t any use."
"Never mind, towhead," Rick said. He always hated to see Barby"s wistful expression when he and Scotty were going somewhere. "Maybe next time."
"Not if next time is another job like this," Hartson Brant disagreed. He studied his pipe stem, his forehead wrinkled thoughtfully. "I"m not quite sure why I didn"t object to Rick and Scotty going."
Rick demanded swiftly, "You"re not going to object, are you, Dad?"
"No, Rick. If we hadn"t been on other expeditions and in some tough spots together, I surely would. But I know you two are able to take care of yourselves. And so is Zircon. Only keep in mind that you may be dealing with an entirely new breed of cats, unscrupulous men who wouldn"t hesitate to put you out of the way without a moment"s hesitation. So be careful. Be very careful. Don"t take risks that aren"t essential to your job. And do what Zircon tells you to without hesitation. He"s knocked around in some pretty rough corners of the world, and I don"t know a man who is better equipped for this kind of job, unless it"s Carl Bradley."
The warning sobered Rick even more. Apart from what his father had said, he knew it was also what the information could mean to the security of the country that had prevented the scientist from making a single objection to their going.
"We"ll take no risks we don"t have to," he promised. "We"ll move as if we were walking on eggs, Dad."
And Scotty echoed the promise.
Nothing remained but to wait for Zircon and make definite plans. Steve, who had risen early in order to get to Spindrift first thing, walked out to the orchard with Dismal for company and stretched out under a tree for a nap.
Rick and Scotty couldn"t possibly have napped, so they went up to Rick"s room and began to pack. That took little time, since they would travel by air. Scotty took his rifle out of its protective case and cleaned it, then tried on the infrared telescope. He removed from the "scope the masking bits of cardboard Rick had used to convert it to a camera view finder, thus making it a telescopic rifle sight once more. It fitted perfectly.
"You taking the movie camera along?" he asked.
Rick thought it over. "Guess I will," he said finally. "Tourists are supposed to have cameras. I"ll take the movie instead of the speed graphic. And I can take along infrared film as well as regular color film. If anyone asks, I can say I want movies of the animals you and Zircon shoot. Then all three of us won"t have to take guns."
"Better finish putting the lenses into those sungla.s.ses frames then,"
Scotty said.
"I"ll do it right now. It won"t take long." A thought struck Rick. "What will Zircon do for a rifle?"
"He"ll have to borrow one, and an ordinary one won"t do, either. If we"re supposed to be hunting big game, he"ll need one bigger than my .303." Scotty frowned thoughtfully. "How about Captain Douglas? He used to be quite a hunter. You"ve seen the African trophies in his office at the barracks."
Captain Douglas was commanding officer of the Whiteside State Police Barracks, and a good friend of the boys. He and his officers had co-operated with them in rounding up the Smugglers" Reef gang.
"Give him a phone call while I finish putting these lenses in," Rick suggested.
"Good idea." Scotty went to phone.
More and more Rick was realizing the magnitude of the job they had undertaken. He hoped fervently that Chahda would know something useful in case they failed to locate Bradley.
In a moment Scotty stuck his head in the door. "I"ve got the captain on the phone," he said. "He"s got a .45-90 we can borrow, and, bless his heart, he didn"t ask where we were going. When can we pick it up?"
Rick thought it over. "I"ll have to fly to the airport and pick up Zircon in a little while. Tell Captain Douglas I"ll buzz the barracks on the way over. Ask if he can possibly deliver it to me at the airport. I hate to bother him, but I won"t have a car to go get it." Rick"s little cub airplane was the island"s fast messenger-pa.s.senger service.
"Okay." Scotty disappeared down the hall again for a few moments and then returned. He took a seat in the leather armchair. "He finally did get curious. Wanted to know if we needed that caliber rifle to shoot Jersey mosquitoes. I told him we were going on a trip and that I couldn"t say anything more about it. So he said he"d lend us the gun only on condition that we tell him the story when we got back. I said we would, if we could."
"He"s the best," Rick said. "But he knows we"ve done some hush-hush work for the government, and don"t forget he"s an ex-Marine. He wouldn"t embarra.s.s us by asking too many questions."
Scotty nodded. "Wait until you see this rifle. A .45-90 is a regular cannon. It"ll knock down anything smaller than an elephant, and it"ll knock down one of those, if it hits the right spot."
"That"s just Zircon"s size," Rick said, grinning. The scientist was a huge man who towered over the rest of the staff.
Later, Zircon dominated the library as Steve issued final instructions.
The scientist"s booming voice had phrased questions for an hour, until even Steve looked weary.
"This winds up what I have to say," he told them. "Mike should be back with your tickets, pa.s.sports, and letter of credit in another hour. I"ll go back to Washington and issue instructions via the State Department to all of our amba.s.sadors and consuls in the area. They"ll know what"s happening and why you"re there, but no one else on their staffs will. Go in to see each one whose country you enter. Make a lot of noise. Insist on seeing the chief. h.e.l.l know your names and he"ll do everything he can. Bradley is supposed to check in with each emba.s.sy or consulate in the same way. They"ll be your points of contact in case he shows up again. File reports when you can. Hand them to the amba.s.sador or consul of the country and no one else."
Steve stopped for a moment, then his warm grin flashed. "This is going to be tougher than beating the Whispering Box gang. I know you"ll come back with the answers, but be sure you have whole skins when you do!"
CHAPTER V
Hong Kong
The four-engine transport had been letting down from its cruising alt.i.tude for what seemed like an hour. Rick was watching through the circular window for the first sign of land, and he was getting impatient.
The trip had been a long one. It seemed to Rick that he had been sitting in a plane for most of his life, even though they had been gone from Spindrift for less than four days. That was because they were making no stop-overs. At San Francisco, Honolulu, Guam, and Manila they had stopped only long enough to refuel, or to change planes.
Scotty, in the seat next to Rick, was sound asleep. Zircon, across the aisle, was engrossed in a book.
Rick looked up as the stewardess walked past him. She smiled and pointed through the window on the opposite side. He caught a glimpse of mountainous country below. Then, in a few seconds, a small island pa.s.sed underneath on his own side. They were getting close to the ground now.
He estimated their alt.i.tude at less than two thousand feet. He poked Scotty in the ribs.
"Rise and shine, mighty hunter. We"re getting ready to land."
Scotty was wide awake instantly. "About time," he muttered. "Show me this famous Hong Kong."
"Can"t yet," Rick replied. "But we"ve pa.s.sed a couple of islands. Look, there"s another."
They were dropping rapidly now. The big plane suddenly banked, leveled, then banked again. As they rocked up, Rick looked down into a cove, crowded with Chinese junks. The brief glimpse sent a thrill through him, as new scenes always did. They were the first junks he had seen outside of pictures.
The plane banked again, the other way. Rick realized with a sudden feeling of discomfort that they were actually weaving their way through mountain peaks! He had heard that the approach to Hong Kong was crooked as a corkscrew; now he knew the reports didn"t exaggerate.
Zircon was leaning across the aisle. He pointed to a strip of curved beach. "Repulse Bay," he boomed. "We"re almost in." The scientist had been to the Far East before, and he knew Hong Kong.
They were close to the top of abrupt hills. Rick saw a road curving through the hills and valleys, then they were over water again, and the water was dotted with modern ships as well as junks. The plane rocked far over in a tight bank, and there was a howl as the flaps were lowered. Rick and Scotty buckled safety belts and sat back as the plane leveled off.