trouble around, you
and Scotty will find it. Are you sure the rifleman shot at you?"

"We've got a bullet hole in the windshield and one just under the rear
seat," Scotty said. "One might be an accident, but not two."

"I agree." Hartson Brant nodded. "Let's see the samples of earth you
brought back, Rick."

He took both the yellow and blue pieces from his pocket and put them on
the table. Hartson Brant and Weiss examined them with interest.

"Unusual," Weiss said. "I think you are right in assuming that the
yellow is simply an oxidized form of the blue, Rick. But I can't tell
you what the material is. I've never seen anything like it before."

"The grain is pretty fine," Hartson Brant added. "It could be igneous or
sedimentary in origin. I'm not enough of a rock hound to know. David
Riddle can tell us when he returns."

"Connel would know, too," Scotty reminded. "He's a geologist. Wouldn't
you think he would have mentioned an unusual formation like this when he
found it?"

"Perhaps it's not unusual to a geologist," Weiss pointed out.

"Where is Riddle?" Rick asked.

"He went to his room a few minutes ago. He should be back shortly. Rick,
I think you'd better tell us the whole story. Why do you suspect Connel?
Why was it important for you to look at his shot station?"

Rick started at the beginning. "It wasn't any one thing, it was a series
of little offbeat things. We thought it was funny he didn't even want
company after Ruiz was hurt. Then he reacted so violently when we
proposed swapping stations. It just seemed odd. The theft of the
tracings bothered us, too. No ordinary thief would steal papers and
leave Dr. Williams' wallet in his pocket, or leave his pocket transistor
radio and stuff like that."

"But you can't connect Connel with the theft of the papers," Weiss
objected.

"No, sir, we can't. But we almost got caught in the stolen dynamite, and
he could have set that off. It was while we were on the way to his third
station."

Scotty added, "Today, when we got to the station, I took a look along
the trail. There's only one bend in it. If he was keeping a watch at
the bend, he could have seen us arrive at the second station, hurried
down the trail, set off the charge, then returned through the jungle to
get his jeep."

"But the fact that he could have, does not mean that he did," Hartson
Brant stated.

"We can't prove it," Scotty agreed.

Rick continued. "Then we trailed him to Casa Guevara.