lse Rick could remember. He and Scotty had sat through
hours of argument and heated debate. Jan and Barby had given up when the
scientific arguments got far beyond their ability to understand. Rick
hadn't understood much either, but he had stuck it out to the end.

The conclusion was that probably nothing could be done. There was simply
no way to check the eruption of a volcano. If El Viejo was going to blow
its top, well . . . that was that. But the Spindrift Scientific
Foundation was not known for its eagerness to drop seemingly insoluble
problems, so the staff had agreed that a study should be made, at the
very least.

Hartson Brant had chosen Hobart Zircon and Julius Weiss to work with
him, then he had persuaded an old friend, Dr. Jeffrey Williams, to drop
his work for a short time and join the party. Dr. Williams was a noted
seismologist. From the U. S. Geological Survey, Hartson Brant had
borrowed Dr. David Riddle, a geologist with considerable experience in
volcanology.

The scientific team departed at once for San Luz, leaving Rick and
Scotty to bring up the rear. The boys loaded scientific equipment into
the Sky Wagon and took off for San Luz. It took three days for the
little plane to make the trip, the longest flight of Rick's flying
career. Only once before had he flown so far over water, and then only
to the Virgin Islands. The plane had made it easily, but he and Scotty
had sweated it out.

Ordinarily, Hartson Brant would have taken the boys by commercial air,
but he wanted Rick's plane on hand. Since the senior scientist did not
know what difficulties the scientists might encounter, he wanted a way
of making aerial surveys and photographs, plus ready communication with
the mainland and nearby islands.

The boys had arrived early the evening before, only to be whisked to the
Executive Mansion where the governor of San Luz, the Honorable Luis
Montoya, was holding a reception for the visiting scientists.

The governor, a charming little man who looked like Rick's idea of a
Spanish grandee, knew why the scientists were there, of course. But the
secret was confined to the governor himself and to Balgos. Even Jaime
Guevara, the lieutenant governor, did not know.

The agreement was that the scientific group would seem to be interested
only in the hot springs. The purpose of their visit, the governor had
announced to the local press and radio, was to investigate the change in
the springs that had ruined a