is a legitimate
industrial product. We certainly can't object to a nation's
manufacturing it. We wouldn't want to. But when it turns up in an odd
corner of the world, I think we'd better find out why. If it's a
peaceful reason, we'll mark it down and then forget it. If not, we'll
make a report to the United Nations."

"Why not report it right now?" Barby asked.

"Good question. The answer is, we're not sure. Remember Carl Bradley was
unsure enough to ask for help. If we got up before the UN and started
hollering and it turned out to be plain water, we'd look pretty
foolish."

"I don't even know how we'd begin," Scotty muttered. "How do you start
on a job like this?"

"You'll start by being innocent tourists," Steve said. "You and Rick are
students on a holiday, with Zircon, your uncle, as guide and tutor.
You'll be interested in a number of things, including hunting. That will
give you a good excuse for barging around the country if you have to.
But you won't be able to decide what you want to hunt." Steve grinned.
"You'll decide after you find out where you have to go. And you'd better
learn about Asiatic game animals. For instance, if the trail takes you
to Indonesia, you may want to hunt the hairy Sumatran rhinoceros. In the
Philippines, you'll hunt timarau, which are a special breed of wild
water buffalo. In China, around the coast, you can hunt tigers. In
Malaya, if the trail does take you down to Singapore, you can hunt
tapir. Same for Siam. In Indo-China you can hunt tigers. Inland in
China, toward the Tibetan border, you'd better be hunting bharals."

"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 e