ck thought. This man, who obviously had a
kind of fierce, barbaric pride, should look any man squarely in the eye.

The talk went smoothly, and Rick realized the headman had been through
all this before, probably more than once, in interviews with the
constabulary. To each question the Bagobo chieftain answered that he had
seen no Americans, nor had his people. Had they come to the village, he
would know it.

"We'll get nothing here," Zircon finally said to the major. "Frankly, I
expected nothing. If there was information to be gained from this man,
you could have gotten it."

Lacson shrugged. "True, perhaps. But I thought you would want to check
for yourself."

Rick only half listened. He noticed a Bagobo standing nearby, watching
intently, and on impulse walked over to him and held out his hand. The
warrior took it instantly and smiled, his brown eyes on Rick's.

[Illustration: _The warrior shook Rick's hand and smiled_]

Rick returned the smile and walked back to his friends, forehead
wrinkled in thought. That had been a straightforward reaction; the
Bagobo had met his eyes squarely and openly.

On the way back to Davao, Rick pondered the meaning of the headman's
failure to look at any of them. But not until they were cleaning up at
the hotel did he decide to put his thoughts into words.

"The headman lied," Rick stated. "I can't figure it any other way. It's
easy to see that the Bagobos are a proud race. They're any man's equal,
and they know it. The headman should be the proudest of all, but
instead, he was shifty. He wouldn't look at any of us."

"That's right," Scotty acknowledged. "He kept his eyes everywhere but on
us."

Rick nodded. "What's more, he's not a shifty type. He looks like a
fierce old eagle who'd stare down a charging elephant. But he couldn't
look at us because he was lying, and he was ashamed of it."

"You may have something," Zircon agreed after a moment of thought. "I
wasn't that observant, but now that you mention it, I believe the
headman kept his eyes on the ground most of the time. I agree it
certainly seemed out of character."

"If he was lying, what can we do about it?" Scotty asked.

Rick wasn't sure, but he had an idea of how to start. Earlier,
immediately on arrival, he had tried to contact Chahda without success.
Now he got a Megabuck unit, put the earplug into place, and tried again.

"Chahda, this is Rick. Are you on?"

The Hindu boy answered at once, and the signa