peak a
little English? Not much, but enough. While I sell, I start asking
questions, but I get no answer. Then, boy my age starts buying cloth for
new turban. We alone, so I try bribe. I say, 'Tell me about missing
Americans and I give cloth for free.' And you know, he starts!"

"Go on, confound it!" Zircon bellowed. "Don't keep us in suspense like
this."

"Okay, Professor. I talk fast. This boy gets no chance to say something,
because headman busts in and he shoots words at boy like machine gun.
Boy no more will talk to me, but I give him cloth, anyway. Because all
the time I have wire machine going!"

"Wonderful!" Rick exclaimed. "Now, if we can only get it translated!"

Scotty opened the door at a knock and admitted Major Lacson. Zircon
introduced Chahda and explained quickly what had happened. He showed the
officer the wire recorder.

"Good!" Lacson picked up the telephone and made a call. After a brief
exchange in the local dialect he hung up. "We will take it to Davao
University. Dr. Gonzalez, the professor of languages, will translate it.
He speaks Bagobo expertly. Come. My car is outside."

Chahda hung back. "You go. Better I stay under cover while longer. You
call me on radio when you find something."

Rick agreed, then followed the others. They piled into Lacson's command
car and headed for the university.

"I have some news myself," Lacson reported. "Your friends came in a
sloop called the _Sampaguita_, which is a local flower. They tied up at
a private dock on the waterfront."

"Where is the boat now?" Scotty asked.

Lacson shrugged. "Who knows? No one saw it leave, but it was there the
night your friends disappeared, and gone the following morning."

Rick pondered that bit of information while Lacson and Zircon worked
with Dr. Gonzalez, a short, bald Filipino, on the translation of the
wire recording. Certainly Briotti and Shannon wouldn't have walked back
from the Bagobo village and taken the boat themselves. And if they had
walked to Calinan and obtained a car, Lacson would have found out about
it. There weren't so many people in the area that the rental, or
borrowing of a car, by two Americans couldn't be discovered easily. Had
they hitched a ride Lacson would surely have found that out, too. Few
cars traveled the road to Calinan.

Rick took Lacson aside and questioned him while Zircon played the wire
over and over again for the Filipino language expert. The major
confirmed that he had che