medios Okola and the
Honorable Irineo Lazada.

Dr. Okola, obviously, had a great deal of Spanish blood in his ancestry.
He was tall and lean, with a deeply lined face and a magnificent
hawklike nose. His hair was iron gray. He wore black dress trousers and
an open-neck slipover shirt of a very fine, almost transparent, fabric
heavily embroidered down the front. The shirt hung outside his trousers
in traditional style. This was the _barong_ Tagalog, the native Filipino
costume.

Where the Filipino archaeologist showed his Spanish blood, the Honorable
Irineo Lazada's face betrayed his Chinese ancestry. He was round of
face, and his eyes had the typical Mongoloid fold. He was dressed in an
expensive white sharkskin suit with a white American-style shirt and a
black tie. The tie was held in place by the biggest diamond Rick had
ever seen. He assumed it was real; no one would wear a phony one that
big.

Lazada had a huge Manila cigar in one hand and a fan in the other. By
some feat of legerdemain he managed to shake hands with the boys without
letting go of either.

"Come in, come in," he said genially. "Welcome to the Philippines. You
will have some refreshment? How about a coke?"

That suited the boys fine. Lazada waved a pudgy hand and a slippered
houseboy appeared like a genie, carrying two iced glasses of coke. Rick
was not in the least surprised. He had had his favorite American
beverage in more unexpected places than this.

Tony Briotti explained, "Dr. Okola and I just got here. We had a most
interesting day at the university. I was beginning to go into the
details of our expedition with Mr. Lazada."

"Please continue," Lazada said expansively.

Rick, who was sensitive to voices, had the impression that Mr. Lazada's
voice passed through a bath of highly refined oil before it emerged from
his thick lips. It wasn't exactly oily--just sort of overlubricated.

Lazada alternately smoked and fanned. "You were telling me of Spindrift
Island. Am I to gather that you are the only Spindrift scientist on this
expedition? And that these young men just came for the voyage?"

"By no means." Tony set Lazada straight. "Rick is our pilot and
electronics technician. Scotty is mechanic and camp manager."

"Pilot?" Lazada looked surprise.

Dr. Okola hastened to explain. "I neglected to tell Mr. Lazada that you
are bringing your own plane. Of course, sir, permission was obtained in
advance from the Philippine Aeronautics Au