Part 22 (1/2)
CHAPTER XIII
The Peaceful Profession
The Spindrift cah, and its war Meat were out on patrol, although it was unlikely that any Ifugao had followed the invaders over the rove of trees on the Igorot side of the divide The boys and Tony had taken suitable clothing from their supplies and were now equipped with sturdy trail clothes and warm leather jackets Chahda, siorot only because of his haircut
Tony sipped stearinned at the faces around the fire: Rick, Scotty, Angel Manotok, Chahda, and Pilipil, whose wounded leg had been treated with supplies froist at work,” Tony coets excited about a clay jug or so but old jugs or beetles or stuff like that to get excited about It's a peaceful profession, boys That's why I like it Calet the irony in Tony's voice, but the others laughed
Scotty nodded agreeht! Sounds like a recruiting ad, doesn't it? Be peaceful and quiet Live to a ripe old age Be an archaeologist Re poster that hooked me once Join the Marines, it said See the world Learn a trade I joined Saw the world while snaking on h the South Pacific Learned a trade, too How to fire a rifle Very few peacetime riflemen needed, however”
”We'll coht say we did, earlier tonight”
As Rick put ether, for the first ti Nohat do we do?”
Tony considered ”I ht to the purpose of the expedition when you ca how my skull would look on the knick-knack shelf in the hut”
”What knick-knack shelf?” Chahda asked
”You wouldn't have noticed,” Tony told the youto flatter myself that surely my head would be prettier than those But I didn't really believe it”
”Do you really believe the Ifugaos would have taken your head?” Rick asked
”You bet I do! You should have seen Nangolat He shed civilization with his clothes He got down to a breechcloth and he was all priot a bad case of bats in the belfry, believe el Manotok said positively ”You reht Nangolat is crazy He is a killer”
Rick re for the jeep with spear extended ”I vote Nangolat for nuts, too Insane and dangerous”
”This being Mountain Province, Philippines, I don't think it would doa strait jacket,”
Scotty observed ”So, what do we do? We can ignore him, avoid him, or shoot him The first is hard, since he carries a sharp spear The secondun-scientific and unkind, not to al”
”One more possibility,” Chahda offered ”Catch him, tie him up, have Scotty talk him into stupor”
Rick chuckled ”You uilty of kidnaping Thatto catch an escaped cri,” Tony said, ”but maybe just a little bit iht faster, we could have picked hiuin's pocketbook We could have tossed him into the back of the jeep like a sack of bones”
”Yes, Rick But chances like that don't co a definite attempt It would ht”
”Guess you're right,” Rick adet back to Scotty's question, what do we do now? Apparently Nangolat has his people up in arainst us There's no law enforcement worthy of the name up here, so we can't call for help So what next?”
Tony poured hi pot ”We continue after the cache of artifacts”