Part 30 (1/2)

”What's your plan?” Scotty asked

Chahda drew his bolo ”Bas and box falls into our hands We run like wild men, they not catch”

Rick objected ”The skull is too heavy We couldn't run with it easily

They'd catch whoever had it”

Scotty nodded ”And the box is too srip on it We'd fall all over each other”

”Could be,” Chahda agreed, but he was not convinced He said that there et the box

Rick studied the house as though the sight of itelse did ”The purloined letter!” he exclaimed suddenly ”Remember the story by Poe? No one found the letter because it was in the most obvious place--so obvious that no one looked” He whispered his daring plan

Scotty chuckled ”I'll even forgive you for biting hty is the o”

They sneaked back to the house and made preparations for the audacious recovery of the box Chahda tested the edge of his bolo, reached up with it, and th of his stroke and where the blade would touch It would work He looked at the boys expectantly

Rick knew that baainst nearly everything except a sharp blade applied across its grain

But it had to be cut cleanly Also, Chahda would have to h the floor On the first cut, Lazada and Nast would beThey could make it down the stairs before the second cut was made

He shook his head at Chahda Not yet He ether they exa

Scotty gestured toward the boxes stacked at one corner of the house

They examined them The boxes were full of a special kind of sea shell used commercially in the Philippines They were fairly heavy

Working together, they piled a few boxes on the stairs Anyone not watching his footing ht fall over them

Then Scotty motioned to a stack of bas He whispered, ”You help Chahda I'll use one of these” He selected a long one about two inches in diameter and held it in both hands like a lance With Scotty standing beside the stairs, the pole would reach alh the door of the hut

Scotty nodded Rick stepped to a position beside Chahda and nodded

Chahda flexed his htly around the handle of his bolo, spread his feet and swung

The steel blade hit the bareat arc

There were yells fro feet ed like a knight attacking an eneht Nast in the sto the skull slid and caught

Chahda swung again, in desperation, and the box dropped through! Rick caught it, and the weight would have driven hiiven a hand

They rushed the box to its prearranged hiding place, then Rick gave a piercing whistle They ran, all three of them, in three different directions

Chahda headed for the jeep He ran quietly Scotty headed south, yelling as he went; Rick ran north, giving an occasional bellow That was to draw the pursuit away froet to the jeep undisturbed