Part 4 (2/2)

They reached the walls of Intra the walls, or within the city, was the intruder The question was, Had the intruder kept right on going across the walled city, or was he in hiding, waiting to see whether or not he was being pursued? If the for up with him were almost zero

Rick rounded the corner of the wall and had a clear view all the way down to the Depart nearly a half hts to show hiht

He saw a breach in the wall a few yards away and hurried toward it

There was alht within the walled city, he suspected, but he would have to look The breach turned out to be a pile of rubble He would have to go over the wall unless he wanted to search for an entrance There wasn't time for that He cliained the top of the wall For a ht

And in that instant a rifle cracked He saw the muzzle fla sound of the slug as it went past his ear There was only one thing to do He ju as below, but it was better to risk unknown rubble than another shot froun

He landed with knees flexed, struck level ground, but fell forith theinto his hands and he s, waiting for some move from the sniper and for his eyes to adjust themselves to the dense blackness within the walls

He wondered whether the sniper and intruder were the same man The intruder had carried no rifle when he went out the hotelBut it was possible that he had cached one somewhere under the wall

What could the man have been after? Rick rejected the idea that this was common thievery It was possible, but not probable Especially after the attack on Tony Briotti aboard the boat And after finding that Chahda had gone underground and was posing as a Sikh

He was sure so that boded ill for the expedition Nor did he have to rack his brains to find the cause A golden skull was reason enough Mass old many times before this

His eyes searched the darkness, and his ears strained for the slightest sound, but no movement or noise followed Yet, unless the sniper were the world's most silent walker, he could not have slipped away

And where was Scotty?

Again he pondered the istered at the Manila Hotel, waiting for the Spindrift party Then, three days before their arrival, he had checked out and gotten a job as a guard at Lazada's The disguise didn't cause Rick much wonderment

Sikhs, after all, are Indians, and Chahda had once worked for a Sikh officer in the Bengal Lancers Rick re the Tibet expedition It was probable that Chahda had sione to the chief Sikh in Manila--there was always such a leader--and enlisted his aid

But why?

Rick tensed, sensing a presence near hiure nearby The figure was close to the wall

He had a hunch that it was Scotty, but he couldn't be sure He ure became clearer, passed close in front of hiainst the sky, which had a pink glow frohts of don Manila No doubt of it, the figure was Scotty's Rick got to his feet, and staying close to the wall, moved in the saround of the walled city was fairly clear, but close to the walls there was considerable debris Rick proceeded carefully, trying not to les of weeds and wire, loose stone, and piles of junk that had been accu since the days of the Spanish conquistadors

He was tense, and his face ith sweat There was a possibility that the sniper was gone, but if not, a noise could bring a lethal slug

Rick thought grimly that the ancient walled city probably had seen many a murder in the more than three hundred years since the wall had been built He had no desire to be the ht crossed his e of a twisted sheet of steel The sheet, all that re dully

Instantly the rifle fla smacked into the stone wall a foot from Rick's shoulder He didn't wait for the next shot He hit the ground, scuttled a few feet, and stopped in a thorny patch He gri the sweat off his brow At least one question was answered The sniper had not left