Part 24 (1/2)
The mist had not yet cleared, and the limits on his vision ht He knew that to the left, three terraces doas the village Now he could see that to the right of the road was a se terrace He couldn't tell which The meadow ran perhaps a hundred and fifty feet froh wall, perhaps as h
”Turn right,” Tony said ”Go into the ear and swung the wheel The jeep clile row of rocks and ht the row of rocks probably constituted a retaining wall, so that made it a terrace instead of a meadow Anyway, it was firm under the tires
Behind the jeep, Scotty look the truck over the row of stones as easily as he would have negotiated a high curbing at home He followed Rick across the h retaining as a considerable recess He asked, with on there?”
Tony nodded ”Let's turn around and back into the recess as far as possible We want to be facing out, in case we have to leave in a hurry”
Rick did so, then directed Scotty Not until the vehicles were in place did they run into the recess and look
There on a pedestal, a smaller edition of the one Rick had first seen at Alta Yuan, was the dragon!
CHAPTER XV
Under the Dragon's Claws
The Spindrift group jumped into action Rick, Tony, and Chahda carried the earth scanner into the recess and set it up Scotty consulted with Angel, and at a word froorot climbed the wall to the terrace above their heads where he sprawled ael moved to the left about fifty feet, while ScottyMeat ran down the meadow to the road, crossed the terrace, and took up a watch on the village
”Work fast,” Tony said ”They must knoe're here If they didn't see us, they at least heard the ed in the probe, checked the controls, then turned them over to Tony The scientist set the controls and turned on the activation switch
Rick on, while Tony and Chahda watched the scope
”Standard pattern,” Tony reported ”Keep it e”
Rick stepped sideways and e”
Again Rick took a step and swung the probe He kept round in front of the dragon, then he took a position next to the bronze statue and covered the ground directly under its nose
”Wait!” There was excite!”
”Metal?” Rick asked quickly
”No It's not a metal response Some kind of stone, but not the usual type found around here”
Tony had a pad out and wasthe position of the dragon Then, while Rick h a new arc, his pencil shaded in the area where the odd response showed on the scope
Rick repeated the scanning process to one side of the dragon, and again the response was nored sides, and the result was the saed response there But the results were identical At last he gave up, feeling a bit let down, and joined Tony and Chahda They were exa Tony's sketch