The Golden Skull

ains rising in the distance. To the north lay Mountain Province, and behind the screen of mountains was their destination.

There was still work to be done, so Rick reluctantly took the Sky Wagon down again. It was in perfect condition; no need for further flight.

They lunched at a modern drive-in on Dewey Boulevard, the split-lane highway that runs along the edge of Manila Bay, then picked up their crates of supplies at customs. This was a light expedition, so there were only three crates. One held their camp gear and trail clothing. Another crate held Tony Briotti's special tools and reference books. The third held the most important object of the expedition--the Spindrift Experimental Earth Scanner, called SEES for short, and further abbreviated by the boys to a sibilant hiss.

"How's the SS working?" Scotty would ask, and Rick would answer: "'Sfine 'scan be."

The boys were old hands at expeditions and they had learned from bitter experience about the number of unexpected things t