The Golden Skull: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story

"I think you do. These American gentlemen have told me quite a story."

"I'm sure of it. And whose word do you take? That of your countryman and senior official, or the word of these foreign adventurers?"

"Theirs," Rojas said. "I will accept from you the custody of a certain golden skull, stolen by you from the Ifugaos."

Lazada had recovered his composure. He chuckled. "I have no golden skull. You are free to search, even without a warrant, Colonel."

"Thank you. Please lead the way to your garage."

"Certainly, but you will find nothing there but my car."

Lazada led the way to the back of the house and down a flight of stairs to a garage. If the sight of constabulary troopers with ready carbines bothered him, he didn't show it. But Nast, obviously, was worried. He kept casting glances at the boys.

"Better give the colonel that shoulder gun you missed me with earlier tonight," Rick told him. "You might hurt yourself with it."

Colonel Rojas held out his hand. "Give."

Nast did.

In the garage was the limousine. Lazada waved at it. "As I told you, nothing here but my car."

"And a golden skull," Rick said. He opened the trunk and reached in for the box!

Lazada screamed with sudden fear and rage. He leaped for Rick. He met Scotty's fist and sat down, hard.

Colonel Rojas had been sweating profusely. Now, at the sight of the golden skull, he took out his handkerchief, wiped his face, and smiled contentedly. "We'll need a new Assistant Secretary now," he said happily. "And we'll ship Mr. Nast back to America as an undesirable alien. The authorities there will take him into custody."

"Have you found it? Where is the skull?" someone called.

Dr. Okola came running up the driveway, and with him, in immaculate white linens, was Nangolat!

The group sat in Dr. Okola's office at the museum. Outside, constabulary troopers were on guard. Inside, a fabulous collection of golden and silver artifacts, dominated by the golden skull, received the admiring attention of the Spindrift group, Colonel Rojas, Angel Manotok, and Dr. Okola, with Nangolat as lecturer.

When he had finished describing the various objects and their uses, the Ifugao said, "And now, I must explain. I am here because I gave myself up to Dr. Okola. He, in turn, will hand me to the police. I asked only that I be permitted to examine the treasures."

Tony Briotti shook his head. "I don't understand. You're intelligent, well-educated, and well on the road to becoming a scientist. Why did you do it?"

Nangolat's broad face was sad but composed. "How can I explain? I almost killed my good friend Angel. I attacked innocent American scientists who had no evil intentions toward my people. I goaded the young men of Banaue into war against the wishes of their elders. It is only because my gods watched over me that I do not have your blood on my hands. But how can I explain?"

His dark eyes pleaded for understanding. "You cannot know what it is to an Ifugao or an Igorot. In America you respect your primitives – your Indians. But here, we are just aborigines – primitive animals, eaters of dog. We are sneered at and despised. To Americans we are curiosities. We wear breechcloths and funny hats that we use for pockets."

"Nangolat!" Dr. Okola exclaimed. "I never suspected that you felt like that. I thought we had always treated you as we did any other student."

"You were the ones who treated me as a man," Nangolat admitted. "You and Angel. But when I worked with you in tracing down the golden skull and what it meant to my people, something happened. The more we learned, the more I resented the attitudes of the others, those who despise the Ifugao as a dog-eating animal. I believed that in the golden skull we had the proof that the Ifugaos were better than any of you, that our civilization was older. I lost my civilization. I forgot my friends. I could only think that here was proof of the greatness of the Ifugao, and that the Americans were coming to take it away."

"But we said that the artifacts would remain here," Tony Briotti reminded him. "We told Dr. Okola that we would not ask permission to take them out of the country."

"Yes, but I was worried. I went to Lazada, to plead with him to forbid you to take them under any circumstances, and he told me that he was helpless, officially. He said that the American Government would insist on getting the treasures of my people, and that our own government would have to yield because we need American financial aid."

"Of all the rotten lies!" Rick exclaimed angrily.

"Yes. But he was an official of our government and I believed him. Then he goaded me. He said that only an Ifugao would allow such a thing to happen, because the Ifugaos were less than men. Men would protect their treasures. I was emotionally upset already. His goading drove me berserk. I was truly mad. So, I acted as I did."

"Tell them what happened at Banaue," Okola said gently.

"Dr. Briotti convinced me that he was not trying to steal our treasure. That is, he almost convinced me, and he did convince our priests. But Lazada came, and he said the American ambassador was already demanding custody of the treasure as soon as it was found. You know what happened then."

"We sure do," Scotty said.

"Then the jeep got away, and later the plane came. We did not keep attacking, because many of our young men had lost heart. They couldn't see the sense of rushing into the muzzles of your rifles over some treasure they knew nothing about. I had worked them up to the point of attacking once, but I could not do it again. Then the plane dropped the sack. We did not know what was in it, except that it must be part of the treasure. Lazada carried it to his car. I followed and demanded the bag. He said he had no bag, although it was in plain sight. He was smiling. He said the plane got all the bags; he didn't have any. I saw at once what he was doing. He was going to take the bag and pretend that he had never seen it, and it would be the word of a group of poor Ifugao natives against the word of a great official. I saw red. I reached for him, and Nast struck me with his gun."

Nangolat rubbed his head. "He knocked me out, and he knocked sense into me. I walked to Bontoc and took the bus south. Now I am ready to be punished."

Rick was deeply touched by Nangolat's recital. He remembered how favorably impressed they had been that first day, when they thought he was Angel. "Speaking for myself," he offered, "I am grateful to Nangolat for a warm reception at Banaue, and for an interesting visit to the rice terraces."

Scotty took the cue. "As for me, I haven't had so much fun in a fight since that free-for-all at Canton Charlie's in Hong Kong."

Chahda bowed. "I also represent ancient Asia people. Very grateful to Nangolat for fine demonstration of how Ifugaos fight. Very different from Hindu method."

The three boys looked at Tony. He had suffered the most at Nangolat's hands. Nangolat had tried to kill him, then had kidnaped him, and had intended to take his head.

Tony smiled. "And I am grateful to Nangolat for personally conducting me to Banaue and for putting on such an interesting series of rituals and dances."

Angel Manotok went to Nangolat and took his hand. "Can a Filipino be less of a friend than an American? It was too bad I fell on my head and almost fractured my skull. How nice it was of you, Nangolat, to pretend to be me so I would not lose face with the Americans by not appearing to work for them."

There were tears in the Ifugao's eyes. "What a magnificent group of storytellers you are!"

Colonel Rojas grinned. "Sounded like the truth to me, Nangolat. And if anyone wants to know what kind of men the Ifugaos are, send them to me. I led Mountain Province warriors against the Japanese. They attacked tanks barehanded. They fought like fiends. They made me proud to be a Filipino."

Tony Briotti picked up the golden skull. "We have a lot of work to do, Nangolat. We'll need your help. And all of us will have to testify against Lazada."

"Golly, that's right," Rick said. "What a nuisance that will be. We'll have to wait around for weeks."

"Not that long," Colonel Rojas promised. "This is one case that will be tried in a hurry. But you will have to stay a while. You will my guests. There's a lot of the Philippines you haven't seen. We might even be able to stir up a little excitement for you."

"No, thanks," Rick said.

"Sorry," Chahda said.

"Need peace and quiet," Scotty said.

Tony laughed. "Don't believe them. They may stay quiet until tomorrow, but I doubt it. What do you have in mind?"

"I'd like to take them to Mindoro Island, south of here, to hunt timarau. In case you don't know, those are water buffalo. They rate as the most dangerous game animal in Asia."

"Too exciting for me," Rick said.

But in later years when the Ifugao expedition was mentioned, Rick, Scotty, and Chahda always talked much more about the hunting on Mindoro than they did about their encounter with the Ifugaos. And they were prouder of the timarau heads in the study than of the Ifugao spears that had been thrown at them and brought back by Angel as souvenirs.