Free The Veiled Lady by Lee Falk Page B

the pack which held the supplies, Gabe said, "I'd like to go to California someday, when I get a little dough ahead. I hear things grow pretty big in California, too."

    "Not quite this big," said Karl, laughing. "Need any help, Jan?"

    The girl had selected two tins of potted meat from their stores. "No, I can manage." Brushing back her hair with the side of her wrist, she glanced at the Phantom. The large, broad-shouldered masked man was standing almost completely in darkness now. "You do eat, don't you?"

    The Phantom gave her a slight smile. "Yes, I was hoping to."

    "You never know," said the girl, "with your legendary figures."

    "Don't mind Jan," Karl told him. "She always kids people she likes."

    After they had eaten, Karl, Gabe, and Jan retired to their makeshift bunks in the cabin of the helicopter. A tan blanket had been strung up to give Jan some privacy. Karl had suggested shifts, but the Phantom assured him he'd tend the fire through the night.

    Long after midnight, a figure dropped silently from the ship.

    The Phantom looked across the flickering orange fire. "You should be resting."

    "I've been like this ever since I was a kid," said Jan, sitting on the ground near him. "Whenever I went on a vacation, I was always too excited to sleep the first few nights."

    "And this is like a vacation to you?"

    She hugged her knees, watching the flames. "In some ways, I guess," Jan said. "It's all been incredibly exciting, despite the narrow escapes. Fascinating, too. There can't be many places on the planet where life has evolved the way it has here in the valley of ."

    "How do you account for what's happened here?" the masked man asked her Bight now, the biologist replied, "I can only give you a rough theory. But obviously the unique atmo-spheric conditions here inside the volcano are the cause of these mutations. Rich chemicals and gases pour from the earth. The result is that the soil and air are super-rich."

    "That's what causes these giants we've been running into?"

    "I'm fairly certain, yes," said Jan. "You notice so far we've seen only enlarged insects and small mammals. The combination of atmosphere and nutrition, the ecological picture, probably only works on the smaller orders of plants and animals. Don't ask me why." From a pocket, she took her black notebook and tapped it on her knee. "I think, for Gabe's sake in particular, we ought to go ahead and try to leave now."

    "But you'd like to come back?"

    "You're darned right, I would," replied Jan. "I want to study these giants, find out the why and wherefore." She gestured at him with the hand holding the notebook. "Suppose I can find out their

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    secret, determine the precise combination of factors which account for this fantastic growth."

    "I don't imagine you'd want to grow more giant bats."

    "No, not bats, of course," she said. "But what about giant food animals, and giant vegetables and fruit? You know, I've sampled some of the berries and fruit growing here. They're perfectly all right.
    Now on the outside, with a forced growth or a freak giganticism you don't wind up, often, with anything too edible." She was leaning toward him. "Do you know what's lacking in the diet of so many people in the world? What's lacking right here in some of the impoverished sections of Bangalla? It's protein, both meat and vegetable protein. Why, golly, if we can get at 's secret, think what we could do toward feeding people. And that's only one-one-of the more obvious applications of what's to be learned here."

    "Yes," said the Phantom, "some of that had occurred to me." He was kneeling on one knee beside the fire now. "One thing which worries me, though, is-"

    "The earth tremors," said the girl. "I know."

    "I've lived in Bangalla for many years," the Phantom told her. "Besides which, I know much of what has happened all over Bangalla in centuries past These quakes are something new."

    "Then you think may be coming back to life?"

    "rm afraid so, yes," said