A few minutes later they were moving forward to meet the Japanese scouting detail. Despite Dr. Aiken's assurance, Ramey's confidence was bolstered by the comforting heft of an automatic in his hip pocket. The Nipponese, over-cautious in this as all things, had sent a sizable investigating party to Angkor. Thirty squat, brown, dusty men; truculent; ready for any emergency. Their captain made his mission known in a faltering, school-book English. An airplane had been seen to descend of the sky, please. Did the gentlemens opportune to see--? Good gracious--an airplane? How alarming! No, the gentlemens had not seen anything out of the ordinary. Would the honorable captain care to look around for himself? It struck Ramey that Dr. Aiken was sticking his neck out unnecessarily far. The captain barked commands, his company split into details of two and three men, wandered off in different directions. Then Ramey realized Aiken had followed the proper course. With such a wide area to cover ... with the burned ship lying a half mile off, in a field concealed by an arras of tangled bamboo ... with the Japanese not even sure the 'plane _had_ landed in this vicinity ... the chances of their stumbling across it were extremely remote. And to have seemed any less willing to help would have been to invite suspicion. * * * * * Having done his duty, the little leader was inclined to be friendly. He stared about him with awed respect. This was a great marvel, not so? He had not known there were such sights in Cambodia. One would not suppose it from seeing the miserable hovels at Pnompenh, down the river. It was not, of course, to be comparison with the beautiful, modern buildings of Tokio and Kobe, still-- He sucked his teeth politely. "Who makes this great structures, please?" "We're not sure," Dr. Aiken told him. "It was built many, many years ago. By a race now vanished." The small captain looked excited. "Many years? A--a _ber-oo_ race, perhaps?" Now it was the doctor whose eyes widened. "Blue! Did you say a _blue_ race?" "But, yes!" answered the Jap. Everyone knew that long ago there dwelt on earth the blue-skinned gods. "The legends of my peoples speak of them," he said. "The _Kojiki_ tells how they brought to mankind wisdom, and--" he continued serenely--"when they departed, it was ordained that my people should henceforth rule the world." [Illustration: "Stop!" shouted Ramey, leaping from behind the idol.]