Rick got into the shower for a quick wake-up bath. By the time he was dressed Zircon had returned, a yellow sheet of paper in his hands. Chahda arrived a moment later. "All here," Chahda said. "Good. Now I tell. You know who got our friends? Pirates!" Rick stared at him in awe. "How did you find that out?" "Word you said, one that scared Bagobos. I said it too, in few places at Davao. I try different ways to say, and I must have said it good one time. Filipino snapped at me to shut up, because word no good. But did Chahda shut up?" "Never," Scotty said emphatically. "Is true. Anyway, Filipino whispers to me about Pirates of Shan. He knows little. Only that they kill quick, and no one knows who is a pirate and who is not. Not many have heard of them." "Some have," Zircon interjected. He waved the paper. "Okola replied by return wire. Listen." The big physicist read: "'Pirates of Shan date back to seventeenth century. Originally Chinese Moslems, later joined by Filipino Moslems and some Malays. Most active around 1800. Shan is from Chinese word for mountain, but no one knows what mountain. Some believe Shan located near Borneo coast. Some mention pirates in action against Japanese during World War Two. No record since. Regret no more available.'" "Okola certainly knows his history," Scotty stated. "Well, at least we have a tag to hang on the enemy. The kidnapers were pirates." Zircon agreed. "Being trailed by one certainly seems to tie up with Tony and Howard's disappearance. And speaking of kidnapers, that Filipino boy, Elpidio Torres was kidnaped. His folks now have a ransom demand." He held out a recent newspaper. Rick scanned the front-page story. "Think there might be a connection?" "Possible, I suppose, but consider the distance. According to the story, a ransom of one million pesos is to be left on the Batangas coast, south of Manila." Scotty whistled. "Half a million bucks! That would make piracy worth while!" "Yes, but Manila isn't the Sulu Sea," Zircon pointed out. "Also, there has been no ransom demand for Tony and Howard. They weren't taken until some time after the Torres boy vanished." "What we do now?" Chahda asked. "We eat, with the local constabulary chief," Rick replied. "Think it's safe to join us?" Chahda grinned. "Safe or no, I go. I hungry." Rick and Scotty were hungry, too. The Spanish-Filipino custom of dining late did not appeal to them. But as it developed, dinner was worth waiting for. Captain Lim was apparently a gourmet. He had ordered soup made of smoked oysters from Palawan Island, a second course of delicate butterfly fish fillets in a marvelous sauce of fresh coconut, a main course of breasts of chicken boiled in coconut milk, a salad of hearts of palm, a Spanish dessert called _lecheflan_, which was a kind of custard swimming in caramel sauce, and thick, aromatic Batangas coffee.