Mr. Smith leaned and whispered to Steng. Steng nodded, his fanatic's eyes on Illya Kuryakin.
"Mr. Smith suggests there is much more than meets the eye about you two. You, the taller one, are obviously an American. The small, blond one is not American. Mr. Smith says that he mumbled in Russian when we had him earlier. What organization employs American and Russians together? Perhaps Interpol?"
"No," Mr. Smith said. "That is a police organization. These men are not policemen."
Steng nodded. "True. Who are you and who sent you to Zambala?"
The two agents sat on their boulders and watched the Stengali leaders. All around the Stengali stood and sat in the box canyon in the jungle night. Illya studied the bearded guerilla leader from under his brows.
"Perhaps you will tell us why you killed Mura Khan and tried to kill Premier Roy?" Illya said.
Mr. Smith answered. "We did not kill Mura Khan, or try to kill Roy. We gave no such orders."
"Then what were your men doing there?" Solo said.
Max Steng looked at Solo. "That we would also like to know. We want to know how Tavvi got into that room."
"You don't know?" Illya said quickly.
"We do not. Tavvi was in San Pablo on a routine observation. He vanished. The other man, the one arrested at the scene of Mura Khan's death, was supposed to be with Tavvi. Both men vanished. How or why they were where they were we do not know."
Illya and Solo looked at each other. The two Stengali leaders watched them. At last Napoleon Solo turned to Max Steng.
"It appears that someone was out to start trouble, to make it look like the Stengali were ready to begin a civil war," Solo said.
"Why?" Mr. Smith said.
"Obviously to cover a real coup," Illya said.
Max Steng pulled on his wisp of beard. "You were being pursued by the second regiment. They were in full battle gear."
"They were," Solo said.
"Then it is Colonel Brown," Steng said. "But not alone. The colonel is a soldier, a loyal one. He would not attempt a revolt."
"How about with Jemi Zamyatta?" Illya said softly.
Max Steng shook his head.
"It is probable, yet hard to believe. For years I have tried to convince Zamyatta that Roy was hurting the country, that his deals with the West are not for our benefit. Deals that make a few Zambalans rich and the majority poor. He always refused to join me. He always said he was tired of violence."
"We saw him with the colonel," Solo said.
Steng smiled sadly. "What do we do, then? We would not want to stop the ending of Premier Roy. But we would not want to see Zamyatta come to power on a military coup."
Mr. Smith laughed harshly. "We will oppose them all as we have always done! Until Zambala is truly free!"
Smith's voice echoed down the box canyon and a sudden silence fell over the Stengali.
It saved their lives.
In that sudden silence the falling boulder was heard. The boulder fell down from the rim of the canyon, bouncing from rock to rock loud in the silent night.
FOUR
The sound of the falling boulder was like the end of the world. The Stengali all froze. The rock bounced down and down and down. Then there was no more noise.
"Move!" Max Steng shouted.
The Stengali moved. They seemed to vanish like wraiths in the night. Silent, barely making a sound, the whole band of swift guerillas vanished. Solo and Illya followed the two leaders.
In an instant, they were all in among the giant boulders of the box canyon in a move that was obviously so well-trained into the Stengali that it was a reflex action.
From above, on the rim of the canyon, a voice now called down.
"You cannot escape, pigs!"
The Stengali were silent among their rocks.
"We cover both sides, the open end! You are boxed in the canyon. Surrender, dogs!"
On the floor of the canyon no one moved or spoke.
Up on the rim a figure appeared. It shone a light on itself. It was a tall man wearing the uniform of a major. The major stood there with the flashlight in his hand trained on himself.
Nothing happened. Illya and Solo watched upwards. The Stengali could have been a hundred miles away, they were so silent and so unseen from above. The major turned to speak behind him.
"They must have escaped," the major said.
"I think not," a voice said from the dark behind him.
"Such pigs always have an escape route. They would not stay to fight with us," the major said.
"They are down there," the voice said. "I say we use the grenades."
"Coward! Grenades for such pigs? Next you will say send for the artillery!"
"If there was artillery, I would say send for the artillery," the hidden voice said.
"I say they have run like the dogs they are, Lieutenant," the major said.
The major still stood there with the flashlight on himself. He looked down at the silent and motionless floor of the box canyon. The major took a step closer to the slope down the to canyon floor.
"Shoot, pigs! Look, I stand here! I have a light! Shoot! Even you must see me! Shoot me, you pigs!"
Nothing moved in the night.
"They are gone," the major said. "No dog of a guerilla could resist shooting at me."
The major began to walk down the slope, the flashlight still held on his arrogant face. In his other hand he held his pistol. He walked slowly down, his eyes alert and jumping from shadow to shadow below on the canyon floor, but his face set in a sneer of courage.
"Look! I defy you! Shoot, pigs!"
The major stepped farther down the slope. Behind the major, faint against the night sky, other heads appeared to watch. Down in the canyon, Illya touched Solo on the shoulder. The small blond nodded up toward the slowly descending major.
"Napoleon! I know him. He's the tall man in black who was watching the prison the night the Stengali was killed trying to escape! The one who tried to ambush me."
On the slope of the canyon, the tall major continued down. He began to move faster now. His arrogant face broke into a small smile. He had started in bravado, and now it looked like he had been right. The Stengali were gone, and he would make good his display of courage. It would impress his men very much.
"Pig dogs! Where are you? Do you fear one man? Come on, you dogs; shoot if you dare!"
There was neither sound nor movement from the rocks on the canyon floor. The major turned to look up the slope.
Now the hidden lieutenant stood there on the crest.
"You see, they are gone! We would have been up there hiding forever. They cannot have gone far. There must be some way out through the closed end."
"Perhaps you are right, my major," the lieutenant said from above.
The major laughed scornfully. "Men do not say perhaps. Come, there is no danger."
The major turned and walked three more steps down. He was almost on the canyon floor. Illya and Solo sensed movement to their right. Max Steng rested his rifle on a boulder.
"Pigs!" the major shouted.
The single shot echoed up and down the canyon.
The major pitched forward on his face and skidded down to the bottom of the canyon. He neither moved nor spoke again. Max Steng lowered his rifle.
The second shot killed the wary lieutenant, who had not been as wary as his intelligence had told him to be. The lieutenant rolled halfway down the canyon wall and stuck against a boulder.