Biff nodded his head.
“How far is that place from here?”
“Not far,” Chuba replied. “Maybe a day’s walk. If we start early in morning.... Here’s your tea.”
Muscles took the hot liquid. “Well then, Jaraminka, here we come.”
As Muscles sipped his tea, he told the boys about landing on a cleared, level plateau over a ridge of the Thanglung foothills to the west.
“Not too far from here,” Muscles looked at his watch. “Took me about two hours to walk back to this fire we spotted from the air. We couldn’t be sure, of course, but we hoped it would be you boys. I guess I must have walked almost straight up and down farther than I walked straight ahead to get here.”
“And Jack went back?” Biff asked.
“Yep. But we’ve got it all fixed. When we find Charlie, we’re to make our way back to that plateau. I’ve got a portable transmitter with me. When we get there, I make a signal. Jack flies in, and it’s back to Unhao we go.”
Muscles made it sound so simple. Biff felt good as he listened to the big man talk so confidently. But there were lots of “ifs”—if they found Charles Keene, if they got back to the plateau, if the signal was heard on time, if Jack could come back in. Biff shook his head. It was good to have big Muscles with them, though. In any trouble, Muscles had a lot of weight to throw around.
“Now suppose we catch some more of that stuff called shut-eye—sleep to you, Chuba, and be up and at ’em early in the ayem.”