"Must have passed it," Jon said over his suit-radio as his puzzled eyes studied the meters on the finder.
"Try going back thirty or forty yards to the right, then back toward the left," Jak suggested.
Soon Jon shouted and started off in a new direction, but more slowly, and Jak ran quarteringly toward him.
Inside half a mile Jon lost the beam again, and once more they quartered to find it. In narrower and narrower circles they searched.
Suddenly Jak stumbled and fell to the ground. As he started to rise, Jon heard his excited yell coming through his earphones.
6
At his brother's eager cry, Jon ran over toward where the older boy was stooping down, examining carefully something almost completely embedded in the sand. He saw Jak rise, take his shovel from the carrying straps on his suit's back, and start uncovering whatever it was he had stumbled over.
As Jon came up, he uttered an exclamation of surprise. "Why ... what ... that's a metal plate. What is it, Jak?"
"Don't ... know ... yet," the elder panted as he worked even more feverishly with his shovel. Jon quickly laid down the detector, which was clicking excitedly, to unsling his own shovel and begin digging.