"Not for a few thousand years," Zircon said. "A good idea, Scotty. Do you happen to have a spoon seven hundred feet long?"
Scotty grinned. "Yes. Mr. Ko supplied one." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a grenade. "These will do the best job of stirring that black cup of tea that you've ever seen."
"Capital!" Zircon exclaimed. "They'll do perfectly, Scotty." He looked at the boys. "Who wants to go back?"
Sing spoke up. "I will go, and some of the lamas should, too. The monastery should know all about these caves, in case something like this ever happens again." He spoke to the lamas in Tibetan. They consulted briefly, then nodded assent. Five of them stepped forward.
"And Scotty and I will go," Rick volunteered. "I want to see how this spoon works." He looked at Long Shadow and Ko. "Maybe they ought to go back and see the end of their racket, whatever it is."
"No need," Zircon said. "They know it's the end, and Bradley does too. Which is more than we know, I must say. But we'll find out from Bradley very soon."
Rick hefted his rifle. "Incidentally, there's one thing I want to do before we go back."
"And that is?"
He grinned at the scientist. "I want to go hunting blue sheep."
"Me, too," Scotty chimed in.