Scotty shook his head. "Nope. He thinks we have a sailboat, and anyone knows sailboats have to tack into the wind."
Zircon merely grinned and said nothing.
Visits to four ship supply stores followed. Zircon expressed amazement at the top of his voice that no timing gear was available. He bemoaned the loss of one engine unless the gear was forthcoming. He sounded pretty convincing.
"We've got it made," Scotty said with satisfaction as the three walked back to the dock. "Did you know we have a tail? He's good, too. I had trouble spotting him. You can bet he heard the professor's sad story, which means the vintas will know about our 'bad engine.'"
The Swift Arrow was in sight now. Rick stared for a heartbeat, then broke into a run. "Come on! Chahda's fighting with someone!"
Rick had seen the Hindu boy dance into sight on the stern of the boat, then lunge behind the pilot house again, a long knife in his hand.
The three pounded down the dock and leaped aboard, then stopped short at the sight on the stern. Chahda had suspended a large bunch of bananas from a convenient hook and was methodically slicing it to pieces with a long Moro knife in each hand.
Rick exploded, "What in the name of an Indian idiot are you doing?"
Chahda paused in his dancing attack to welcome them aboard with a grin. "I get in shape. You like my weapons?"
Rick and the others examined them with considerable interest. One was a barong, with a heavy blade about two feet long. The blade curved along the bottom, or cutting edge, but was nearly straight along the top, which was nearly a quarter of an inch thick. The second weapon was a kris, about the same length, but with two cutting edges, both of which were wavy in typical kris fashion. The kris was more swordlike, but it was a cutting weapon not used for stabbing.