Skullduggery

Anthropolgist, Dr. Sybil Greame, has come to Papua New Guinea searching for bones from a species she thinks might represent a missing step in the evolution of humans from apes. Douglas Temple and Otto Kreps, a couple of local opportunists, are determined to go with her. They have discovered that native artifacts from the area where she is going are rich in valuable phosphors used in color TV tubes. They are worth $1000 per kilogram. They stage an "accident" that injures her technical expert, Bruce Spofford; they are the logical replacements. Once there, the pair not only find phosphor bearing rocks but skulls that satisfy "the missing link" characteristics. Dr. Greame thinks it's a hoax until they discover the band of creatures they came from. Dubbed Tropis, they seem quite evolved - having language and the ability to quickly learn how to use tools. When Graeme notifies her backer, industrialist Vancruysen, he takes immediate steps to exploit them as cheap labor in his manufacturing empire. Temple objects to this. He takes a pregnant Tropi female out, Otto's constant companion. She gives birth to a dead baby. Temple claims he killed it to precipitate a sensational trial to determine if the Tropis are human or animal.