THE VOICE OF THE WILDS
McKay, eyes twinkling again, awaited them at the top of the hotel's
street ladder.
"Rooms any good, Rod?" hailed Knowlton.
"Best in the house, Merry."
"See any insects in the beds?"
"Nary a bug--in the beds." The twinkle grew. "Didn't look in the bureaus
or behind the mirrors. Come look 'em over."
Entering a sizable room evidently used for dining--for its chief
articles of furniture were two tables made from planed palm
trunks--McKay waved a hand toward a row of four doorways on the right.
"First three are ours," he explained. "Only vacancies here. Eight rooms
in this hotel--the other four over there." He pointed across the room,
on the other side of which opened four similar doors. "They're occupied
by two sick men, one drunk--hear him snore?--and one she-goat which is
kidding."
"Huh?" Tim snorted, suspiciously. "I think ye're the one that's kiddin',
Cap."
"Not a bit. I looked. The last room on this side is the Dutchman's, and
these are ours. Take your pick. They're all alike."
Knowlton stepped to the nearest and looked in. For a moment he said no
word. Then he softly muttered:
"Well, I'll be spread-eagled!"
"Me, too," seconded Tim, who had been craning his neck.
The room was absolutely empty. No bed, no chair, no bureau, no
rug--nothing at all was in it except two iron hooks. Its floor consisted
of split palm logs, round side up, between which opened inch-wide
spaces. Its walls were rusty corrugated iron, guiltless of mirrors or
pictures, which did not reach to the roof.
"Observe the excellent ventilation," grinned McKay. "Wind blows up
through the floor--if there is any wind--and then loops over the
partition into the next fellow's room."
"Yeah. And I'll say any guy that drops his collar button is out o' luck.
It goes plunk into the mud, seven foot down under the house. But say,
Cap, how the heck do we sleep? Hang ourselves up on them hooks?"
"Exactly."
"Kind o' rough on a feller's shirt, ain't it? And the shirt would likely
pull off over yer head before mornin'."
"Yes, probably would. But the secret is this--you're supposed to hang
your hammock on those hooks. You provide the hammock. The hotel provides
the hooks. What more can you ask of a modern hotel?"
"Huh! And if a guy wants a bath, there's the river, all full o' 'gators
and cattawampuses and things. And if ye eat, I s'pose ye rustle yer own
grub and pay for eatin' it off that slab table there. There's jest one
thing ye can say for this dump--a feller can spit on the floor. But with
all them cracks in it he might not hit it, at that. Mother of mine! To
think Missus Ryan's li'l' boy should ever git caught stayin' in a hole
like this, along o' drunks and skiddin' she-goats and--did ye say a
Dutchman?"
"German. Chap named Schwandorf."
"Yeah?" Tim's tone was sinister. "Say, Cap, gimme the room next that
guy. And if ye hear anybody yowlin' before mornin' don't git worried. It
won't be me."
"None of that, Tim," warned Knowlton. "The war's over--"
"Since when? There wasn't no peace treaty signed when we left the
States."
"Er--ahum! Well, technically you're right. But this fellow may be useful
to us. He knows the upper river, they say."
"Aw, well, if ye can use him I'll lay off him. Where is he?"
"Out somewhere," answered McKay. "I haven't seen him yet. Want this
first room, Merry?"
"Just to play safe, I'll take the one next the German. And if I hear any
war in the night, Tim, I'm coming over the top with both hands going."
"Grrrumph!" growled Tim.
"That goes, Tim," warned McKay. "I'll take this room and you can have
the one between us. Here comes the baggage train with our stuff. In
here, men!"
Puffing and grunting, Antonio and Jorge and Rosario and Meldo shuffled
in with the boxes and bundles. Under the directions of McKay and
Knowlton, these were stowed in the bare rooms. Then the four shuffled
out again, grinning happily over a small roll of Brazilian paper reis
which McKay had peeled from a much larger roll and handed to them.
Immediately following their departure, in came a youth carrying three
new hammocks.
"Our beds," McKay explained. "I sent this lad to a trader's store for
them. He's the proprietor's son. Thank you, Thomaz. Tell your father to
put these on our bill, and take for yourself this small token of our
appreciation."
More reis changed hands. The young Brazilian, with a flash of teeth,
informed them that the evening meal would soon be ready and disappeared
through a rear door.
"Do they really feed us at this here, now, hotel?" Tim demanded. "Then
the goat's safe."
"Meaning?" puzzled Knowlton.
"Meanin' I didn't know but we had to kill our supper, and I was goin' to
git the cap'n's goat. That is, the goat the cap'n's kiddin'--I mean the
goat that's kiddin' the cap--the skiddin' she-goat--Aw, rats! ye know
what I'm drivin' at. Me tongue so dry it don't work right."
Wherewith Tim retreated in disorder to his room and began wrestling with
his new hammock and the iron hooks.
Swift darkness filled the rooms. The sun had slid down below the bulge
of the fast-rolling world. Thomaz re-entered, lit candles stuck in empty
bottles, and, with a bow, placed one of these crude illuminants at the
door of each of the strangers. By the flickering lights McKay and
Knowlton disposed their effects according to their individual desires,
bearing in mind Tim's observation that any small article dropped on the
floor would land in the mud under the house, whence sounded the grunts
of pigs. Their work was soon completed, and they sauntered together to
the small piazza.
"Nice quiet little place," commented Knowlton. "Make a good sanitarium
for nervous folks."
The comment was made in a tone which, in the daytime, would carry half a
mile. McKay nodded to save a similar effort. The outbreak of the howling
monkey which so startled Tim had been only the first note of the night
concert of the jungle. Now that the sun was gone the chorus was in full
swing.
Beasts of the village, the jungle, the river, all hurled their voices
into the uproar. From the gloom around the houses rose the bellowing of
cows and calves, the howls and yelps of dogs, the yowling of cats, the
grunts and squeals of hogs. In the black river, flowing past within a
stone's throw of the hotel door, sounded the loud snorts of dolphins and
the hideous night call of the foul beast of the mud--the alligator. Out
from the matted tangle of trees and brush and great snakelike vines
behind the town rolled the appalling roars of guaribas, raucous bird
calls, dismal hoots, sudden scattered screams. And over all, whelming
all other sound by the sheer might of its penetrating power, throbbed
the rapid-fire hammering of millions of frogs.
"Frogs sound like a machine-gun barrage," the blond man added.
"Or thousands of riveting hammers pounding steel."
"Queer how much worse it is when you're right in it. We've heard it all
the way up two thousand miles of Amazon, but--"
"But you're right beside the orchestra now. Position is everything in
life."
The double-edged jest made Knowlton glance sidelong at his mate. Of the
tall, eagle-faced Scot's past he knew little beyond what he had seen of
him in war, where he had met him and learned to respect him
whole-heartedly. From occasional remarks he had learned that McKay had
been in all sorts of places between Buenos Aires and Nome; and from a
few intangible hints he suspected that his "position in life" had once
been much higher socially than at present. But he asked no questions.
"Some orchestra, all right," he responded, casually. "Plenty of jazz.
It'll quiet down after a while."
For a time they stood leaning against the wall, staring abstractedly out
at the dark. One by one the domestic animals ceased their clamor and
settled themselves for the night. The jungle din, too, seemed to
diminish, though perhaps this was because the ears of the men had become
accustomed to it. At length through the discordant symphony boomed the
voice of Tim.
"By cripes! I know now what folks mean when they talk about a howlin'
wilderness. Always thought 'twas one o' them figgers o' speech, but I'll
tell the world it ain't no joke! Gosh! Think of all the things that's
layin' out there and bellerin' and waitin' for us pore li'l' fellers to
come in amongst 'em and git et up."
"You'll find the same things in the cities up home," said Knowlton, a
bit cynically. "Different bodies and different methods of attack, but
the same merciless animals under the skin. Snakes in silk
suits--foul-mouthed alligators in dinner jackets--hunting-cats and
vampires, painted and powdered--and all the rest of it."
"Yeah. Ye said a mouthful, Looey. But say, Tommy's shovin' some grub on
the table. Mebbe we better hop to it before the flies git it all."
After a glance at the vicious attack already begun by the aforesaid
flies, the pair adopted Tim's suggestion and hopped to it. Manfully they
assailed the rubbery jerked beef, black beans, rice, farinha, and thick,
black, unsweetened coffee which comprised the meal. All three were
wrestling with chunks of the meat when Tim, facing the door, stopped
chewing long enough to mutter:
"Dutchland overalls. Here's the goose stepper."
The heads of the other two involuntarily moved a little. Then their
necks stiffened and they continued eating. Tim alone stared straight at
a burly, black-whiskered Teuton who had halted in the outer doorway. And
Tim alone saw the ugly look crossing the newcomer's visage as he gazed
at the khaki shirts, the broad shoulders under them, and the
unmistakably Irish--and hostile--face of Tim himself.
Catching the hard stare of the red-haired man, he of the black beard
advanced at once, his eyes veering to the door of his own room. Straight
to that room he marched with heavy tread. He opened the door with a
kick, shut it behind him with a slam. The three at the table glanced at
one another.
"Say what ye like," grumbled Tim, "but me and that guy don't hold no
mush party. I don't like his map. I don't like his manners. And he looks
too much like the Fritz that shot me in the back with a kamerad gun
after surrenderin'. I was in hospital three months. D'ye mind that time,
Looey?"
Knowlton nodded. He remembered also that Tim, shot down from behind and
almost killed, had reeled up to his feet and bayoneted his man before
falling the second time. Wherefore he replied:
"He isn't the same one, Tim."
"Nope," grimly. "That one won't never come back. All the same, if you
gents want to chew the fat with this feller I'm goin' slummin' with me
friend Joey Mouthgargle Nabisco Whoozis. Then I won't be round here to
make no sour-caustic remarks and gum up yer party."
"Might be a good idea," McKay conceded.
"There he is now, the li'l' darlin'! Hullo, Joey, old sock! Stick around
a minute while I scoop a few more beans. Be with ye toot
sweet--vite--presto--P.D.Q."
Wherewith he demolished the rest of his meal with military dispatch,
proceeded doorward, smote the grinning army of Remate de Males a buffet
on the shoulder, and vanished into the night. A moment later his
stentorian voice rolled back through the nocturnal racket in an
impromptu paraphrase of an old and highly improper army song:
"We're in the jungle now,
We ain't behind the plow;
We'll never git rich,
We'll die with the itch.
We're in the jungle now!"