OUT OF THE AIR
Again the sun fought the mists of a new day, casting a pallid, watery
light on the livid green roof of the limitless jungle. High up under
that roof, more than a hundred feet above the ground, the morning alarm
clock went off with a scream, the sudden chorus of monkeys and macaws
awaking after a few hours of silence. Down on the eastern shore of the
river, in a little natural port where the shadows still lay thick, men
stirred under their black mosquito nets, yawned, and waited for more
light before starting another day's journey.
To three of the five men housed under those flimsy coverings the somber
hue of their nets was new. On leaving Remate de Males the insect bars
had been clean white; and though they had grown somewhat soiled from
daily handling, they never had approached the drab dinginess of the
barriers draping the hammocks of the Peruvian rivermen. In fact, their
owners had been at some pains to keep them as clean as possible, folding
them each morning with military precision and stowing them carefully.
Wherefore they were somewhat taken aback when informed that nice white
nets were decidedly not the thing in this part of the world.
"Up to this place, senhores, they have done no harm," Pedro said, before
leaving the coronel's grounds. "But from here on they will not do at
all. The weakest moonlight--yes, even starlight--would make them stand
out in the darkness like tombstones. A few days more and we shall be in
the cannibal country. And it is an old trick of those eaters of men to
skulk along the shore by night, watching a camp until all are asleep,
and then sneak up with spears ready. A rush and a swift stab of the
spears into those white nets, and you are dead or dying from the
poisoned points. I would no more sleep under a white net than I would
lie in my hammock and blow a horn to show where I was. Your light nets
must stay here. We will find dark ones for you."
Thus the voyagers learned another of those little things on which
sometimes hinges life or death. Even McKay, with his experience of other
jungles, had never thought it necessary to drape himself in invisibility
at night. But when his attention was called to it he recognized its
value at once, and the white nets were forthwith abandoned.
Now, on the first morning out from the Nunes place, the three Americans
stretched themselves in lazy enjoyment after a night passed without a
sentinel. The stretching evoked sundry grunts due to the discovery that
their muscles still were lame. The long steamer journey from their own
land, followed by the daily confinement of the Peruvian canoe, had
afforded scant opportunity for keeping themselves fit, and the sudden
necessity for doing their own paddling had found every man soft. But
they now were hardening fast, and the steady swing of the paddles was
proving a physical joy. These were men ill accustomed to sitting in
enforced idleness for weeks on end.
Matches flared under the nets and cigarette smoke drifted into the air,
rousing to fresh activity the mosquitoes humming hungrily outside.
Gradually the shadows paled and the weak light reflecting from the
fog-shrouded water beyond grew into day. The nets lifted and the
bloodthirsty insects swooped in vicious triumph on the emerging men. But
again matches blazed, flame licked up among kindlings, a fire grew, and
in its smoke screen the voyagers found some surcease from the bug
hordes. Soon the fragrance of coffee floated into the air.
Tim yawned, coughed explosively, and swore.
"Fellers can't even take a gape for himself without gittin' these cussed
bugs down his throat," he complained, and coughed again. "Gimme some
coffee! I got one skeeter the size of a devil's darnin' needle stuck in
me windpipe."
"A devil's darning needle? What is that, Senhor Tim?" inquired Pedro,
passing him a cup of hot coffee. When the liquid--and the "skeeter"--had
passed into Tim's stomach he enlightened the inquirer.
"Ye dunno what's a devil's darnin' needle? Gosh! I'm s'prised at ye. I
seen lots of 'em right on this here river. He's a bug about so long"--he
stuck out a finger--"and he's got jaws like a crab and a long limber
tail a with reg'lar needle in the end, and inside him is a roll o' tough
silk--tough as spider web. And he's death on liars. Any time a feller
tells a lie he's got to look out, or all to oncet one o' them bugs'll
come scootin' at him and grab him by the nose with them jaws. Then he'll
curl up his tail--the bug, I mean--and run his needle and thread right
through the feller's lips and sew his mouth up tight. Then he flies off
lookin' for another liar."
"_Por Deus!_ And the liar starves to death?"
"Wal, no. O' course he can git somebody to cut the stitches. But the
needle is a good thick one and it leaves a row o' holes all along the
feller's lips. Any time ye see a guy with li'l' round scars around his
mouth, Pedro, ye'll know he's such an awful liar the devil bug got him."
McKay coughed. Knowlton blew his nose into a big handkerchief. Lourenço
squinted sidewise at Tim, who was solemn as an owl. Pedro, his eyes
twinkling, bent forward and scrutinized Tim's mouth.
"You have been fortunate, senhor," he said, simply--and stepped around
to the other side of the fire.
"Huh? Say, lookit here, ye long-legged gorilla--"
Knowlton exploded. McKay and Lourenço snickered.
"It's on you, Tim!" vociferated Knowlton. "You dug the hole yourself.
Now crawl in and pull it in after you."
Tim snorted wrathfully, but his eyes laughed.
"Aw, what's the use o' trying to educate you guys?"
"You swallowed a mosquito just now, but I cannot swallow that devil
bug," Pedro grinned.
Tim rumbled something, solaced himself with a cigarette, then squatted
and joined the others in their frugal breakfast of coffee and
_chibeh_--a handful of farinha mixed with water in a gourd. When it was
finished McKay, who never smoked in the morning until he had eaten,
filled a pipe and suggested:
"Guess we'd better plan our campaign. We didn't take time yesterday. In
case we find no trace of the Raposa at the place where you fellows saw
him, what's your idea?"
Lourenço, puffing thoughtfully, stared into the fire.
"There will be time enough to decide that, Capitao, after we have
visited that place," he said, slowly. "Still, perhaps it is best to make
some plan; it can be changed at any time."
For a moment longer he looked at the dying flame. Then, dropping his
cigarette stub into it, he continued:
"If I were going alone to find a man among the Red Bones, I should go
first to the Mayorunas and work through them to make sure of a friendly
reception by the other people. I would--"
"Why, that's the very thing Schwandorf suggested!"
"Yes? I have not heard what he said. Tell me."
McKay did so. Lourenço smiled.
"Sometimes, Capitao, the devil puts into the hands of men a weapon which
is turned against himself. So it is now. That _Allemao_, Schwandorf,
never expected you to reach the people you seek, but the plan is good.
It would not be good if you followed it exactly as he laid it out, but
things have changed; and what you could not do with Peruvian companions,
or alone, you perhaps can do with us. I will show you.
"It happens that I have been twice among the cannibals living in a
certain _maloca_ which I can find again. Perhaps you know that those
people live in scattered _malocas_, each ruled by its own chief--"
"Yes, we know about that."
"Good. Now if we went to any _maloca_ where we were not known we might
be killed at once. But at that _maloca_ of which I speak I am known to
the chief and all his fighting men, for I once led them on a raid into
Peru. So they will remember me--"
"What's that?" Knowlton interrupted, in amazement. "You led a cannibal
tribe on the warpath?"
"Just so, senhor. It is a long story, but these are the facts:
"There was in Peru a gang of killers, robbers--and worse--who called
themselves the Peccaries. They raided one of the coronel's camps where I
was in charge, killed all my gang except myself and one other, and used
us two as slaves and beasts of burden.
"The other man died from poison. I lived only to revenge myself on those
foul outlaws. There was much rubber of the coronel's, worth much money
at that time, in the camp they had raided. So, after driving me like a
beast to their stronghold in the hills of Peru, they came back with
boats and Indian porters to get out that rubber.
"On that return journey I tried to kill the leader, who was called El
Amarillo--yellow-skinned. I failed, and he had me nailed with long
thorns to a tree where I might hang in torment for days, dying slowly.
See. Here are the marks."
All three of the Americans had noticed on the previous day that each of
Lourenço's hands was disfigured by a scar which looked as if a spike had
been driven through. Now he held those hands forward for their
inspection. Then he pulled off his loose shirt and rolled up his
trousers. They saw other scars in the big muscles before the armpits, in
the soft flesh under the ribs, in the thighs and calves.
"The dirty Hun!" Tim grated.
"That was not all, Senhor Tim. They also put fire ants on me, which bit
so cruelly that I nearly lost my mind from pain. Then they went on,
intending to have more sport with me when they came back with the
rubber. But after they left me two hunters of the cannibal tribe who had
been following a tapir's track found me and took me down from the tree.
"Now the Peccaries before this had stolen some women from a Mayoruna
_maloca_ and were treating them like dogs--I saw one of those women
brutally murdered while I was captive in the outlaw camp. I managed to
tell the two hunters I could lead them to the Peccary stronghold and
give them revenge. They carried me to their _maloca_--I could not
walk--and told their chief what I had said. The chief caused my hurts to
be cured, and then I kept my promise.
"I guided the savages to the outlaw camp; they surrounded it, and in the
fight that followed every Peccary was killed except their leader. Now
that cannibal chief has not forgotten me--"
"Wait a minute," protested Knowlton. "Did that Peccary leader escape?"
"No. He was kept alive until a big herd of peccaries was met. Then,
because he called himself 'King of the Peccaries,' he was nailed to a
tree, as I had been, and told to make the peccaries take out the thorns.
The wild pigs tore him into ribbons with their tusks."
Calmly he donned his shirt again. Tim, staring at him, twitched his
shoulders as if a chill had gone down his back.
"Ugh!" muttered Knowlton.
"So now," Lourenço resumed, "if I can find that chief again--he may have
been killed in some tribal fight before now--he may be friendly to all
of us. Or he may not. Savages cannot be relied on with much certainty.
But if any of the Mayorunas will help us, he will. It is worth trying."
"And if he is not friendly--" Knowlton paused.
"We do not come back," Pedro finished. "Have you a better plan?"
All shook their heads.
"Laurenco's idea is excellent," said McKay. "I was thinking along the
same line, though I did not know he had any such friendly relations with
a chief. That makes it all the more advisable to try it, unless we find
the Raposa first. We, of course, will not land at the place where
Schwandorf told us to go ashore, seven days from here."
"By no means," Lourenço concurred. "In five days we leave the river and
travel along the _ygarapé_. If we go to the _maloca_ it will be from
another direction than the river."
He began preparing to travel. The others also went about the work of
breaking camp. By the time the canoes were loaded the mists had lifted
and the river lay open and empty before them. In the bush around and
beyond, gloom still lay thick and the forest life yelped, howled,
clattered, and wailed. But out on the water it was broad day, and far
overhead sounded the harsh cries of unseen parrots flying two by two in
the sunlight above the matted branches. The world of the pathless tropic
wilderness, ever dying, ever living, was about its daily business. The
five invaders were about theirs.
As the paddlers dipped, however, Knowlton held back.
"Say, Rod, we didn't tell these fellows about Schwandorf's Indian. Hold
up a second, men."
While all rested on their paddles he spoke of the mysterious messenger
dispatched from Nazareth. Pedro and Lourenço contemplated the river,
then frowned.
"That may be of importance, senhores," said Lourenço. "It may change
everything for us. We saw a lone Indian go past the coronel's place,
traveling fast, three days before you came. I would give much to know
where he is now and what word he carries. A short man with a bad left
leg, you say. We shall keep watch for such a man. Perhaps we may meet
him."
Wherein he predicted more accurately than he knew.
The canoes swung out and the paddlers settled into the steady stroke to
which they were growing accustomed. Hour after hour they forged on, the
Brazilians adjusting their speed to that of the Americans, who had not
yet attained the muscular ease of habitual canoemen. The miles flowed
slowly but surely behind them, the sun rolled higher and hotter, the
silence of approaching noon crept over the jungle on either side. Then,
as the time drew near when they would land for a more hearty meal than
that of the morning, Pedro pointed ahead.
Up out of the bush on the Peruvian shore rose a vulture. It flapped
sullenly away as if disappointed. The bushmen, quick to note anything
that might be a sign, paid no attention to the bird's flight, but marked
with unerring eye the spot whence it had taken wing.
"Let us cross, comrades, and see what we may see," Pedro called. "If
nothing is there, we can eat."
But something was there. All saw it before they landed--the stern of a
small, speedy canoe almost concealed in a narrow rift at the bottom of
the bank. In the soil of the rising slope were the prints of bare feet.
And Pedro, scanning the tracks narrowly after he and the others reached
shore, asserted, "These were not made to-day."
Up the bank they climbed, silent and watchful. At the top Lourenço took
the lead. In under big trees the five passed in file. A short distance
from the edge Lourenço stopped, looking at the ground. The others spread
out and stared at the thing he had found.
Between the buttress roots of a tall tree was a crude shelter of palm
leaves. Before this lay the scattered bones of a man. The skull had been
crushed by a mighty blow.
The bones were picked clean--had been stripped and torn asunder days
before, and the vulture which had just left had gotten nothing for its
belated visit. Among them were remnants of cloth, a belt and a machete,
and strands of coarse black hair. A few feet away lay a cheap "trade"
gun. Lourenço inspected the weapon and laid it back.
"Did he shoot before he was downed?" asked Knowlton.
"No. The gun is loaded. His death came from above." The bushman ran his
eye up the towering tree, then pointed to a large dark object on the
ground near by.
"Castanha--Brazil-nut tree," he explained. "That heavy nut fell and
smashed the Indian's skull like an egg. Indian, yes. His gun, his
shelter, and his hair show that. And"--stooping and pointing at one of
the bones--"that bone shows who he was. See, Capitao."
McKay looked down on a leg bone. At some time the leg had been broken
and badly set, if set at all. The bone was crooked.
"A short Indian with a crooked leg. Schwandorf's messenger!"
"_Si._ No man will ever receive the message he bore. He camped here days
ago. Now he camps here forever."