A yell, expressive in about equal proportions of amazement at the
strength which could drive an arrow very nearly through the body of a
man, and fury against the audacious slayers of that man--who happened to
be a cacique--immediately arose from the occupants of the companion
canoe, to be almost immediately succeeded by loud cries of dismay as a
sudden swirl and rush along the surface of the stream toward the spot
where the occupants of the capsized canoe were splashing in the water
betrayed the presence of a hungry alligator. Paddles were dashed into
the water with frantic energy as the occupants of the other canoe,
abandoning all attempts to bar the passage of the Englishmen, whirled
their craft round and sped to the assistance of their friends. But the
alligators were beforehand with them, for before they could reach the
spot where the capsized canoe floated, bottom up, surrounded by her
crew, two piercing shrieks were followed by the abrupt disappearance of
two Indians beneath the surface of the water; and a few seconds later a
third Indian vanished in the same terrible manner.
"The caimans are among them!" shouted Stukely to Dick. "This is our
chance to get past, lad. Starboard your helm a little. So, steady!
Keep her at that. Now, if we were vindictively inclined, we could
hamper their efforts very considerably by galling them with our arrows
as we slip past. But let be; perhaps the lesson which they have already
had will teach them the folly of interfering with Englishmen!"
The Mayubuna, however, had not yet received their full lesson; for when
the canoe of the would-be rescuers dashed in among the swimmers the
latter, frantic with fear of the alligators, seized her gunwale and made
such frenzied and reckless efforts to scramble into her that, despite
the warning cries of her occupants, she, too, was instantly capsized.
And now blind, senseless panic seized in an instant upon every Indian
present; for shriek after shriek told that the alligators were still
busy; while the remaining four canoes, which had also been hastening to
the rescue, suddenly paused, evidently fearful lest, if they approached
the scene of the disaster, they, too, might be involved in it.
Meanwhile, the Englishmen, taking the fullest possible advantage of the
situation, slid at a safe distance past the spot where the Indians were
all struggling in the water in a vain effort to right their canoes and
climb into them, and, favoured by a freshening breeze, pursued their way
up the river. But although they had escaped for the moment, Phil and
Dick still had plenty of cause for anxiety; for they had by this time
been long enough in the wilds to have learned that when Indians are
hostile their hostility is very bitter and pertinacious; and they could
scarcely hope that, having mistaken them for Spaniards--who at that time
were more feared and hated than any other earthly thing by the Indians--
the Mayubuna would be satisfied with the issue of their first encounter
with the white men. Moreover to add to the difficulties of the said
white men, evening was now drawing on apace, the sun had already sunk so
low that his beams were unable to pierce the forest on their right hand,
while the orange glow which suffused the tree-tops on their left told
them as plainly as words that the great luminary was within a brief
half-hour of his setting. And, unfortunately, there was no moon just
then; while without the light of the moon it was impossible to use the
river at night. It would therefore be imperatively necessary for them
to seek quickly a place of concealment wherein to pass the night if they
wished to avoid being overtaken by darkness on the river; they therefore
now proceeded to look anxiously about them for such a place.
Eventually, when the brief twilight of the tropics was closing down upon
the scene and the fireflies were beginning to appear, they sighted a
spot which, while by no means ideal for their purpose, might possibly be
made to serve.
It lay about a hundred yards up a small creek branching out of the main
stream, and as it was the only spot at all suitable which they had seen
since their encounter with the Indians, they really had no choice but to
avail themselves of it. It consisted of a little grassy mead of about
two acres in extent, lying quite open to view from the main river, the
surface of the soil being not more than a foot above that of the water,
and with no rushes to form a screen. Therefore, if they were to camp
there for the night, as indeed they must, there being apparently no
other place for them, they would have to manage as best they could
without a fire wherewith to cook their supper. But needs must, under
certain circumstances, so, with a glance astern to assure themselves
that they were not being followed, the sail was lowered, the canoe was
turned into the creek, and a minute later the voyagers were ashore and
glancing keenly about them to ascertain the possibilities of the place.
These were rather better than a first glance had led the wanderers to
hope for, for their first necessity was to find a hiding-place for the
canoe, and there, about a hundred and fifty yards away, was a clump of
detached bush which would serve admirably for such a purpose. So,
availing themselves of the very last of the waning light, they hauled
the canoe out of the water, hoisted her upon their shoulders, and,
carrying her to the clump of bush, very effectively concealed her
therein, afterwards going back over their trail through the grass and
carefully obliterating it by means of a leafy branch, in the manner
which they had learned from Vilcamapata. Then they looked about them
for a spot in which they might themselves pass the night. The place was
by no means an ideal one for fugitives to pass the night in, for there
was nothing even remotely resembling a hiding-place that they could see;
and concealment was just then what they wanted more than anything else.
True, there was an enormous ceiba tree growing upon the very edge of the
clearing, among the upper branches of which they might possibly be able
to conceal themselves; and in the absence of anything more suitable they
at length determined to avail themselves of that, braving the perils of
possible jaguars, scorpions, snakes, ants, and other undesirable
bedfellows. Accordingly, the two friends ascended to the lower branches
of the tree by climbing the lianas, hand over hand, which depended
conveniently from the boughs, and, working their way aloft as well as
they could in the thick darkness created by the luxuriant foliage, at
length established themselves quite safely and comfortably in the fork
formed by the junction of two enormous branches with the parent stem.
They had no food with them, and were possessed of a healthy hunger, for
they had eaten nothing since midday; but they were also exceedingly
tired; and it was not long before they forgot their hunger in profound
sleep.
Probably they would not have slept so soundly had they known that they
had unwittingly entered a trap. But they had; for the Indians whom they
had encountered shortly before knew that part of the river perfectly,
and were fully aware that the difficulties of navigation were such that
the fugitives could not possibly proceed very far in the darkness, and
they also knew that the spot where Dick and Phil had landed was the only
one within many miles where an upstream landing was possible. They
therefore conjectured shrewdly that, since the white men would arrive at
this spot just about nightfall, they would be certain to land there, and
they took their measures accordingly. First of all, to make everything
quite sure, they sent a messenger on to the next village, some fifteen
miles up the river, to inform the cacique of the presence of the two
white men in the neighbourhood, and to request that a watch for them
should be kept, with a view to their capture. They requested further,
that in the event of the white men being captured, they should be sent
back down the river to pay the penalty for having caused the death of
seventeen Mayubuna Indians. Then, having by this means ensured the
capture of the fugitives, in the event of their succeeding by any chance
in forcing their way up the river in the darkness, they launched and
manned four canoes, each containing ten men, and these four canoes,
spreading themselves right across the river, so that nothing could
possibly pass downstream undetected, proceeded to make their way
cautiously up the river to the spot where they knew it was morally
certain that the white men must and would land. It was nearly eight
o'clock at night when the four canoes arrived at the spot for which they
were bound, and it was then of course much too dark for them to see
anything. They therefore troubled themselves not at all to search for
signs of the white men's presence, but assumed that they were there
somewhere, and at once, with infinite precaution, proceeded to surround
the open plateau, cunningly concealing themselves in the long grass.
Half a dozen of them lay immediately beneath the overhanging branches of
the ceiba tree; but they arrived there so silently that, even if Dick
and Phil had been awake, they would have heard nothing.
Now, there is probably no creature in this world of ours more vindictive
than an angry Indian; and these particular Mayubuna Indians considered
that they had ample cause for their anger against the two white men whom
they were taking so much trouble to capture; for had not those same
white men been directly responsible for the loss of seventeen male
Mayubuna lives? And among the South American Indians, who, even then,
were beginning from a variety of causes to die out, nothing is so
valuable as the life of a male--females they care nothing about; they
may live or die as they please--therefore those who were responsible for
the sacrifice of no less than seventeen men's lives must receive a
punishment, the severity of which should be proportionate to the
enormity of their crime. Consequently not one of those Indians closed
his eyes for a moment throughout the long hours of that night; and with
the first hint of approaching dawn, long before either of the occupants
of the ceiba were awake, they were keenly looking about them for "sign"
of the white men's presence. For some time, however, they looked in
vain, for the Englishmen had learned a few of the ways of the wild from
Vilcamapata, and had succeeded in obliterating their tracks so
completely that even the sharp eyes of the savages failed to detect
them. But by and by, when it was broad daylight, one of the Mayubuna
who had recognised the possibilities of concealment afforded by the
ceiba detected spots here and there on two of the depending lianas where
small strips of the bark had been freshly torn off as though somebody
had very recently climbed up them, and to this he immediately directed
the attention of the rest, with the result that it soon became a
practical certainty that the fugitives were somewhere in that tree.
This having been determined, certain of the Mayubuna young men of the
party, anxious to distinguish themselves, proposed to climb the tree
forthwith and bring the white men down, dead or alive; but the cacique
in command of the party, who happened to have been in one of the
attacking canoes on the preceding night, and had therefore already had
experience of the prowess of the hunted men, at once vetoed the plan as
being far too dangerous; besides, for certain grim reasons which will in
due time appear, he wanted the quarry to be taken alive and unhurt, if
possible. Therefore, instead of permitting any of his men to climb the
tree, he so disposed them round the base of it that, while far enough
away to ensure that they should not be seen by the occupants during
their descent, they should be near enough to rush in and effect the
capture of the white men the moment that they set foot on the ground.
Meanwhile Stukely and Chichester, absolutely unconscious of the
elaborate preparations that were being made for their capture, slept
soundly on until the sun was fairly above the horizon, when the cries of
the birds in the neighbouring branches of the tree aroused them to the
fact that another day had arrived, and that it was high time for them to
descend from their lofty hiding-place and proceed with the preparations
for the resumption of their journey. Accordingly, they began their
descent with the observance of every precaution which their past
experience had taught them; but, unfortunately, they had not yet learned
that when you ascend a tree in search of concealment, it is always
advisable to descend some other, as they might easily have done had they
thought of it; for, as is the case almost everywhere in the South
American forest, the trees grew so thickly together that they might
easily have travelled for miles without descending to the ground, merely
by climbing along from branch to branch. But this idea did not occur to
them, therefore they proceeded to lower themselves gradually down the
giant trunk, carefully inspecting what lay beneath them before
attempting to reach the next branch below. For the first fifty feet or
so of their descent, however, the foliage of the tree was so dense that
it completely shut out all view of the ground beneath; and by the time
that an occasional glimpse of the grassy glade below became visible they
were so near the ground that, as the cunning cacique had anticipated, it
was impossible for them to detect the hiding-places of the concealed
Indians.
At length the two adventurers reached the lowest branch of all; and here
they paused and very carefully scrutinised the ground beneath them. But
if they knew how to obliterate their tracks, so did the Indians, and
there was nothing visible to indicate the presence of forty foes lurking
in the long grass below, or indeed anywhere within the glade.
Therefore, with the assurance begotten of a conviction that they had
succeeded in hoodwinking their foes of the preceding evening, they
boldly ran out along the great spreading branch, seized a liana each,
and slid rapidly to the ground--to find themselves skilfully noosed in a
lasso and their arms tightly confined to their sides, the moment that
their feet touched the earth. Then, despite their frantic struggles to
free themselves from the entangling lassos, they were instantly seized
and other ropes of raw-hide were deftly twisted about their limbs and
bodies, until in less than a minute they were so tightly and securely
trussed up that they could scarcely wag a finger; after which they were
each hoisted upon the shoulders of four Indians and borne with songs of
triumph and rejoicing to the canoes, into which they were tumbled with
scant ceremony. Then, with further songs of triumph, they were swiftly
transported back down the river to the village to which their captors
belonged.
This village was quite invisible from the river, being approached by
means of one of those small, short, winding creeks that so frequently
occur on the South American rivers, and the existence of which seems so
difficult to account for; but when, upon the canoes rounding a bend, the
place swung into view, it was seen to be of quite considerable extent,
consisting of fully one hundred palm-leaf huts standing in an open glade
of about two hundred acres in extent, part of which was under
cultivation, being planted, in almost equal proportion, with bananas,
yams, and cassava.
The triumphant songs and shouts of the victorious expedition caused the
entire population of the village to turn out and swarm down to the small
strip of beach which constituted the landing-place; so when Dick and
Phil were lifted out of the canoes they beheld a crowd of some four or
five hundred Indians, men, women, and children, crowded together to gaze
upon and jeer at them. And jeer at them they did, with all the more
gusto when it was seen that so tightly had the bonds been drawn about
the prisoners' limbs that when they were set upon their feet they were
unable to stand, but sank helplessly to the ground with an involuntary
groan. But the Indians had already had enough of carrying their
stalwart prisoners, and especially Dick, who towered head and shoulders
above the tallest of them; therefore when they saw that it was
impossible for the white men to stand, and had fathomed the reason for
their helplessness, they loosed the thongs about their prisoners' feet
and legs, and allowed them a few minutes pause for the blood to
circulate afresh. Those few minutes were surcharged with exquisite
suffering for the unfortunate victims, but they bore it with stoical
silence and composure; and when at length the cacique gave the order for
them to rise and march they at once scrambled to their feet and
proceeded, in charge of a dozen Indians, fully armed with pocunas, or
blowpipes, bows--the arrows of which were doubtless poisoned with
curare--and long spears. In this order, and followed by the entire
population, our friends were marched up through the village to a hut
situated near its northern extremity, into which they were bundled,
while the guards ranged themselves round the hut outside, to frustrate
any attempt at escape.
The unfortunate prisoners were by this time suffering so acutely from
the tightness of the ligatures which confined their arms to their bodies
that they were in no mood for conversation, but just lay upon the
earthen floor of the hut in silent torment. But, luckily for them, they
were not called upon to endure very much longer; for when they had lain
there about half an hour the cacique appeared and gave orders that their
bonds were to be loosed, at the same time warning them that the first
indication of an attempt to escape would be met by a shower of arrows,
the smallest scratch from which would be followed by a death of
intolerable agony. Phil replied that under those circumstances the
cacique might rest assured that no such attempt would be made, and
followed up the assurance by asking why they had been taken prisoners,
seeing that they were not Spaniards, but were enemies of the Spaniard
and therefore ought to be regarded as friends by all who hated the
Spaniard. To which statement the cacique made no reply, but simply
turned on his heel and departed. A few minutes later, however, two
women appeared bearing food--a portion of roast kid on a plantain leaf,
and some cassava bread, together with a small gourd of what looked like
sour milk--which they set upon the ground before the prisoners; and Phil
and Dick both agreed that in the regards of these women there was more
of pity than of hate.
During the whole of that day and the next our friends were kept close
prisoners; but on the morning of their third day of captivity they were
summoned from their hut almost before they had finished breakfast; and,
upon emerging, were conducted to the open space in the middle of the
village, where were assembled not only all the inhabitants of the place
but some seven or eight hundred more who seemed to be visitors. The
crowd generally were densely packed round the sides of the quadrangle,
the middle being kept clear by a line of armed men who maintained order
by the free use of their heavy clubs, which they unhesitatingly drove
into the pit of the stomach of any unauthorised person who displayed an
undue eagerness to get a good view of the impending proceedings. In the
middle of the clear space sat the cacique of the village, with two men,
apparently visitors, on either side of him; and a little apart from
these stood two other men, one of whom Phil immediately recognised as
having been in one of the canoes which had attempted to bar their
progress up the river.
A little murmur of excited expectancy, perhaps mingled with wonder,
swept through the crowd as the two prisoners were led forward and halted
in front of the cacique; but it quickly died away and an intense silence
ensued, which was presently broken by the cacique, who, addressing
Stukely, said:
"White man, whence come you, and whither were you going when you strove
to force a passage up the river on the evening of the day before last?"
"We come," replied Phil, "from an island far away across the Great
Water; so far that we were voyaging a whole moon and more without sight
of land; and our business is to fight the Spaniard, who is our enemy, as
well as that of the Indian. Twice have we fought him already; once on
the Great Water, where we took from him one of his great canoes; and
once again in one of his towns, far away to the north, where we took
another of his great canoes, with much gold of which he had robbed the
Indian. But by a mischance my friend and I were left behind when our
comrades sailed away; and for a time we were in danger of falling into
the hands of the Spaniard. Then we escaped from them, but, having no
canoe big enough to take us across the Great Water, we were obliged to
remain in this land; and, having heard that there are many Spaniards in
the land lying to the southward, we determined to seek them out and take
from them as much as we can get of the gold which they have
unrighteously taken from the Indians."
"If that story be true, why did ye not tell it us instead of slaying
many of my people, one of them by an arrow from your bow, and the rest
by the jaws of the caimans?" demanded the cacique.
"Nay, why ask a question of which you yourself know the answer?"
retorted Phil. "For you were in one of the canoes, and saw and heard
everything that passed. Did not I make to your leader all the signs of
amity and goodwill? But he rejected them; he called us dogs of
Spaniards; bade us go back by the way that we had come; and himself shot
the arrow which led to all the trouble. Is that the way in which the
Mayubuna treat those who come to them as friends?"
"How do I know that ye come as friends?" demanded the cacique. "When
the Spaniards first appeared in this land they, too, said that they came
as the friends of the Indian; and how have they proved their friendship?
By killing the Inca Atahuallpa and seizing his kingdom; by enslaving
the Indian and despoiling him of all that he possesses; by ravaging the
country with fire and sword! Nay, I believe not your story. If ye are
not Spaniards, ye are white-skinned, even as they are; your hearts are
evil and full of guile, like theirs; and if we were foolish enough to
listen to your lying words you would treat us even as they treated
Atahuallpa and his people. But there are only two of you, and you are
in our power; moreover ye have slain, or caused to be slain, seventeen
men of the Mayubuna; therefore shall ye die; not quickly and easily, but
little by little, so that ye shall die not once but a thousand times;
and your torments shall be as honey to the friends of those whom ye have
slain, and your groans and cries for mercy shall be more pleasant to
them than the songs of birds. Go; I have spoken!" And amid tumultuous
shouts of rejoicing from the assembled multitude the two Englishmen were
conducted back to their prison hut and once more placed under strict
guard. For they were trebly valuable now, having been condemned to die
by the torture, and it was seldom indeed that an Indian was afforded so
delectable a sight as that of a white man suffering the unspeakably
hideous torments which, with fiendish cleverness, were designed to
inflict the maximum amount of pain which the human frame could possibly
endure, and still continue to live. Moreover there were two of them;
big, strong men, apparently in the very pink of health and condition;
they would linger long and endure unimaginable torments before
succumbing; and the sight of their agonies would be one long-drawn-out
rapture to those who were privileged to witness them. Oh yes; they must
be guarded well, for their escape now would mean lifelong disappointment
to the whole village and its guests.
But they must not only be kept safe; their health and strength must be
preserved intact; therefore during the remainder of that day an abundant
supply of food was provided for them, and they were urged with the
utmost solicitude to partake of it freely. Which they did; for as Phil
remarked to Dick, their strength was never of such vital importance to
them as now; since it was not to be supposed that they were going to
submit to be slowly tortured to death without at least making an effort
to escape; and for that effort to be successful they must keep well and
strong.
The worst of it was that they were quite unable to obtain the slightest
inkling of the form which their torture was to take; the men who guarded
them were willing enough to converse with them upon general subjects,
indeed they were full of curiosity, and asked innumerable questions
respecting the past adventures of the Englishmen; but when it came to
talking about the forthcoming festivities they at once fell silent; they
either could not or would not give the slightest information.
"Well," said Phil, at the conclusion of a long conversation with their
jailers, "we are at least unbound; our hands and feet are free; and
before I suffer myself to be again tied up a good many of the Mayubuna
are going to die."
"I say ditto to that," replied Dick, rising to his feet and stretching
his long limbs as though to test their strength, an action which, by the
by, at once brought the guard facing round with their spears poised and
their bows bent, so alert were they to act upon the slightest thing that
seemed to hint at an attempt to escape. Yet that was precisely the
problem that was exercising the minds of the two white men all through
that day and the succeeding night; and three times during that night did
they make tentative efforts to escape the watchfulness of their gaolers,
but without success.
One thing, however, was pretty evident, and that was that the torture,
whatever might be its nature, was to begin on the morrow; for the
village was in a perfect ferment of excitement all day, and all through
the night, too, for that matter; people were constantly coming and going
in crowds past the hut, merely for the sake, apparently, of getting a
casual peep at the prisoners as they passed; and with nightfall great
fires were lighted in the square, and singing and dancing went on all
through the night as a fitting introduction to the entertainment of the
following day.
At length, after a sleepless night of intense anxiety on the part of the
prisoners, and, as has been said, more than one unavailing effort to
elude the vigilance of their guards, the morning dawned of the day which
was to see those prisoners begin to die; and with the rising of the sun
the excitement and hilarity of the village became still more pronounced.
The crowds grew more dense, the laughter and conversation louder; the
people had donned their holiday attire--such as it was--and the children
chased each other with joyous shouts in and out of the throng. Then a
meal was brought to the prisoners; and while they were partaking of it a
sudden clamour of drums and horns arose, and the laughing, chattering
crowd seemed to dissolve as suddenly from the vicinity of the prison
hut, leaving it plunged in an atmosphere of silence, save for the
monotonous banging of the drums, the blare of the horns, and a low,
humming murmur which might be that of a multitude of people conversing
in low, hushed voices.
"That means that our time has come, I suppose," remarked Stukely, as he
set down the food of which he had been partaking. "Well, keep up your
courage, lad; and remember that if we are to die we will do so in a
fashion which the Mayubuna will never forget, so long as they are a
people. There are wives now who will be widows before the sun goes
down; for they shall never torture me to death; nor you, either, lad, if
I can help it. We have our hands free, and a Devon man can do much with
his hands alone, when put to it; but my plan is to watch our chance, and
snatch the first weapon that comes to hand, and make play with it. They
will no doubt shoot us down with their arrows, rather than let us
escape; but that kind of death will be infinitely preferable to one of
lingering torture--if die we must."
"Yes," agreed Dick; "and you may depend upon me to--"
He was interrupted by the arrival of a messenger who summoned them and
their guards to follow him; whereupon they rose to their feet and,
completely hedged in by sixteen fully armed men, were marched toward the
centre of the village, ultimately arriving in the square where they had
previously been interviewed by the cacique. And a curious sight the
square presented on this occasion, for it and the long street which ran
through it from end to end of the village were packed with people who
had come, in response to an invitation, from all the villages within a
radius of twenty miles, to see the two white men die. They were ranged
right along what may be called the main street, in a dense crowd some
eight or ten deep, for a distance of a quarter of a mile, and were
arranged in two compact lines, with a clear lane of about six feet wide
between the two lines of people. Through a gap which had evidently been
left open in one of these lines for that especial purpose, the two
prisoners were conducted into this lane and led to one extremity of it,
where upon a raised platform sat the cacique, with five men, presumably
the caciques of neighbouring villages, on either side of him. The
Englishmen were marched up to this platform and there left face to face
with the cacique and his friends, the guards retiring through the gap by
which they had entered, which thereupon was immediately closed.
For the space of a full five minutes or more Phil and Dick stood facing
the cacique, while a profound and impressive silence fell upon that vast
crowd of Indians, broken only by the rustle of the wind in the
tree-tops, and a faint rumble caused by the movement of the naked feet
of the assembled multitude, who were in the grip of an excitement so
intense that they apparently found it impossible to stand quite still,
but must needs continually shift the weight of their bodies from one
foot to the other.
At length, when the pause had become almost unbearably impressive, the
cacique rose to his feet and, lifting his hand to command attention,
spoke.
"White men," he said, "ye have told me a story which may or may not be
true. Ye have declared yourselves to be the enemy of the Spaniards and
the friend of the Indian; but how have ye shown your friendship for us?
By causing the death of seventeen men of the Mayubuna, by creating
seventeen widows and forty-six fatherless children, for whom the rest of
the villagers must now provide food. For this great wrong ye are doomed
to die; and it rests with yourselves whether your death shall be quick,
or whether it shall be one of long-drawn-out torment.
"Ye see this great lane of people stretching right through the village,
and ye will note that each man of the front rank is armed with a club.
Now, your doom is this. Ye shall start from where ye now stand, and
shall run to the farther end of the lane of people; and as ye run each
man on either hand shall smite ye as often as he may with his club. If
ye can hold out against the blows which ye will receive, and retain
strength enough to reach the other end of the lane without falling by
the way, then your death shall be quick; but if ye fall, then he who
falls will be tied to a stake and slowly done to death for the pleasure
of the spectators. You understand? Then--go!"
During this brief address the two Englishmen had been thinking hard and
rapidly. Phil's first thought had been to force his way up on to the
platform, seize the cacique, and threaten him with instant death unless
the man would consent to give them both immediate liberty; but he
instantly discarded the idea, for as the thought flashed through his
mind he noticed that the Indians in front of the platform were all fully
armed; and for an unarmed man to force a passage through that hedge of
deadly spears, ten deep, was a simple impossibility. Then he threw a
glance along the lane which he and Dick were to traverse, and which was
hedged in on either side by serried ranks of Indians, each armed with a
heavy club about three feet long. The Indians were by no means
powerfully built, and, individually, looked by no means formidable; and
the thought came to him that if he and Dick, instead of starting to race
at top speed from end to end of the lane, were each to snatch a club
from the nearest man, and then, back to back, fight their way slowly
along the lane, they might possibly contrive to reach the end of it
without being beaten to the earth, after which who knew what unforeseen
possibilities might arise? It was not a particularly hopeful plan, but
it was the best that suggested itself on the spur of the moment;
moreover, both he and Dick were experts at quarter-staff play, and they
would at least be able to make a fight for it, so he hastily
communicated his plan to Dick while the cacique was speaking, and
received Dick's murmured acceptance of it at the precise moment when the
cacique uttered the word "Go!"