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The others, lolling back in mingled fatigue and relief from tension, studied the interior of the place and watched the activities around them. As in the maloca of Suba, the small forest of poles and hammocks seemed a higgledy-piggledy maze wherein was neither beginning nor end.
Yuara's sudden, quick glance at him showed that the Raposa had been mentioned for the first time. A little later his face became slightly sullen, and the watchers guessed that Lourenço was now referring in somewhat uncomplimentary terms to the treatment received in the maloca of Suba. Soon after that the Brazilian ended his speech.
After one long stare he screamed and bolted for the shelter of the maloca. Other screams echoed his as the women also saw the bearded outlanders. They, too, dived through the doorway. Out from behind the house leaped three warriors, two of whom already had fitted arrows to their bows, while the third a powerful fellow clutched a four-foot war club.
But it was necessary to wait awhile for Tucu and Lourenço to tell Monitaya the tale of what had taken place; for the chief demanded immediate and full details, and not until he had them would he return to his maloca and his hammock throne. By that time the little moon was again ruler of the sky and the keen hunger of the voyagers had grown ravenous.
And they became sure of this when one captured girl escaped by killing a Peruvian with his own knife and returned to her own maloca. She said the raiders took her and the other girls to the big man with the black beard, who waited at a safe place a day's march from the tribal house.
When a brief halt was called at noon the Mayorunas, who seemed to know exactly where they were despite the fact that they had never before followed this straight course, informed Lourenço that much circuitous traveling had already been saved, and that by tramping hard until sundown they might succeed in reaching the tribal maloca that night. But McKay vetoed the idea of a forced march.
"Cap, ye had a narrer squeak come near gittin' it from in front, and behind, too. Wisht I could have drilled that guy." The bushmen grinned. And Lourenço's next speech was amazing. "Be thankful you did not. That bullet might have killed us all." After enjoying their puzzled expressions a moment he continued. "We are nearer to a Mayoruna maloca than I thought.
"A few weeks later another small maloca several miles from here was attacked at night while two men of Monitaya were there, having stayed out too late on a hunting trip and taken refuge with their neighbors until day. Both these men were hit and crippled by bullets in the wild shooting that opened the attack. One was struck in the knee, the other in the lower part of the back.
His acceptance was achieved with a calm dignity which brought a twinkle of approval to the eyes of the white men. In the same dignified manner he led the way to the maloca which evidently was the older of the two and which had always been his home.
But the seven new girls, though ignored by the chief and his guests, were by no means neglected by the other men of the maloca, being thoroughly stared at by most of the young bucks and, it must be confessed, by a goodly proportion of the married men also. When at length the meal was finished Monitaya commanded the girls to stand before him and narrate their experiences.
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