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Updated: June 6, 2025
"Makkay needs none of his own warriors when he comes in peace. If he came in war the terrible Blackbeards with him would cause the whole forest to fly apart in smoke and flame. Since he walks in peace to visit his friend Umanuh, of whose wisdom he has heard, he brings only his friends the Mayorunas, who are friends also to the men of the Red Bones." Another pause.
Yet there was assurance in Lourenço's confident air, and reassurance in the thought that these tribemen would be unlikely to assail a band avowedly on its way to visit their chief. Besides Knowlton smiled grimly even if the Mayorunas hungered for human flesh it would be more economical of labor to let the meat travel to the slaughterhouse on its own legs than to kill it here and carry it home.
But before we go, wash your face good and hard. Get that tribe paint off. These Indians with us don't like it. You're no Indian, anyhow; you're white, like us. Savvy? White man. Wash off paint!" He rolled up his kit and returned to the canoe. The Mayorunas, men and women, were entering their own craft. Rand sat motionless a moment, McKay and the Brazilians watching him keenly.
"Comrades, this man is no common hunter, but son of a subchief. Capitao, you have done good work to-day." Through the long, dim shadows of early morning the little column passed on the last leg of its journey to the maloca of Suba, chief of this outlying tribe of the Mayorunas.
Looking around the wide room and remembering the big half circle of Indians who had stood outside, the two ex-officers estimated that in this tribal house and its twin dwelt seven hundred people. Tim and Pedro, less interested in the Mayoruna domestic economy than in the Mayorunas themselves, were scanning the figures moving about in the reddish haze of smoke.
While Tim burrowed into his pack for the salt, Lourenço spoke, as much for the benefit of the other tribesmen as for that of Yuara; for the three Mayorunas stood in ominous silence, watching the outrush of blood caused by the knife of the white man. "The white man of the black beard, who is very wise, will save Yuara to draw many a good bow if Yuara will do as he says.
Through all the malocas of the Mayorunas, far and near, has gone the word to watch for a big, black-bearded man who is neither a Brazilian nor a Peruvian, but of some country unknown to these people; and when such a man is caught, to kill him and his companions without mercy.
After a while he turned to McKay. "The Red Bones and the Mayorunas are neither friendly nor hostile toward each other, and there is little communication between them," he reported. "From those malocas to the town of the Red Bones is a journey of five long days, so the men of Monitaya hardly ever go there.
And the reason for such a command is this: "For many moons the Mayorunas, especially those of the smaller and weaker malocas, have been losing women. From time to time sudden raids have been made by gangs of gun-carrying Peruvian Indians and mestiços half-breeds who shot down the defenders of the houses before they could reach their weapons, and carried off girls.
I would then go in with a bodyguard of Mayorunas, do my business, and come out via the Mayoruna route." A thoughtful silence ensued. Bottle necks clinked against the cups. "Something in that idea," conceded Knowlton. "A good deal in it. Barring the woman part, of course." "Ay," spoke McKay, his tone casual as ever. "When you came out what would you do with your woman, mein Herr?"
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