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Updated: June 23, 2025
As he stopped again at the corner near the whispering pair he heard Tucu grinding his teeth, and as the savage turned his face toward the Red Bone outpost it was a mask of murder. But he spoke no word as he slipped back to his own men. "He will wake another man and tell him what to do," Lourenço explained. "But only we four shall know of the women until they are freed.
Lourenço, bringing coffee to the captain, asked Tucu in what direction the Monitaya houses lay. Without hesitation the Indian pointed off to the left. The Brazilian glanced at the creek, estimating its general direction and rate of flow, then returned to his fire. Offered coffee, Rand took it and sipped it with evident relish.
With this in hand he preceded the column, walking slowly, pausing sometimes, continually prodding the path, studying it with unswerving gaze as he progressed. The thin but rigid feeler, strong enough to tip the cover of any pit or to spring any concealed bow or blowgun, was at least ten feet long, and between the scout and the head of the line Tucu preserved another ten-foot interval.
The latter carefully opened his poison pouch, redipped the point of the dart, held it a moment to dry in a shaft of sunlight, and slipped it into his dart case among a score of unused missiles. "No waste of ammunition here," was McKay's dry comment. "What happens to this corpse now?" Through Lourenço's mouth Tucu answered. "It will be left here until police warriors come from the malocas.
"The Red Bone says we shall see the chief," Lourenço stated. "At first he said only you, Capitao, should go to him. Then he insisted that we all lay down our arms. Tucu has told him we lay down our arms for no man or men; that we come in peace otherwise there would be many more of us; that we leave in peace unless the Red Bones themselves bring on a fight.
But intention and accomplishment are two different birds. Wonder what these Mayorunas are fixing to do. Wish I could talk their language." "Tucu evidently left orders for them to get up at a certain time, but why I don't know. We'd better let them alone." The shadow line passed out upon the water, slipping by infinitesimal gradations across its mirror surface. The Mayorunas had become quiet.
With a lightning grab he seized the proffered meat and sank his teeth in it. As he wolfed down the tough flesh the three men standing over exchanged glances. Tucu laid a hand on his stomach and pressed inward, signifying that the man had long gone hungry. The others nodded. Then they split the other haunch between them and fell to gnawing.
At sight of the familiar feather bonnets of their own men the tense Monitayans let their weapons slowly sink. And when Tucu, leaping ashore, gaspingly demanded news of the fight, the line dissolved into a mob which rushed to welcome him and his mates.
Tucu strode out four paces beyond his own men and stopped. Then both parties waited while the hunters reported what they knew to the hatchet-face. "What did you tell them, Lourenço?" asked McKay. "That we came on a friendly visit to the chief, for whom we had important words." "Nothing of the Raposa?" "No.
And how about letting Tucu lead the parade again?" "Excellent, Capitao! I was thinking of that." Lourenço talked to Tucu, who swung out into the current. The boat of the white men followed, then the others. At a steady cruising speed the brigade surged on downstream. Knowlton's allotted hour passed. Pedro took his place and was instantly asleep.
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