Arthur O. Friel

“ Save for the swash of divided waves, the drone of the engine, the muffled panting of the exhaust, and an occasional grunt from the pilot, lazy silence reigned aboard and about the launch. Shaded by the heavy top and fanned by the lusty wind, the voyagers rode in quiescent comfort. Nowhere in all the broad vista beyond them rose any sail, any steamer-smoke, or even the low-riding dots betokening men in a canoe. All the river seemed their own. Yet all four watched constantly ahead—the girl as if awaiting the appearance of some destination, the men as if long habituated to wary vigilance. ”

“ His bow still on the strings, José sat for a minute like a stone image, his eyes straight ahead, his pale face drawn, his red kerchief glowing dully in the semishadow like a cap of blood. For once his face was empty of all insolence, changed by a pathetic wistfulness that made it tragic. Then, wordless, he lowered the violin, held it out to the coronel, fumbled absently at his sling, and slowly incased his wounded arm. When he looked up his old mocking expression had come back and he once more looked the reckless buccaneer. ”

“ We knew peccaries too well to attempt to fight off a big band of them. Beside us loomed a tree corded thickly with big vines, and up those vines we went like a couple of treed jaguars. And we went none too soon.
Under us the maddened beasts jammed into a heaving mass, squealing and clashing their keen little tusks and watching us in hate. Some even stood up on their hind legs against the trunk, their teeth grinning at us like the jaws of death. And jaws of death they would have been if either of us had slipped or lost his hold on the treacherous vines. ”

“ Because of that black brand, he now roams like a caged tigre from end to end and from side to side of that Parima upland which has become his prison, and in which walks no other white man except, at times, Loco León. It is a huge outdoor prison, to be sure—hundreds of miles long and wide—but still a prison; for that blackened skin and the cancered mind it has given him will hold him there forever.
How he lives, what he does, where he goes, are questions which white men may ask but which receive no answer; for the mouths of the Maquiritares, who alone know, are shut. ”

“ When Pedro stopped, Urubu spoke coldly.
“Your talk is for Domengos, not for me. If he deceived any girl that is his mistake; I want no girl here who does not come of her own wish. When you have grown cooler you will realize that this is not such a place as you say. Our girls are well treated, as they will tell you, and no girl need stay here unless she wants to. And if Domengos has brought you a friend who does not know men that is your good fortune—if you care for green fruit. Every man to his taste.” ”

“ Too, by night she painted dingy house-roofs and rickety wagons and all the other ugly man-made things—painted them gray-white with frost, which the new sun quickly blackened and sent creeping down the shingles to drip gently from the eaves of a morning. And as that sun mounted the Wall and rolled its warmth over into the Traps below, she coyly loosed white clouds of mist to go drifting along over the new colors she had made in the dark hours, presently to draw them aside and reveal to human eyes the glory of her handiwork. ”

“ He was a striking man; tall, and strongly shaped; with curly dark hair, big blue eyes with long lashes, and splendid white teeth which gleamed now and then as if he were thinking of a joke. The dark hair and blue eyes seemed odd together, but yet they made him all the better looking. His jaw was well set and his lips full and good-humored, making him look much more manly than the eyes. But the most handsome thing about him, I think, was his skin.
It was as clear and clean a skin as that of a baby—a girl baby. ”

“ The feet of a giant man, with huge claws? And when has a tigre brought back the bones of its prey when it came for a new kill? And when has a tigre gnawed those bones so clean that not a shred of flesh remained—yes, and split the skull to devour the brains! Ajo! A tigre, like ——! A demonio! An ogro! A giant with the cunning of a serpent and the blood-thirst of a caribe! ”

“ Straight away along a vague path beginning at the rear of the malocas marched the twenty-four, the two northerners bending under the weight of their packs, the pair of Brazilians sweeping the jungle with practiced eyes, the score of Mayorunas striding velvet footed, resplendent in brilliant new paint and headdresses, armed with the most powerful weapons of their tribe, and loftily conscious of the fact that they were chosen as Monitaya's best. Savage and civilized, each man was fit, alert, formidable. ”

“ Instantly a wiry young peon glided through the darksome doorway at the rear. His right hand swung up—back—shot forward with the speed of a striking catapult. Like a bullet a smooth stone darted through the air. And like a man shot down in his tracks El Tigre toppled, pitched sidewise, and lay senseless on the tiled floor.
With a triumphant squall Gordo threw himself forward; stooped, snatched the unconscious man's revolver from its holster, and arose grinning.
“The orders are changed,” he gurgled. “Señores, the gasoline and food need not be sent to the port; at least, not yet. ”

“ Their dance, of course, was no dance at all, but a trotting and hopping around in a circle, stopping often for more drink. Somewhere near by a couple of log drums boomed, and old Andirah in his hammock grinned and nodded his tall plumes, as if to say that this was dancing. Senhor Tom and the senhorita sat and laughed, Pedro and I chuckled and helped ourselves at the big jars, the Tucunas forgot us and gave their whole minds to their festival, and the house shook with the shouts of the merry-makers and the thunder of the drums. ”

“ It was dark when Pedro brought the North American back with a fine fat mutum turkey. By that time our Lady Marion knew the whole truth. She knew how we had come to be at the camp of Black Hawk; how, after her second capture, Senhor Tom, wounded and blind, had hung doggedly to the search for her and had shamed us and heartened us when we wavered; how he had trapped the pajé in a lie, started us back through the black jungle when we would have waited until morning, broken the power of the priest and then broken the priest himself. ”

“ The caño seemed bursting with noise.
I threw myself at Jaime, who lay still, a hole in his head. I wrenched out his revolver and emptied it at his men. And then there were no men. There was nothing but the blazing fires—sprawling bodies—another harsh yell—and sudden silence.
"Quién es?" I shouted, staring at that black bush.
A wild laugh screamed back at me. That same harsh voice tore across the water.
"Ha! ha! ha!" it yelled. "Dead men walking in the night! Dead men walking in the night! Poor murdered Indians with bows and arrows! ”

“ Stabbing, clubbing, choking and clawing and breaking bones, small knots of men struggled desperately for mastery. Caught by surprize and perhaps outnumbered as well, the townsmen seemed to be getting the worst of it; but they fought furiously to protect their women and children, who kept screaming as if they were already being murdered.
Picking my men, I fired again and again into the battling barbaros. Behind me, on the other side of the hut, sounded Pedro’s gun. Then from the house itself came a shot—a sharp crack not like the blunt bark of our own weapons. ”

“ Yaracuma watched me, and after a time his eyes smiled.
"Nama soon will mate," he told me.
"Is it so?" Perhaps I looked relieved, for the capitán now smiled with mouth as well as eyes.
"It is so," he replied. "For a time she dreamed she might mate with Loco León. The young sometimes dream foolishly. But the dream has passed."
I said nothing. Soon he went on.
"Before Loco León came to us Nama looked kindly on one of my young men. Then came Ramón Rodriguez like a spirit of evil, and Loco León like a spirit of good. In her dark hour her heart turned to Loco León. ”

“ If Loco León, fighting alone, should use his gun, it would make much noise and a bright flash and blue smoke. So they would know where the gun was and would shoot their own guns at it, and soon Loco León would be dead. But the arrow flies with no noise. Now does Yaracuma understand?"
He stared as if he could not believe me. Men looked at one another. One of my own Maquiritares muttered—
"Es loco!"
"Are you just learning it, Frasco?" I laughed. "For what have I been called 'Loco' all these years? Crazy I may be, but I do what I say. I want no man with me. You and Gil both shall stay here." ”

“ I WOULD not attack that spider again, senhor, if I were you. You have seen for yourself that you can not hit him. No matter how quickly you strike, he is inches away when the blow falls.
Those huge, bird-killing spiders all are incredibly swift. I have heard that not even a bullet is fast enough to kill one—that at the flash of the gun he jumps so quickly that the whole seven inches of him is out of danger when the shot strikes. Whether that be true or not, I know you will never hit him with your fist; you will only tire yourself out. ”

“ THE HA’NT
Sunset stretched its long shadows again across the Traps.
Up on the heights, the light of day still was bright and clear. But down in the bluff-bulwarked valley of the Coxing Kill, a thousand feet lower than the Minnewaska table-land behind which the sun was rolling down in the southwest, the dusk was slowly shading into dark. Already the air vibrated with the swelling chorus of the katydids, scraping out their insistent warning of frost which had not yet come; and from every grassy space cheeped the lonesome dirge of the crickets. Night was drawing on. ”

“ His companion took a quick draw at his cigaret, then stood watching as if he were only a disinterested spectator.
“Citizens of a misruled town, victims of a tyrannical government! You know that I, Federico Gordo, fight against oppression; that I make war to free our country from the chains of slavery, to sweep away corruption, to restore to your lives the freedom and happiness of liberty and justice. You know that there can be no liberty without justice, no justice without impartiality. And you know there can be no safety without just law and just punishment for those who violate such law. ”

“ Truly, one can not always judge a man by his face or his clothes. But the last part of his story—about the Yabaranos—did not ring true in my mind.
He had not looked me in the eye when he half-blamed the Maquiritares for the trouble. And I know the Maquiritares. Some trouble-makers can be found among them, as among any other people; all of them can fight wickedly if their wrath is aroused; but as a race they are good-humored, laughing much among themselves, and not at all the sort of people to stir up a fight. Besides, there had been only six of them, visiting a whole tribe of Yabaranos. ”

“ When the last Tucuna had disappeared we arose and advanced swiftly toward the place where we had heard that voice. Only two or three rods farther on we found another clearing and another house.
Both the open space and the hut in it were small; but the house was built in the same style as the maloca—square-cornered, and thickly thatched from ground to peak. In it we could see no door. Nothing else stood in the clearing, and nobody was in sight. To all appearances, the place was bare of life. ”

“ Ramón Rodriguez was gone. Where he had last stood was a crimson mess which was not a man, nor even parts of a man; a hash of cloth and hair and meat that was only a hideous blob on the clean sand. Watching those grim-faced killers advance on us, I cocked my rifle and braced myself.
"Alto ahí!" I commanded. "Halt where you are!"
They came straight on. But one spoke in Spanish.
"We know you, Loco León. You are a friend." ”

“ In the center of the arc, like the hub of a human half wheel, a small knot of men waited in aloof dignity, four of them adorned with the ornate feather dresses of subchiefs, backed by a dozen tall, muscular savages, each armed with a huge war club. Before all stood a powerful, magnificently proportioned savage belted with a wide girdle of squirrel tails, decked with necklaces of jaguar teeth and ebony nuts, crowned by plumes which in loftiness and splendor surpassed all other headgear present—the great chief Monitaya. ”

“ This fiend, I tell you, has come ten times in this month and taken a man each time! And not a man old or crippled, or a boy, from Atures town, but a sentry, a hard, alert man with rifle and machete, a man with meat enough to satisfy the appetite; and the last time—only two nights ago, at Salvajito—it carried off two soldados at once! And each time after the first it has left the bones of the man taken before, left them in plain sight. Twice it has come here, to this very spot, Zamuro, making its kill and leaving bones to mock us, and never a sound did it make, nor the victims either. ”

“ In less than fifteen minutes from the time when Jaime stood up and drew his machete, he and all his gang had disappeared forever from the eyes of men. So had the treacherous mestizo who had led them there. So had the last of the Butcher's killers. They never would reach the Orinoco—the caribes would see to that. And only we men of the Ventuari knew what had become of them.
I looked up at Yaracuma, who stood quietly near me, armed with a stout bow and a full quiver of arrows. I glanced around at his men, carrying the weapons of their race, who now were soberly watching me. ”

“ Rain drizzled monotonously down on the Traps; cold, raw rain swept slantwise by wind. Along Mohonk and the Great Wall crawled clammy fog, blinding all vision and chilling all flesh within its folds. Through rain and fog feebly penetrated the sickly light of a dismal dawn.
In the dankness and the dimness moved a bedraggled figure laden with a sodden blanket-pack and a dripping shotgun; a man whose blue lips and hollow eyes betokened a gnawing chill and scant sleep. ”

“ Out from the gloom and straight past the huts a thick-bodied, curve-snouted animal came charging madly for the river, carrying on its back a ferocious cat creature whose fangs were buried deep in its steed's neck—a tapir attacked by a jaguar. With a resounding plunge the elephantine quarry struck the water and was gone. The tiger cat, forced to relinquish its hold or drown, swam hurriedly back to the bank below the encampment, where it roared and spat and squalled in a blood-chilling paroxysm of baffled fury. And though every man was awakened, not one left the flimsy shelter of his net. ”

“ Though the desperate look of the hunted still was on the fugitive’s face, he looked far better than when Douglas had carried him into the den among the bowlders. Then he had been wan, pinched, utterly exhausted. Now his cheeks were more round, his eyes unrimmed by blue crescents, his swarthy skin tinged by healthy color. Food and sleep in plenty had transformed him from a hatchet-faced wreck to a not unhandsome young man. But the hard set of the mouth and the glitter of the dark eyes still were there. ”

“ And without a farewell word or a backward look the whole band of wild men passed on into the forest, and I was left alone.
So, senhores, that is the tale of the Peccaries. Up in the hills of Peru the vines are creeping across the place where once stood their village, and where now remain only sodden ashes and scattered skulls. Out in the pathless land beyond the farthest rubber-workings, where only wild men and wild animals prowl, lie the bones of their leader and the blood-stained gold he gathered. ”

“ Only his eyes lived; and those eyes were cold and merciless as those of a snake or a vulture. A man who ruled by ruthless cunning, who would gaze unmoved on the most ghastly tortures, who would devour human flesh with ghoulish relish—such was the creature who sat in a red-dyed hammock and contemplated the impassive face of McKay.
"Umanuh, great chief, eater of his enemies, with fangs of the jaguar and wisdom of the great snake, awaits the greeting of the one-whose-hair grows-from-his-mouth," droned the old mouthpiece of the chief. ”

“ And, traveling, Douglas noted that the new clothing of the hardwood forests was not the only change taking place round about him. Here and there in the woods he met men. And, as subtly as the chill of frosty morning gave way to the warmth of a sunny day, so the first coolness of these men of the Traps now was thawing into an intangible spirit of friendliness. Where previously they had given him a cold stare and curt replies or stony silence when addressed, now their faces relaxed at sight of him, and of their own volition they called: “H’are ye, Hammerless!” ”

“ Every man of us was like a maddened jaguar, thinking only of destroying him; and we struck in blind rage, so that in our struggles to get at him we got in the way of our own attack. Some one’s rifle-barrel or butt hit me hard on the head, dazing me so that I staggered and had to grab the bar to keep from falling.
While I leaned there I saw Joaquim too go stumbling back, clutching an arm cut by a jabbing machete. Miguel also was out of the fight, for he was the man who had been stabbed after Helio, and now he was limping away, bending over with pain.
Then I saw the Vulture rise in the air. ”

“ Monitaya, until now a field general who strode up and down roaring commands and encouragement, suddenly cast away his regal role and, seizing a club from one of his bodyguard, hurled himself on the nearest Red Bones—a raving, ravening demon of destructiveness whose glaring eyes smote terror into those fronting him and whose weapon swung like the club of Hercules. His bowmen and blowgun men, at last out of missiles, came charging in with bare hands or weapons seized from fallen warriors. ”

“ And you despise your mongrel people. You run away up here to your little secret ‘playhouse,’ and there you dream yourself to sleep, as you did yesterday. And there’s poetry in you, too. Let’s see, what was that you said—‘If all the dead men here should rise they’d shake the hills with their tramping!’”
His gaze grew absent, as through the smoke he visioned an army of musket-bearing pioneers, shaggy-haired and deerskin-clad, and of fierce-faced Indians carrying bow and tomahawk, marching along the ancient trails. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A convict was a convict, duly sentenced by judicial authority, and those who connived to defeat that authority must suffer the consequences. And the girl—what is a girl’s grief to the Law?
Such was the code of Respectability. Confronting it was the code of the hills, which this old man was instinctively obeying; the code of natural justice, far more ancient and human than the chain-clanking machinery of legislature and court and prison: Stand by your own! On either side of Douglas Hampton they towered, stark and hard as the two great walls of the Traps ”

“ Four man-eating savages, hidden in this labyrinthine tangle and armed with arrows whose slightest scratch meant death, could strike down every man of this expedition without even a wound in return; for of what avail were high-power guns, automatic pistols, and machetes against invisible enemies? 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. ”

“ Here was nothing to do but relax, absorbing the golden sunlight and the green beauty of nature and the clinking music of unseen hammers far below and far away on the Mohonk slope, where millstone-makers were rifting rock in their little quarries. What though one had no habitation? What though his food was almost gone and the pipe dangling from the corner of his mouth was empty? Time enough to seek shelter when night approached; time enough to rustle for food when the last crumb had vanished. ”

“ At the top of the crag-wall the light sped across the forested gulf of the Traps itself, with its tiny scattered farmhouses and its rocky clearings and mysterious by-paths, to strike against more cliffs—the glacier-gouged wall of Minnewaska, holding in its stony setting a tiny jewel of an upland lake; and the fissured butte of Dickie Barre, father of gigantic bowlders and guardian of unknown caverns. ”

“ 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. Let Yuara breathe deeply, that the spirit of life remain in him to fight against the demon of death. Even now the poison rushes out of the arm of Yuara." ”

“ In under the funereal trees he passed, scrutinizing the vague dark things here and there among the trunks, finding them to be only rotting fragments of old logs, half-buried juts of stone, or lumps of forest mould. No sound came to him but the tiny impacts of falling leaves and the watery squash of his own boots on the soaked soil. Dreary and dismal stood the forest, telling him nothing of what had taken place last night. His only reward for his wandering there was a renewal of his wetness. ”

“ The women not engaged in caring for the fighting visitors soon found themselves busy with their own male relatives, who came stumbling in by themselves or were carried by others. The Red Bones, though finally annihilated, had made their mark in the Mayoruna tribe. At that moment thirty-six of Monitaya's warriors lay dead among the bodies of their enemies, and before the next sunrise several more passed on to join the spirits of their comrades in arms. Yet all who survived, though some were crippled for life, thought only of the victory and gloated on their scars of combat. ”

“ Every day since the ending of the “line storm” he had traveled the Traps. Time and again he had spent an entire day threading his way over, under, and around the myriad bowlders lying at the foot of Dickie Barre’s precipice: some towering on end to the height of their parent rock itself, bearing mute witness to the terrific power of the ice of the glacial age, hiding among them masked chasms seldom seen by human eyes; some leaning together as if placed by the hands of some Indian giant whimsically building a rock wigwam ”

“ One more step in the dark would have trapped him in a pit where death, swift or slow, would inevitably have obliterated him; death from the fall, from starvation, or from Snake Sanders’ merciless hands. ”