Arthur O. Friel

“ So, with fresh arrows, I slipped out again into the trees. Moving even more stealthily and slowly than last night, I went again to the clearing. Reaching it, I found nobody there.
I had not expected, of course, to see my enemies in plain sight. Warned by my messages, they would be hidden in the bush, watching and waiting for me to return. But, as I too waited, trying to spy some slight movement or catch some sound to indicate where those men might be, I felt more and more that the place was empty of human life. ”

“ The bow was a clumsy thing to handle in the bush, and so was the long arrow. I could not crouch or lie flat and thus cover myself, as when using a rifle. And when I had been crawling for my life just now the bow had caught in vines and the arrows in leaves, hindering my movements.
An Indian would have handled them much more easily, of course; but I was no Indian. And I was learning that shooting at a stump outside a Maquiritare paragua and fighting live enemies in the woods were not the same. I wished I had brought my rifle ”

“ No well-used paths were near this little hut, and it was hardly likely that men would stand all night in what seemed empty bush.
So, when the moon came and made things a little more visible, I started toward the river. The bush was not too thick for quiet travel if one moved slowly, and I took care to travel without noise. With me I carried the six arrows, freshly smeared, which had been in my left hand all the afternoon. ”