CHAPTER XXI.
SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT
"Rod! Wake up!"
The tense whisper aroused McKay instantly. With one sweep of the arm hisnet was torn aside and he leaped out with pistol drawn.
"Right, Merry. What is it?"
"We've got him! Look!"
The electric ray again streaked the gloom. The astounded captain did notdrop his gun, but he came near it. For a long minute he stood as in atrance. When he attempted to holster his weapon he fumbled three timesfor the sheath before he found it.
"Whew!" he breathed. "Have you killed him?"
"Nope--don't think so. Lord! I hope not! Now that I think of it, I didgive him a mighty solid smash. Used the butt. He was crawling in here,and naturally I didn't stop to ask for his card. Feel his head."
McKay complied. His exploring fingers found only a huge bump under thethick hair.
"No, his skull's whole. Didn't even split the scalp. You crowned himhard, but unless he got concussion he's still useful. His nosebleedcomes from hitting the ground, I think. Turn off the light. Are youstill on guard?"
"Yes. The Brazilians are out."
"Take a turn and see that all's clear. Can't tell what might break anyminute now. Leave your flash here."
Passing the flat, nickel light-box to the captain, Knowlton retrievedhis gun from the ground and resumed his patrol. Slight as thedisturbance had been, uneasiness was in the air. The savages on the farshore were up, peering at the _tambo_ and muttering to one another.Measuring the distance, the lieutenant saw that, though they hadundoubtedly seen the flashlight switched on and off and made out themovements of men, they could not have discerned what lay on the groundbeyond the hammocks. Nearer at hand, Tucu and a couple of the Mayorunaswere awake and looking out. But the sight of the sentinel strolling upand down in apparent unconcern and the absence of light in the _tambo_gradually quieted the suspicions on both sides of the water. Soon theRed Bones squatted again and the Mayorunas lay back with minds at ease.
Then a dim sheen of light showed for a time at the back of the whitemen's shelter, fading out after a few minutes into the usual gloom.McKay had pulled a blanket over himself and the unconscious man, maskinghis torch glare from any watching eye while he studied the face and formof the invader. After the faint radiance vanished certain sounds came tothe sentry's ears. Then McKay's tall figure loomed in the vaguemoonshine. Knowlton stopped beside him.
"It's Rand," the captain vouchsafed in an undertone. "No question of it.Features identical, though face is drawn. White hair mark, broken nose,green eyes. I opened one eye. Got a bad foot, partly healed; looks as ifhe'd torn it on a stub. Poor devil seems nearly starved."
"So? Then that's why he sneaked in like that--wanted to steal some grub.Those mutts over yonder probably haven't fed him since he got hurt."
"That's it. He's had to do his own foraging, and his foot has given himmighty little chance. Damn those brutes!"
"Right! But now what? Look out that he doesn't sneak away again."
"He won't. I tied his feet. He's in Pedro's hammock, still dead to theworld. If he wakes up and starts to yell I'll gag him. We've got to getaway now as soon as we can."
"How?"
"Don't know. By water, perhaps. Wish those bushman were here. Haven'theard any noise over there, have you?"
"All quiet. They're safe--or dead."
"Hm! Confounded foolishness, anyway. But we've no means of getting outuntil they're back. Couldn't desert them, besides. What time is it?"
"Ten-thirty. You go on watch at midnight."
"I'm on watch now, inside. They may be back any time. If they don't showup in the next couple of hours I'll send Tucu to find out why. We'llhave to get those canoes over here, too. Water leaves no trail."
He turned back into the hut, leaving Knowlton figuring chances. Toobtain those canoes was a man-sized job. To put the Red Bone guards outof action without arousing the whole tribe was an even bigger job. Butno boats could be brought over until the outpost was silenced, that wassure.
Another half-hour crept past. Still no noise from the town, nosuspicious move on the other shore. Then from the _tambo_ itself came alow mumble of voices. Knowlton stepped swiftly into it. As noiselesslyas they had gone the two bushmen had returned.
In his usual concise phrases McKay was informing them of the capture ofthe Raposa. With his back to the stream and the flashlight held close tohis body, he played the light for an instant on the face of the stillunconscious man. Then, once more in darkness, he asserted:
"Now that we have him, we must get out of here. Only chance to do thatis to get the canoes. With them we can at least be away from this townby sunrise, and it will take the Red Bones just so much longer to findour trail where we take to the bush. We'll get a flying start that way.Anything else to suggest?"
"That is the best plan, Capitao," Lourenco agreed. For the first timesince the Americans had known him his voice held a note of suppressedexcitement. "It is the only plan worth while. And I do not think weshall have to take to our legs soon--if at all. I believe this creekconnects with that which flows past the Monitaya _malocas_. We havelearned some things. _Por Deus!_ If only we had known the Raposa washere!"
"Why?"
"Because then we could have brought company with us. Senhores, guesswhat the barred house holds."
"Well?"
"Women of the Mayorunas! Girls stolen from Monitaya and othersettlements!"
"Jumping Judas!" ejaculated Knowlton. "Are you sure?"
"Sure, comrades! These foul Red Bones are the men who have been lurkingaround the Mayoruna tribe houses and capturing girls who went into thebush. They have taken the prisoners to the water, where the trailsalways were lost and where they could find hiding places until night,then drive their canoes past the clearings and get out of that country.So there must be some water connection by which these men travel, and bywhich we too can travel. If we go downstream we are almost sure to findit by daylight."
"But why--what's the idea of their stealing the girls? For victims? Ifso, how are the girls still alive?"
"Do you not see, senhor?" Pedro broke in, impatiently. "Did not Umanuhask if we would pay more than the other Blackbeard for the Raposa? Whatother Blackbeard?"
"Schwandorf!" the Americans blurted, simultaneously.
"Not so loud! Schwandorf, of course! Umanuh works with the German. Hecatches girls by stealth and sells them to the German to add to hisslave gangs. While the Mayorunas all blame the Peruvians for thedisappearances, Umanuh works unsuspected. He is holding these womenuntil Schwandorf comes again--and it may be that Schwandorf is not faroff at this moment. Now that we have come seeking the wild man, Umanuhat once thinks of selling him also; and he wonders whether we orSchwandorf will pay the more for him."
"By thunder! I believe you're right!" Knowlton coincided. "He's stallingfor time, holding us here while Schwandorf comes up, I'll bet. No wonderhe and his men are wary of the Mayorunas--they thought we'd come tosnoop around and catch 'em with the goods. You fellows must have done amighty slick job to find out this stuff without getting caught. Isn'tthe house guarded at night?"
"Indeed it is! Two clubmen are there now, and there is only the onedoor. Not even a window. But Lourenco worked a small hole between twologs at the back while I watched the clubmen, and through the hole hewhispered with one of the women inside. If only we had known the wildman was here we could have jumped the guards and tried to bring back thewomen. But of course your business about the Raposa had to be thought offirst, so all we could do was to tell them friends were here."
For a few seconds there was the silence of thought. Then Knowltonchuckled.
"I'll say we have our hands full this night. Now we not only have to getourselves and Rand out of here, but also rescue the fair damsels fromthe clutches of the ogre. 'Twon't do to leave them here while we go backto Monitaya and get the rest of his army. By the time we could come backthey'd be gone--one way or another. What's done has to be done now ornever."
"Right!" McKay commended. "We'll have to save the women, of course.Question is--how?"
Lourenco answered at once.
"My idea, Capitao, is this: We two will return. With us we will takeTucu. The three of us can handle those guards quietly. We must haveTucu, because the women do not know us and might balk at the lastmoment. Women are queer creatures, and these might think themselvessafer inside prison walls than following two strange men through thenight; but Tucu can handle them. When once we are clear of the housesTucu can lead the women to the bank above here, and we shall try for thecanoes. Then it will be fast work to get away, but if we have goodfortune it can be done."
"Confound it! You fellows are taking all the risks! Can't you take moremen--"
"No. No man but Tucu. He has a cool head. These others, if they knew,would go blood-mad and attack the Red Bones to avenge their lost women,and so would get us all killed. Now I will talk with Tucu."
He slipped into the Mayoruna shelter and returned with the canniballeader, whom he led to the far side of the _tambo_ before speaking.Then, in whispers which the other tribesmen could not overhear, heexplained the situation. Knowlton took another turn or two along hispost, finding that the Red Bones across the water were stirring aboutand evidently aware that something was going on; but they made no moveeither to get into a canoe or to send a man to the houses beyond. As hestopped again at the corner near the whispering pair he heard Tucugrinding his teeth, and as the savage turned his face toward the RedBone outpost it was a mask of murder. But he spoke no word as he slippedback to his own men.
"He will wake another man and tell him what to do," Lourenco explained."But only we four shall know of the women until they are freed. Will oneof you lend Tucu a machete? He may need a weapon, and he cannot carryhis big bow on this trip."
A few minutes later the three crept out behind the _tambo_, Tucugripping McKay's machete. As a final word Lourenco said: "Our men heremay move about a little after a time, but do not try to keep them quiet.It is a part of the plan."
With that he was gone. Listen as they might, the Americans could hear nosound to indicate that three men now were traversing the black tanglebeyond.
McKay took up his rifle and assumed the sentry work. Knowlton sat in hishammock, grateful for the chance to rest his weary legs. From thehammock where the Raposa lay no sound came. With a worried frown thelieutenant leaned over him and laid hand on his heart. After a while hesat up again in relief.
"Lord! I sure knocked him cold!" was his thought. "But he's still withus, and there's no use in reviving him now; the less noise over here thebetter. Hope I didn't jar his brains loose altogether; he might wake upa murderous maniac. Poor devil! A millionaire, yet half starved and morethan half nutty."
He glanced at the dim scene before the hut. The moon now had journeyedso far westward that the creeping shadows of the tall trees had movedout almost to the creek, and the two crude shelters and the sentinelwere surrounded by dense gloom. The Red Bone men opposite must rely ontheir ears alone hereafter, for they could not see through thisdarkness. McKay was visible enough to his own party, but not to theenemy. The blond man in the hammock watched the somber figure of hiscomrade, followed the flight of a big firefly whose light floated near,thought of the two bushmen out in the dark, and looked again at thestill form of Rand.
"Drifters all," he soliloquized. "The fireflies and Rod and Tim and Iand those Brazilian dare-devils--all floating around because we can'tkeep still, and never getting anywhere. And you, you silly-ass Rand,have a mint waiting for you up home, and we have to come find you andlead you up there and shove your nose into it. And if you get yourbrains back you'll be a nine days' wonder and a hero of the jungle andall that, and the girls will all tumble over you--because you've got acouple of millions in your sock. And we fellows who yanked you out ofhell by the left hind leg can pocket our pay and go jump off the dock,for all anybody cares. Ho-hum! All the same, I'd rather be me than you,old thing. Free to drift and able to handle myself. You can have themoney and the moths that hang around it."
With which he yawned, squinted again at the sinister figure squattingout yonder in the moonshine, arose, and made himself useful. Workingvery quietly, he took down three of the hammocks, rolled them up, laidthem at the corner nearest the creek; made up the packs by sense oftouch and placed them and the rifles of the absent pair in the sameplace. Then he lifted the Raposa from the one remaining hammock, laidhim on the packs, rolled up the hammock itself, and put it under theunconscious man's head. If given time when the crisis came, he meant tosave all equipment. If not, Rand lay where he could be grabbed withoutdelay.
Before he completed the work he became aware that the Mayorunas all wereawake. Not only awake, but moving stealthily about, as Lourenco hadpredicted. McKay also knew it and stepped back into the hut, whereKnowlton told him what he had done. But so softly did the men ofMonitaya move that the Red Bone watchers showed no sign of alarm. Boththe Americans observed, however, that the cannibals across the streamhad their heads together and that occasionally one looked up at thelittle moon.
"Get that, Rod? They're waiting for the shadows to crawl over there andcover them and the water. They know that then we can't see what they'reup to. I'm betting they intend to pull some dirty work after that."
"Yep. But intention and accomplishment are two different birds. Wonderwhat these Mayorunas are fixing to do. Wish I could talk theirlanguage."
"Tucu evidently left orders for them to get up at a certain time, butwhy I don't know. We'd better let them alone."
The shadow line passed out upon the water, slipping by infinitesimalgradations across its mirror surface. The Mayorunas had become quiet.The whites waited in silent suspense for they knew not what. Far out inthe forest a jaguar gave his coughing roar at intervals. Little bylittle the Red Bone men arose from their squat until they stood erect. Atense stillness held both forces. And the shadows crawled on--on--andreached the farther bank.
Then a Red Bone man shoved his head forward, squinting upstream as if hehad heard something move in the rank grass. He began to sneak softly inthat direction. At that moment, from the water's edge a little above thecamp, sounded a loud hiss.
Before the sound died a sudden thrum of bow cords filled the air. Awhisper of five-foot shafts speeding over the water--a rapid-fire seriesof tiny impacts--a couple of short groans--the thumps of fallingbodies--and the Red Bone outpost was no more. Shot through and throughby the deadly war arrows of the Mayorunas, they were dead before theystruck the ground. And from the men of Monitaya sounded one short,subdued "Hah!" of savage satisfaction.
Up from the ground where that hiss had sounded rose a tall figure whichwaved its arms and danced about in impromptu signals. Then it ran forthe canoes. Out from the gloom upstream other figures took shape,running fast for the same point. With one simultaneous movement Knowltonand McKay seized the Raposa and rushed with him to the stream.
"Senhores!" sounded Pedro's voice, low but tense, across the water. "Beready!"
"Ready and waiting!" snapped McKay. "Who are those people. Your women?"
"_Si._ We are not discovered--"
Across his words smote a long shrill yell from the town.
"_Por Deus._ We _are_ discovered! Get our rifles, for the love of _DeusPadre_."
He leaped into a canoe, drove it headlong across, and dived for the_tambo_. Behind him the other figures dashed panting up to the landing.Tucu's voice rasped in swift commands. The fugitives swarmed into otherdugouts. The Mayoruna men, still ignorant of the identity of thesepeople, but assured by Tucu's voice and manner that they were notenemies, lowered their weapons and rushed for the water. Up in the townthe yelling swiftly grew into a roar, and running figures came peltingtoward the creek.
The canoes struck the bank. Some were partly filled, some empty and intow. Into Pedro's canoe the whites bundled the Raposa, while theMayorunas got into anything within reach. Lourenco appeared from nowhereand urged the Americans to open fire. As he spoke,
arrows thudded intothe ground and the water.
"Take this man and go!" rasped McKay. "We're losing our equipment,but--"
His rifle leaped to his shoulder. Flame spat from it. From the van ofthe charging Red Bones shrilled a death scream.
Again and again the captain's gun cracked. Knowlton's joined in. Beforetheir rifles grew silent the blunt roar of Pedro's repeater broke out.And with the emptying of their long guns the Americans drew their shortones, and in a concerted ripping crash the forty-fives volleyed deathand dismay into the oncoming cannibals.
The rush was checked. For a few seconds the Red Bones wavered and milledabout. Into their mass poured a cloud of arrows and blowgun darts fromthe silent but no less deadly weapons of the Mayorunas. As the whitespaused to reload, Pedro opened a new blast from Lourenco's rifle, whichhis comrade had passed to him on the run. Lourenco was not shooting, butworking madly and alone to save the equipment. And, thanks to therenewed deadly fire of the guns, he saved it.
Before the wicked belch of the three rifles and the two automatics theRed Bones gave back more and more. Their arrows plunged all around thefighting men, but they fell at random, for the gunmen and the canoeswere virtually invisible in the deep shadows. Downstream, Tucu's harshvoice jarred in commands as he straightened out the line of boats.
At the next lull in the firing Lourenco panted: "In, comrades! We areloaded. In!"
"Great guns! Are you still here?" snapped McKay. "I told you--"
"In! Talk later. Come!"
The three gun fighters swiftly obeyed. With a powerful heave Lourencosent the canoe after the others. Americans, Brazilians, and the Raposahunched up among the packs, all went sliding down a jungle Styx.
A moment later the Red Bone warriors, taking heart from the cessation offiring, poured an avalanche of arrows into the spot where they had been.And as the canoe, last in the escaping line, was swallowed up in theimpenetrable blackness of the forest a hair-raising screech ofdiabolical fury blended with a swift succession of splashes back wherethe cannibals were plunging headlong into the stream to reach the deador wounded men whom they vainly hoped to find on the farther shore.
"I told you to take this man and go!" McKay fumed. "By disobeying ordersyou risked losing him."
"Oh, pipe down, Rod!" remonstrated Knowlton. "If they had, where'd we benow? This was the last canoe."
"_Si._ It is so," added Lourenco, his voice hard edged. "As it is, theman and the equipment and you also are here. And let me tell you this,Capitao Makkay, whether you like it or not: Pedro and I would see thiswild man and a million others like him in a hotter place than thisbefore we would abandon fighting comrades."
To which McKay, finding no adequate answer, made none whatever.
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