Up overhead the monkey made another fussing sound. And though we were strangers, with rifles in our hands, the man looked up eagerly and then turned his back on us, walking up to the matamata tree.
"Chico, rascal!” he said in a half-scolding way. “Come here to me! You are a bad child, and if you do not stop running away I shall set you down on an anthill and hold you there until they eat all the hair off your tail! Come here!"
The monkey came down slowly while Pedro and I stood snickering at the thought of him hopping around with a tail full of ants. We knew very well that the threat was only a joke, and were very glad that we had not killed the little pet.
Chico came swinging down a long drooping vine, stopping near the ground as if he wanted his master to chase him up again. But the big gray man stood still, talking in a coaxing tone, and so Chico swung to other vines and came across until he was over his master. Then the man reached a hand to him and put him on his left shoulder where he perched and wrinkled his funny little face at us.
"Your bad child seems to make much trouble for you, friend,” said Pedro.
"It is the truth,” the man answered. “He is a mischievous fellow and a great care. If you have sons of your own perhaps you understand how it is."
He said it so seriously that we roared with laughter. The idea of this powerful man talking of that shriveled little monkey as his son was too much for us.
But he did not grow angry. He grinned slowly, scratched the monkey's neck with one big finger and let us laugh.
When we stopped he said:
"I have two sons besides this little Chico—real sons, who some day will be big men. Now they are not old enough to come out here with me, but must stay at home with their mother.
"So I have taken this little fellow as my son too, to keep me company while I stay here alone. He likes me, even if he is a bad boy at times—is it not so, Chico? I wonder if he would like you too."
Carefully he lifted the monkey from his shoulder and lowered him to the ground. Then he pointed toward us.
Smiling, Pedro squatted and spoke coaxingly to the little pet, and after watching him a minute Chico came over to us and let Pedro stroke him. Then he caught hold of one of my bootlaces and played with it.
He climbed up my leg, too, and slipped a paw into one of my pockets; but I lifted him away before he got anything and held him in my hands and scratched his neck and then set him down on the earth. He went to playing with my bootlace again. Then his master came up to us and lifted him again to his shoulder.
"You are honest men,” he said simply, “If you were not, Chico would not make friends with you. Now if you wish to come to my tambo I shall be glad.
"I am Thomaz Nobrega, and I am here because I have been hunting gold. I have found it, too, and if you do not believe it you can come and see it."
We glanced at each other thinking he must be very simple indeed to tell two armed strangers that he had gold. He trusted us, of course, because Chico did.
And it is true, senhores, for I have noticed it myself, that sometimes animals can sense evil in a man when grown men and women can not. They seem to feel it as they feel an approaching storm and other dangerous things. Yet I would not trust the judgment of any monkey, or of most men either, where gold was concerned.
As if there could be no question of our good hearts, now that Chico had found us friends, the man Thomaz turned away and started back the way he had come. We followed.
Soon the pair ahead of us stopped, and Thomaz pointed up a small creek which probably held no water in the dry season, for now it was neither wide nor deep. Then he went on along the bank of this stream, and the four of us stopped again at a small tambo. And there on the ground near his hammock was a rough heap of ordinary dirt.
"This is my treasure,” he said, pointing at the dirt-pile.
We frowned at it and then at him, wondering if he was crazed. He chuckled and added:
"It does not look as if it were worth much, does it? But now see what I shall show you."
Stooping, he clawed away a few handfuls of earth from the side of the pile. Then he stood up and pointed at the hole he had made.
Out from that hole shone a yellow gleam. And we saw that the dirt-pile was really a heap of gold concealed under a few inches of earth.
"You see, it is as I said,” he told us. “I have found gold. Thomaz Nobrega, whom men laugh at and call Tamandua, has found fortune in this lonely forest where those who laughed were too lazy to go.
"Feel it, friends. Lift it. It is real gold."
We did not need to lift it, for one look showed us that it was true gold. And I was staring at the man himself. He had said that men called him Tamandua, and I thought how well the name fitted him.
For tamandua bandeira, as you probably know, is the great ant-bear; and Thomaz, with his thick gray hair and narrow head and that long tongue with which he licked his lips, did look much like that animal.
He lacked the broad black stripe over his chest and sides, and of course he had not the ant-bear's great bushy tail; but if ever there was a human ant-bear, it was he. And we soon found that he really ate ants.
"Sit down, friends, and be comfortable,” he said, “and I will make you such a meal as I can."
So we leaned our rifles against a corner-post and sat in the hammock and rolled cigarettes. When these were lit we told him who we were and how we had come there, and watched him while he made a fire.
When this was going well he got out a pan, greased it with a piece of fat which he took from a small clay jar, and held it over the blaze until it was smoking hot. Then he picked up another jar plugged with a ball of leaves, took out the plug and shook the dish into the hot pan. At once came the sound and smell of something frying.
"What have you there, friend Thomaz?” I asked, for I could not see what he had shaken into the smoke. He grinned slowly and answered:
"Something very good, which I think you will like. Something that will probably be new to your tongue, although you must have seen them many times. Tanajuras."
"Por Deus!" exclaimed Pedro. “Do you eat ants?"
Thomaz chuckled, and said:
"Yes, I do eat ants. I have eaten them since I was a child, for they are very good if you like them. But now I eat them because there is not much other food that I can get. I have been out for a long time, and my cartridges are all gone."
Looking around, we saw a rusty rifle lying across the poles overhead. We saw too that, excepting the useless weapon, his hammock, a few small tools and some things for cooking, there was nothing at all in the place—except that heap of gold. There was no food, and his only clothing was that ragged pair of breeches which were almost falling off him. And, he said, he had been out for a long time.
"I can kill a sloth with my machete whenever I find one, and eat that,” he added. “But that is not often, and so I have to live on these ants, which are easy to get. I hope you will like them, Pedro and Lourenço."
"Why do you not take your gold, Thomaz, and go back to your home and get more cartridges and dried food and other things you need, and then come back?” asked Pedro. “Come back when the rains have gone and this place is dry, and it will be much easier to work."
But the gray man shook his head.
"I have lost this place once,” he said, “and it took me a long time to find it again. If I should leave it now perhaps I should never see it more. I shall stay here until I have all the gold I can find, and then I will go out for good.
"You know how it is in the jungle—if you go away for only a little while from a place and then come back it does not look the same, because vines and bushes and creepers have grown and made it look strange; and so perhaps you will lose it."
I nodded, and he went on:
"I found this place first when I was out as a rubber scout, trying to find new trees so that I could ask Duarte Gomes for some money. Do you know Duarte Gomes? No? He is a hard man. He will do anything for money, and he will give money on
ly when he expects to make much more money by doing so.
"And so, needing money, I tried to find a new rubber district, intending then to make him pay me well to tell him where it was. And while I was hunting I found this place of gold. But my mind was so full of rubber that I went away and left it, thinking I would come back here when I found rubber too."
I nodded again, for I could see that a simple mind like his might be so full of one thought that it would not change quickly to a bigger idea.
"But I did not find rubber, and when I tried to come back here I could not find this place either,” he continued. “So I went home and told Gomes about the gold, offering to hunt for it if he would pay me.
"He laughed at me and told me to find the gold first and then he would help me to get it out if I would give him half. He would not give me even a cartridge. But I got some cartridges in other ways, and a few tools, and started out again.
"My wife said—
"'If you find gold keep it all yourself, and do not be so simple as to let him have any of it, for he has no right to it at all.'
"And she is right—it is my gold and he shall not have any of it. He gave me no help, and now I want no help. I had to hunt a long time, and the rains came, and my cartridges went, and it was only by luck that I finally reached this place again.
"And now when I go out Gomes will be sorry he did not help me. I shall be as rich as he, and my wife and boys will have everything grand.
"Am I not right, friends? Is not this gold all mine?"
We told him that it surely was, and that he must not let that Gomes or any other man take any of it from him. And we asked him whether he had told Gomes where this creek of gold was.
He said yes, he had, but Gomes did not believe it, so he would not be likely to look for it; and besides how could Gomes find it when Thomaz himself had had so hard a hunt? We said nothing, but we thought of the same thing—that Gomes might get an Indian to search the jungle and see if he could find either Thomaz or his gold.
We thought, too, that something might happen to Thomaz before he could reach home with his fortune. And we asked him how he planned to take it out when he had gotten it all from the creek.
"I do not know,” he said. “First I must get all the gold. Perhaps then I will make a basket to hang on my back, and carry as much as I can to the water below the cachoeira, and then come back for more, until it is all there by the stream. And then with my machete and with fire perhaps I can make a canoe.
"But I do one thing at a time, and the thing to do now is to pile up all the gold.
"Chico, rascal, be still! You shall have some ants, yes."
He flipped out a hot ant from the pan, and Chico grabbed it. Then he dropped it. His master laughed.
"Perhaps that will teach you not to be so greedy,” he said. “Wait until it is cool."
Chico poked at the insect with a finger, and finally seized it again and ate it.
"Now, friends, the meal is ready,” Thomaz told us, bringing the pan to us. “Eat as much as you like, for I can easily catch more tanajuras."
But somehow we were not hungry now. We had never eaten ants, and these did not look very inviting. And so I said:
"I am sorry, friend, but we do not like the taste of ants. We have not eaten enough of them to become used to them. So eat them all, you and Chico, and we will go out and see if we can shoot something that we all will like."
He looked hurt and answered slowly:
"You do not like them? But you have not tried them. Eat a few and you will find them good."
But we shook our heads and arose.
"I know they are good if a man likes them,” I said. “But, you see, we do not care for them. You know how it is—one man's taste is not the same as that of another man."
He nodded and said that was so, and he was sorry he had nothing else to offer us. Perhaps, he said, he could find a sloth somewhere and cook that for us if we wanted meat.
But we told him again that we would shoot something and then we would come back and share it with him. And we went away and left him sitting on his gold-pile, feeding himself and his monkey on those fried ants.
In the bush we stopped and looked back at him.
"Poor fellow!” said Pedro softly. “He is so trustful, just because that monkey made friends with us. Look at him—he is not even watching us.
"We could stand here and kill him and take all his gold. And so could any other men who found him.
"That man Gomes, now, who is a hard man and would do anything for gold—Lourenço, this big gray fellow needs protection. Let us give it to him."
"We will give him more than that,” I added. “Let us give him food and cartridges. We are only on a rambling trip and can go back whenever we desire, while he is fighting for a life's ease for himself and his family. And though he likes ants he must be tired of them."
"That is just what I was thinking,” nodded Pedro. “Perhaps our cartridges will not fit his gun, but if they do we will give him all we can spare. And whatever else we can do for him we will do."
We slipped away into the bush and headed toward our canoe, stepping softly in hope of seeing some fine fat mutum bird or other creature good to eat. But we met nothing of the kind, and we were nearing the river when Pedro halted.
He held up a hand for silence. We listened.
It seemed to me that I heard a murmur and a rustle off to our left, but I was not sure. No more sounds came to us, except the steady snarl of the rapids. We went on.
At the canoe we took out all the food and cartridges we could safely spare. And when this was done Pedro said—
"I thought I heard low voices back there in the bush, and the sound of men passing by."
"I thought I heard something of the sort too,” I told him. “But probably it was only the noise of the cachoeira, and perhaps a little breeze up overhead."
He stared thoughtfully downstream, and asked—
"It was at the left?"
"At the left,” I agreed.
"And that would be downstream,” he said. “Lourenço, it may mean nothing, but let us paddle down a little way and look along the bank. It will not take much time."
So we pushed the canoe out from the tangle and dropped down the river close to the bank. Suddenly Pedro held his paddle and grunted. I looked. And there in a small cove, half-hidden by overhanging leaves, lay another canoe.
"Aha!” said Pedro. “I was right. Men passed us, going away from this stream. They were going toward the tambo of Thomaz, too."
He started, struck by a sudden thought.
"Lourenço! It may be that man Gomes! Gomes and others, seeking Thomaz and his treasure! What do you think?"
"It may be so,” I answered. “This canoe has just come—the paddles are wet. Whoever these men are, if they find Thomaz they will see his gold, for he did not cover up that hole he made for us in his pile. I think we had better waste no time in getting back to him."
We whirled and went swiftly back to our landing-place.
There we hid our canoe again, loaded ourselves with the food and cartridges for Thomaz and started toward his little tambo. It had seemed only a short distance on our first trip, but now that we were in haste we found it quite a tramp to that small creek.
Yet we took care not to rush but to go quietly, so that we could come up behind the strangers without their knowing it. When we stopped near the hut of the Ant-Eater we knew they had not heard us.
Four men stood now where we had left only one man and a monkey. One was long and lean with a yellow face and a cruel mouth half-hidden by a big blue-black mustache curving down toward his chin. Two were snake-eyed Indians.
The fourth was Thomaz. And Thomaz was the only one without a gun. The others held rifles, and the yellow man wore also a revolver.
"But the gold is not yours, Gomes,” the gray man was saying in his slow way. “It is all mine. You would not give me even a cartridge or a mouthful of farinha to help me to live while I found this
place again. You only laughed at me, and now you have no right to what I have found."
"I told you to come and find the gold and then I would help you take it out, and I should have half,” Gomes growled. “Now I am here to take it out for you. Do not try to get out of your agreement."
Thomaz stared at him.
"But there was not any agreement,” he said, “You did nothing to help me, and I did not make any agreement. I came back by myself and found it myself, and I will take it away myself. It is all mine."
"Did I not tell you to go and find it?” demanded Gomes.
"Yes, you did say so, but you were laughing at me."
"No; it is an agreement,” Gomes insisted. “I am here, and half of that gold is mine. I will take it all out for you and give half of it to your family.
"You can stay here and dig more, and I will come back again until we have it all. Then I will take you home, and you will be very rich."
Pedro, beside me, growled something and would have stepped out. But I held him back.
"Not yet,” I whispered. “We may be more useful to Thomaz if those others do not know we are here."
And he stayed where he was.
"I did not tell you to come after me,” said the gray man patiently. “I did not want you to come. I do not want any help now. And you know it is not your gold. My wife told me it would all be mine if I found it, and it is so."
"Your wife?” Gomes sneered. “What does that old woman know? You can not cheat me, and you had better not try it."
"But the strangers also said it was all mine,” persisted Thomaz. “Two fine honest men told me—"
"Strangers?"
Gomes turned quickly and looked all about. But we stood quiet, hidden in the bush.
"What strangers? Where are they?"
"I do not know where they are. They went away. Two fine men named Pedro and Lourenço who came and made me a visit. And they said the gold was all mine, and I must not let any man take it away from me. So I know I am right."
"Oh, they have gone,” said the black-mustached man, looking relieved. “So they came and saw your gold and went away? You fool, they will come back and rob you. I will take the gold out at once before they return."
Amazon Nights: Classic Adventure Tales from the Pulps Page 25
