The Indian women guarding Hal watched him continuously while he wastaking stock of his surroundings. Neither one spoke, but he caught aquestioning look in the eyes of the older-looking hag and saw her dartbehind him, bringing up a huge calabash filled with water.
She held it to his lips and Hal drank it greedily. It was warm andrather too sweet tasting but, nevertheless, water. Never in his life washe so grateful for anything, although he realized that they must havebeen feeding him water on and off through the day, for he felt notnearly so parched as when he lay under the tree that morning.
When the calabash was empty he looked up at the Indian woman and smiledhis most brilliant smile.
“You spiggotty—no?” he asked softly, remembering how often he got someresponse from Panama Indians by means of that address.
But he might just as well have spoken to a stone statue, for the womanstared at him with the same blinking eyes. After a moment she took thecalabash and arose, waddling past the burning fires toward the front ofthe _maloka_.
Hal turned his eyes to the other Indian woman who was regarding himgravely from under half-closed lids. He used the same alluring smileupon her, but his earnest efforts were all in vain, for she continued towatch him with the same impassivity as before.
He closed his eyes after that and drowsed at intervals. In his wakingmoments he could feel the presence of his female guardians, butpreferred to keep his eyes closed as long as they wouldn’t speak to him.But on the whole, silence reigned in the vast _maloka_ and now and againHal could hear the night voices from the jungle.
Goatsuckers repeated their monotonous refrain by the hour and severaltimes the eerie plaint of the sloth drifted faintly in on the breeze.The women dozed occasionally, as was evidenced by their sonorousbreathing, but the moment Hal opened his eyes they seemed to awakeninstinctively.
Then came a long interval when a hush seemed to have fallen overeverything. Hal knew the women were dozing but he kept his eyes closed,content to lie quiet and rest. He knew that curiosity would avail himnothing where an Indian was concerned. That much he had learned inPanama.
Consequently, when he heard the muffled scream of a human voice towarddawn, he did not stir. But the women were on the alert immediately, forhe could hear them straighten up and lean over him. He feigned deep,even breathing, however, but continued to listen.
Another scream pierced the early morning darkness, echoing and reëchoingabout the _maloka_. Suddenly the cry, though muffled, was moreintelligible, and Hal was certain that it sounded like someone trying tocall “_help_,” though he could not be sure. It was too muffled, toodistant for him to distinguish anything definite.
In any event, the cry pierced the air for the third time, and, though itseemed ghostly and unhuman, its poignancy was distressing. Then all wasstill again, but Hal had been so startled that he found himself upresting on his elbow and staring hard at the women.
The elder of the two women stared back at Hal, then suddenly she got toher knees and with her brown, bony hands made a number of gestures whichthe young man was at a loss to fathom. After a few moments of continuedeerie, cowering gestures, he began to understand what she was trying toexplain.
The cries he had just heard were ghostly, not human.
CHAPTER XVIII CONVALESCENCE
Hal took no stock in that, of course, but, during the long nights of theweek following, he was more than once inclined to be credulous in thematter. Not a night passed that he did not hear the sad cries issuingfrom some point beyond the _maloka_. And though he questioned both thewomen and the warriors who came and stared curiously at him, none coulddo more than shrug their shoulders and make meaningless gestures inanswer.
Consequently, he was glad when his strength returned and enabled him towalk as far as the door of the _maloka_. Two young but stalwart warriorshad now taken the place of his female guardians and on this first day ofhis convalescence they hovered about constantly, and he was at a loss toknow whether it was because of their tender solicitude for his uncertaingait or whether they considered him a prisoner.
In any event, he got absolutely no encouragement from either warriorwhen he motioned them to show him where the weird night criesoriginated. They simply shrugged their shoulders and gestured in such away as to indicate that the Indian considered the supernatural to be anevil manifestation and all evil was to be shunned.
But by and large, Hal got on not so badly with them. He had learned,after the first day, a series of gestures which indicated his wants, hislikes, and his dislikes. To be sure, all the food they gave him, hedisliked intensely, but as he was likely to starve unless he ate whatwas given him, he put a good face upon the matter and took what came asa rule. Also, he felt eternally grateful to them for having rescued himfrom a certain horrible death and nursed him back toward health.
Every few hours during the day the medicine man, a fat, pot-bellied oldwarrior, had come and sat at his side droning weird incantations overhis recumbent body and making all sorts of fantastic gestures. Then hewould proceed to delve into a calabash that he had brought with him, andbring out a smeary-looking mixture which he plastered on the patient’swounded leg and hand. And before he terminated his visit he would raiseanother calabash to Hal’s lips, nodding for him to drink deeply of thebitter, herb-tasting fluid which it contained.
A FAT MEDICINE MAN MADE ALL SORTS OF FANTASTIC GESTURESOVER HAL.]
Nevertheless, Hal continued to get better and, whether or not it wasbecause of the medicine man’s mysterious magic, he was quite able tohobble out of the _maloka_ on the second day of his convalescence.
It was, of course, quite a gala day in the little settlement. Men,women, and children stood about in a staring circle to watch their guestemerge. All small of stature, they looked up with awe at Hal’s toweringphysique and shock of red, curly hair.
He hobbled about the clearing, smiling brilliantly, though feeling dizzyand weak from his sickness and long confinement in the gloomy _maloka_.Nevertheless, he could not help smiling, for he felt ridiculous in hissoiled and wrinkled flannels and a ten days’ growth of golden beard.
For quite a time the natives continued to follow him about, but seemedto tire of it toward afternoon and went back to their various pursuits.Meanwhile, Hal saw something that gladdened his heart—a river, which hisguardians explained, with violent grunts and gestures, was a littleriver to the big river, or in other words, a small tributary.
The larger of the two Indians (his head just reached Hal’s elbow), whomHal dubbed “Big Boy,” motioned to a canoe pulled up on the bank. After aseries of gestures which represented a man paddling down the river, helooked straight up at the tall young man.
“You mean that canoe is for me?” Hal motioned the question. “For _me_ togo back?” he added, pointing to himself and then to the river.
Big Boy nodded assent.
Hal partook of the evening meal with a little more relish than heordinarily would. He sat with the tribe outside the _maloka_ mincing onthe unpalatable _beiju_ pancakes, which were a distinctly Indianconcoction, and thinking of the day near at hand when he could turn hisface toward _Manaos_. He nibbled on the _pimenta_, with which _beiju_ isalways eaten, and forgot that it usually burned his civilized throat.
All his thoughts were on his uncle and how overjoyed he would be to knowthat he was alive and well, after he had been given up for lost. Forcertainly he must be thought lost and dead. Even his mother must thinkit by now. His mother....
Hal got up from the communal supper circle to be alone with the thoughtof his mother. The rest of the natives, busy appeasing their hunger,seemed not to notice him hobbling away toward the surrounding jungle,particularly his guards.
Hal did not seem to notice this relaxation of their guardianship. Inpoint of fact, he thought nothing at all about it, so filled were histhoughts of the day on which he could get word to his mother that allwas well with him.
He found the dimness of the jun
gle trail inviting and hobbled along deepin his own reflections. Tomorrow or the next day he would be well enoughto start his journey, he felt sure of it. And he would leave the littlesettlement with a heart full of gratitude. Indeed, he had alreadytendered to the chief of the tribe his empty gun as a token of deepappreciation, and with much bowing and grunting, the gift was receivedin good spirit.
There was nothing to mar his joy then, so much did he appreciaterecovering from the fever. He stopped, stretched his long armsdelightedly and happened to notice through the trees a small thatchedhut. Before it, stretched out on the ground asleep, was one of thenatives.
Several monkeys disported themselves on the branches of the tree overthe hut and were about to pelt the sleeping native with some nuts. Haltried to frighten them off by waving his long arms but they paid noheed. Instead they set up a chatter and let go a rain of the hard nutswhich fortunately missed their intended victim and hit Hal instead.
“Ouch!” Hal cried as several of the nuts hit his tender head. “For thelove of Mike!”
The words had barely been uttered when out of the gloomy hut came aheart-rending cry, muffled and unintelligible, yet full of poignancy andhuman wretchedness. Hal did not miss its pleading note—in point of fact,the utter misery of it seemed to make him powerless to do aught butwonder.
What was it?
CHAPTER XIX A PRISONER
Hal had not time to consider this at all, for in a moment, it seemed,the natives had swarmed up from the clearing and surrounded him. And thenative lying before the hut had gotten to his feet in an amazingly shorttime, producing a bow and arrow and looking as if he would use it on theslightest pretext.
Hal’s pet guardian, Big Boy, stepped up to his side at this juncture andpulling him by the arm urged him back toward the clearing. He did so,willing but puzzled, and as he turned his back toward the hut, the samecry of misery broke out, pleading and utterly pathetic.
Hal stopped, hesitated, as if he were going to go back, when he noticedthat a number of the warriors were following him with bows and arrowsdrawn. Big Boy, too, marching at his side, had acquired an exceedinglypugnacious expression on his usually bland countenance.
Straight back to the _maloka_ they marched him, saw him safely to hisapartment in the rear, then left Big Boy standing guard while theygathered in the front for a long and noisy conference.
Hal could make nothing out of the whole proceedings. He did not knowwhat it was all about. Yet the uneasy thought recurred that it was not apromising sign to see naked savages following him about with drawn bowsand arrows. They had not done so before. What did it mean now?
Had his presence before that strange hut incurred their enmity? And ifso—why? Why should that wretched cry bring them swarming to his side andcause them to treat him as if he had committed some crime? Why?
Hal was to learn why, to his sorrow, and that the way of the AmazonIndian is indeed very strange.
In the meantime he was doing all in his power to get Big Boy in a spiritof good will. He coaxed and cajoled to find out why he was being guardedthus.
Big Boy, ever an admirer of Hal’s powerful physique and commandinggrace, relaxed a little to motion that the warriors of the tribe wereholding a pow-wow to ascertain what should be done about the incidentbefore the hut.
“What about it?” Hal gestured with one of his sad-sweet smiles. “I havedone nothing.” He shrugged his shoulders and put his hands over hisheart to show that he was innocent of any wrongdoing.
Big Boy melted enough to wriggle his hands in a way that conveyed to Halthe information that the spirits were offended. His going along thetrail to the hut and hearing those cries made him a thing of evil. Andto the Indian, evil was a thing to be shunned.
Through Big Boy’s lucid mode of expression, Hal learned that a dementednative occupied that hut, or rather he was incarcerated there asevidenced by the native guarding it. And a demented person, Big Boyexplained by pounding his head vigorously, was unholy, evil. Thus theperson upon whom this evil one cries also becomes evil.
“And so all you guys think I’m evil, huh?” Hal asked, gesticulatingwildly and pounding his broad chest.
Big Boy nodded.
“What can they do about it?” Hal persisted, feeling not a little uneasy.
Big Boy shrugged his shoulders in answer and Hal could get nothing moreout of him for quite a while. He went to sleep and slept for an hour.When he awakened, he saw that his wrist watch was being curiouslyinspected by the Indian.
“Like?” Hal motioned, sitting up.
Big Boy nodded, then, with a grave shake of the head, sat down alongsideof Hal.
The tribe, Hal noticed, were all settled for the night in theirapartments. No one but him and the Indian were awake at that moment. Onecould have heard the proverbial pin drop when Big Boy suddenly motionedto his bow and arrow.
For the next five minutes he enacted with pantomimical accuracy justwhat was going to take place in the settlement at dawn. He pointed firstin the direction of the jungle hut, then he pointed toward the chief whowas lying a few apartments distant, sound asleep. Big Boy mimicked thatpowerful personage by making a grave face and shaking a sagacious fingerat Hal. Next he silently waved his arms, indicating all the sleepingwarriors in the _maloka_, then pointed toward the heavens as a finalgesture.
Hal comprehended it all, and he almost wished that he hadn’t, for itwasn’t terribly comforting news.
For his stroll through the jungle trail and the evil that the warriorsbelieved had been visited upon the tribe through Hal, the sagaciouschief had pronounced sentence on their white guest. That sentencecondemned Hal to death at dawn—death by bow and arrow at the hands ofthe tribe’s picked warriors.
Hal shivered and glanced at his young captor a moment. The young manmust have some liking for him, else why did he tell him all this? Couldhe use Big Boy’s liking and hero worship to his own advantage?
He tried, using all the wit and cunning that he could muster. Smiles,pleading looks, and even a cajoling shake of his captor’s shiningshoulder which Hal followed up by thrusting his wrist watch under BigBoy’s nose. And that did the trick.
The Indian nodded his head, pleased, and sat as still as a mouse whileHal fastened the watch on his left wrist. When it was adjusted heindulged in a smile, moving his hand back and forth to see the glow ofthe radium-faced dial in the gloom of the _maloka_. He was like a childwith a toy.
Hal waited long enough for him to enjoy it, then nudged him warningly.Time was fleeting, the fires were burning and every warrior was deep insleep. From past observation he knew that such utter silence did notlong reign in the _maloka_. He would have to act and act quickly.
Big Boy rose and motioned his captive to follow stealthily. Hal followedobediently, but never in his life did he seem to make more noise. Thewarriors, however, did not hear it, for no one stirred throughout thelength of the _maloka_. Then they reached the door.
A full moon was coming up and Big Boy motioned Hal to walk close to thetrees. He walked out in full view of the clearing, however, his darkshining body glistening with every stride. At intervals he stopped,listened intently, then pattered on toward the river.
They came out on the banks without incident, in the full light of themoon. The canoe was there—the canoe which the chief had decided was notto take the white young man back to civilization. But Big Boy haddecided otherwise, and he motioned Hal to hurry, pushing thefrail-looking craft well out into the stream.
Hal got in without a word or a sound. He turned, putting out his hand ingratitude to the young Indian lad who was saving his life, but wassurprised to see that Big Boy had also clambered in the canoe and hadtaken up one of the paddles preparatory to departure.
He only nodded to Hal’s inquiring look and with a few rapid strokes putconsiderable distance between themselves and the settlement. Then heheld up his hand on which the wrist watch was fastened, and shook hishead darkly.
H
al understood and it made him feel mean. But Big Boy would not have itso. He smiled reassuringly to his white friend as if to tell him that itdid not matter. He may have earned the eternal condemnation of thespirits and of his people by helping the evil-stricken white man toescape, but had he not gained a wrist watch and a friend? That was thegist of his violent gestures.
Hal shrugged his shoulders, but he was touched by Big Boy’s devotion.Truly, the way of the Amazon Indian was strange.
CHAPTER XX THE PASSING OF BIG BOY
Hal helped Big Boy paddle for two hours, but he was so completelyexhausted at the end of that period that he had to stretch himself outin the bottom of the craft. The Indian nodded understandingly andpointed to his white friend’s head as if to say that he knew all alongwhat toll the fever had taken of his strength. Very wisely he hadreckoned that his tall friend could not stand the strain of the journeyalone.
Hal put out his hand and gave the Indian an affectionate slap. Hisgratitude knew no bounds, for he realized more than ever that Big Boy’sdecision to come with him had been actuated by a high and noble motive,the desire to help a fellow being weakened by fever. And no one knewbetter than the Indian how weak his friend would be.
Hal was so deeply affected by this realization that he determined neverto let Big Boy out of his sight, never in his life. And during the longnight hours, though there was not a word spoken, nor a hand moved ingesture, they found a mutual contentment in each other’s company.