CHAPTER XVIII PANT SPRINGS THE TRAP
Pant's conference with the girl at the creek landing on the appointednight was short and to the point. The girl's father was to station acompany of his men in a cluster of cocoanut palms at a certain point onthe river's brink an hour after dark on the following night.
"Daego's pit-pans may not come that night," said Pant. "We have no meansof telling. But we will watch, one night, two, three if necessary."
"Yes, a month," said the girl.
"And your father's men will be there?"
"Yes."
"Depend upon it, the trap will be set."
"Thank you, so much. And my father thanks you. The best and truest of ourpeople thank you."
Once more the girl vanished into the night.
Next evening, just after nightfall, three strange dories might have beenseen stealing from the mouth of the creek. Behind them, wriggling andtwisting with the ripple and flow of the water, came a serpent-likeaffair hundreds of feet in length. The dories came from the Carib sailboats. They were strongly manned by Carib crews.
Leaving the creek, they moved slowly up the river. When they had reacheda point a mile above the mouth of the creek, they turned their prowstoward shore. Once there, they tied the long trailer to a Yamra tree.
This accomplished, they paddled rapidly back to the spot where the otherend of the trailer was bumping the shore. Having attached this endsolidly to a group of overhanging trees, they returned again to the otherend. After unfastening this end, aided by the current and their ownsturdy rowing, they brought this end to the opposite bank. There theyanchored it.
"The trap is set." Pant said this with a sigh of relief. "The night isideal. No moon. Clouds drifting over the stars. It will be very dark. Ifthey come, their very fear of light will be their undoing." At that heordered his men to row him back to the other shore. There for some timehe busied himself with the fastenings of that end of the "trap."
"There!" he breathed. "A single stroke of the axe, and it is done."
"They will come very late at night if they come at all," he told his men."Time for another thing. Doesn't really matter whether I'm here or not.The trap will spring."
He was eager to be away after the big cat whose tracks, freshly made thenight before, had been seen in the mud of a small stream that crossed thetrail to the river. At realization that he was so near, the Caribs hadbeen thrown into panic. Some of them had been for manning their craftsand drifting down stream at once. But upon receiving Pant's promise thatwithin forty-eight hours the skin of the killer should be drying againstthe wall of the cook shack, they had gone back to work.
It was a rash promise, but Pant resolved that he would make good. So thisnight, armed only with his rifle and a common flashlight, he made his wayover the river trail to a place of hiding he had prepared.
He had covered half the distance, when on pausing to listen, he caughtthe faint sound of footsteps on the moss covered trail.
His heart skipped a beat. Someone was following! Who could it be? Was ita curious Carib? Hardly. They were too much afraid of the killer. Was itan enemy from across the river? Such a thing was possible.
Stepping noiselessly to one side, Pant waited. Straight on came the onewho followed.
"Sounds like two," Pant said to himself.
"Sounds----" he hesitated a moment. "It don't sound like--it sounds--yes,it is! It's old Rip himself!"
And so it was. Rip, the burro, once a bag of bones, now well fed onbread-nut hay, sleek and fat, had chosen to follow his young master onhis hunt for a killer.
"Now, why did you follow?" Pant said with a chuckle. "What am I to dowith you? If I tie you up here the killer may get you. I can't spare timeto take you back. I know what I'll do; I'll take you along. We'll fightit out together with the big cat."
For this resolve Pant will always have cause to be grateful; and yet, ina way, the affair was to end rather sadly.
With the burro standing patiently beside him, he had remained in hidingfor a full half hour when, without warning, there had appeared in thetrail not five yards before him the very creature he had come to seek.There stood the killer!
So sudden was his appearance that Pant had little time to prepare for theattack. He had only seized his rifle and had no time to aim and fire,when, with a scream that was blood-curdling, the big cat launched himselfthrough the air.
Expecting nothing so much as to be torn to bits by the claws and fangs ofthe beast, the boy dropped his rifle and threw himself back into thebushes. As he did this, unconsciously his right hand reached for hismachete and drew it from its scabbard.
Surprise followed. The death dealing compact of the flying cat did notcome. For an instant Pant's senses reeled. Then, like a flash, it came tohim. The tiger had launched himself against the burro. Feeling themachete in his grasp, without reasoning as to the outcome, Pant sprang tobattle.
It was well that he did. A strange thing had occurred. As the tigersprang, the burro had reared upon his hind feet. In this way he hadstruck the great cat squarely in the head with his sharp hoofs. The blowhad been a stunning one and as Pant entered the battle he found thejaguar just returning to consciousness. This task he never quitecompleted, for Pant's machete, coming down with savage force, all butsevered his head from his body.
"That settles you," he muttered. "I've kept my promise."
Then, overcome by nervous exhaustion, he settled down upon the dampearth.
As strength slowly returned he thought of his companion, the burro.
Creeping over to where he lay, he put a hand upon him. Then he lifted theanimal's head, to allow it to drop limply back.
"Neck broken," he sighed. "Poor old fellow! You could save my life, butin that fleeting second you could not save your own."
Rising, he gathered green leaves and covered the faithful creature'sbody. Then, seizing the jaguar by its hind legs, he prepared to drag itto camp.
"Show 'em!" he muttered. "Guess this will satisfy 'em!"
Since the spot on the bank at which he had set his strange river trap wasnot far away, he dragged his burden in that direction.
Arrived at the spot, he turned the carcass of the "killer" over to one ofhis Caribs. Having told him to drag it into camp, he sat down beneath acocoanut tree that hung over the river.
"Wait here and see what happens," he said.
There is no time so still as night on a tropical river. Shut off by densevirgin forests from every breath of air, damp, oppressive tropical heatseems to place a blanket of silence over all. The great river, with itssweep of waters, is as silent as the stars in the heavens. The wholeuniverse appears to sleep.
Pant felt all this as he sat there listening and watching by the river.This was an eventful night. Would they come? Would the trap serve thepurpose for which it was intended? So he questioned as the silence hungover all.
Now that vast silence was broken by the bark of an alligator. Did thatmean that they were coming?
Of a sudden, as he waited, there rose out of the silence a strange sound.Pant was all action at once.
With a look of mingled joy, determination and anxiety on his face, Pantseized his axe and lifting it high, severed at one blow the rope whichheld that end of the long trailer that now spanned the river. Instantly,caught by the current, the whole long streak of brown swung towardmidstream. Even as it did so, between it and the other shore thereappeared a long black shadow.
"They come! It will work!" whispered Pant, dropping on his knees towatch.