bush ahead. Any Indian
hunter hearing that sound would straightway have begun scanning the high
branches, for the liquid call was that of the mutum, or curassow turkey.
But the waiting trio knew it for Pedro's signal that all was clear. At
once they slid their canoe to shore, lifted its bow to a firm grip on
the clay, and, after plumbing the shadows, quietly advanced in squad
column.

A few steps, and they halted suddenly and whirled. A voice had spoken
just behind them. There, squatting leisurely between the root buttresses
of a huge tree, Lourenco looked up at them in amusement. They had passed
within rifle length of him without seeing him.

"Of what use are your eyes, comrades?" he chaffed. "In the bush one
should see in all directions at once. You were looking at that patch of
sunlight just ahead, yes? But danger lurks in the shadows, not in the
glaring light."

Without awaiting an answer, he arose and took the lead. At the edge of
the small sunlit space beyond he halted.

"You were heading for the right place," he added then. "Look around. Do
you see anything?"

Swiftly they scrutinized the gap left by the fall of a great tree whose
gigantic trunk had bludgeoned weaker trees away in its crushing descent.
Seeing nothing unusual, they then peered around them. Tim suddenly
snapped up his rifle.

"Holler tree there--and a man in it! Hey! come out o' there!"

"Your eyes improve," Lourenco complimented. "But the man is Pedro."

Tim lowered the gun as Pedro, grinning, came out of his concealment.

"That is the tree of the Raposa," Lourenco went on. "The lightning
flashing in from above showed us the man. But now, senhores, I think we
must tramp the bush for some time before we find that Raposa again.
There is no trace of him here."

"Hm!" said Knowlton. Striding to the hollow tree, he peered about inside
it. The cavity was almost big enough to sling a hammock in, but it was
empty of any indication of habitation, human or otherwise. A temporary
refuge--that was all.

"No sign anywhere around here, eh?" queried McKay.

"We have found none. We shall look farther, but I have small hope. If
you senhores will make the camp this time we shall start at once and
stay out until dark. Build no fire until we return. And if you hear the
call of the mutum, pay no attention to it; we may use it to locate each
other if we separate, and also perhaps as a decoy. Any wild man, red or
white, hearing that call would seek the b