d. 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 cannibal
leader, whom he led to the far side of the _tambo_ before speaking.
Then, in whispers which the other tribesmen could not overhear, he
explained the situation. Knowlton took another turn or two along his
post, finding that the Red Bones across the water were stirring about
and evidently aware that something was going on; but they made no move
either to get into a canoe or to send a man to the houses beyond. As he
stopped again at the corner near the whispering pair he heard Tucu
grinding his teeth, and as the savage turned his face toward the Red
Bone outpost it was a mask of murder. But he spoke no word as he slipped
back 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 one
of you lend Tucu a machete? He may need a weapon, and he cannot carry
his big bow on this trip."

A few minutes later the three crept out behind the _tambo_, Tucu
gripping McKay's machete. As a final word Lourenco said: "Our men here
may 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 no
sound to indicate that three men now were traversing the black tangle
beyond.

McKay took up his rifle and assumed the sentry work. Knowlton sat in his
hammock, grateful for the chance to rest his weary legs. From the
hammock where the Raposa lay no sound came. With a worried frown the
lieutenant leaned over him and laid hand on his heart. After a while he
sat up again in relief.

"Lord! I sure knocked him cold!" was his thought. "But he's still with
us, and there's no use in reviving him now; the less noise over here the
better. Hope I didn't jar his brains loose altogether; he might wake up
a murderous maniac. Poor devil! A millionaire, yet half starved and more
than half nutty."

He glanced at the dim scene before the hut. The moon now had journeyed
so far westward that the creeping shadows of the tall trees had moved
out almost to the creek, and the two crude shelters and the sentinel
were surrounded by dense gloom. The Red Bone men opposite must rely on
their ears alone hereafter, for they could not s