an talk cannibal so good he makes
Monitaya hunt for the dictionary, and he'll tell the chief in ten
seconds what I tried half an hour to say this afternoon--that ye belong.
I 'ain't been here long enough to learn much o' their lingo, ye
understand. If I could spout it like French, now, there wouldn't been no
trouble."

McKay and Knowlton snickered. They knew Tim's French was several degrees
worse than the usual American doughboy's "frog" talk.

"Good thing you couldn't," derided Knowlton. "You'd have had Jose
crucified before we got here."

"That's right, gimme the razz! Course, I did have a li'l' trouble makin'
some o' them frogs understand, but that was because they was so ignorant
they didn't know their own language when they heard it spoke right.
Anyways, ye got to admit Hozy's still with us and sassy as ever, and he
wouldn't been if Timmy Ryan hadn't been round to powwow for him."

"You have it right, senor," Jose agreed, gravely. "Without you I should
now be dead. I can speak the Mayoruna tongue quite well, but of what use
is it to talk any language when men will not listen? It was you and your
gun that saved me."

"Gun? Good Lord! Did you pull a gun on Monitaya?" ejaculated the
lieutenant.

"Aw, no. That is--I guess mebbe I did wave me piece around while I was
arguin'--I can always convince a guy better if I got somethin' in me
hand. But I didn't git real rough."

"You are lucky to be still alive, Senhor Tim," said Lourenco. "If
Monitaya were not the man he is you would not be alive. I am glad we
have returned."

"Meanin' I need a guardeen? Say, lookit here now--"

"As you were!" clipped McKay. "We're all wasting time. Jose, let's hear
your report. I thought you were going to put Schwandorf out of action
for good?"

"And I am, Capitan! That is why I now am here. If I had reached him
immediately after leaving the Nunes place it would have been done at
once. But a man travels slowly when he is alone and has lost much blood,
and before I met Schwandorf again I had time to think coolly. Then when
I saw him I changed my plans.

"Some days down the river I met him traveling fast in a canoe paddled by
hard men whom I know. He pretended to be greatly grieved when I told him
you all were dead. Oh yes, senores, I told him that! I was playing with
him, and it amused me to see how he thought he was deceiving me when I
was really fooling him. I said we were attacked by Indians a short way
above the Nunes place