e brains of the white men
to devise additional features, simple enough in themselves, but
astounding to the savages, who were accustomed only to the primitive
battle tactics of their ancestors. For the first time in their lives the
cannibals found themselves digging in--and also digging out.

After a survey of the terrain and a catechism of Lourenco and Monitaya
as to the usual methods of attack and defense, the two officers broached
an idea born of the exigencies of the situation. As they expected, the
great chief was somewhat slow to approve it, for it involved a literal
undermining of the walls of his fortresses. But despite the natural
inflexibility of his mental processes he was an unusually intelligent
savage, and eventually the patient reiteration of the advantages of the
scheme won him first to assent and then almost to enthusiasm. Wherefore
the amazed tribesmen were set to work, armed with crude wooden shovels,
in digging holes under the logs which sheltered them from man, beast,
and jungle demon.

All along the walls, at intervals marked by McKay and Knowlton, the
tunnels were dug. At the same time another large gang excavated before
each of the _malocas_ a deep, curving trench, the two long pits being
separated by a ten-foot space of solid earth affording free passage from
the houses to the creek. Meanwhile the women and the older children were
weaving flimsy covers from withes and vines. As soon as a tunnel was
completed it was masked outside the walls by one of these covers, on
which a thin layer of earth and grass was laid. The two trenches were
likewise concealed, and the loose earth was carried inside the house and
packed solidly against the walls flanking the doors.

At sundown of the fourth day the work was ended. And so well was it done
that when the great chief, his subchiefs, and his foreign allies went on
a final tour of inspection they could find no sign that the houses were
honeycombed with exits or that the ground in front of the little
entrances was not solid at all points.

"Rod and I took the idea from those pit traps out on the trails,"
Knowlton explained for the dozenth time. "Holes are covered to look
exactly like the rest of the ground. Every man of us has to be inside
when the enemy arrives, but we have to get out quick when the right time
comes, so we go under the walls. And can't you see those brave women
stealers go kerplunk down into the trenches? Oh boy!"

Whereat Lourenco and