cted. "I thought o' that, but Joey says they's
nothin' to it; they watched this sourkrout close, and he don't never git
no guns from nowheres. Besides, they's nobody up there to run guns to
but Injuns, and them Injuns are so wild they don't want no guns; they
stick to the bow and arrer and such stuff, which they sure know how to
use. Whatever his game is, he plays a lone hand as far's this town
knows. Got no pals here, and nobody wants to walk on his corns."

"May be perfectly all right, too," mused Knowlton. "A little gold cache
or something--though he said there was none in this region. Oh, well,
what do we care? We have our hands full with our own business, and all
assistance is appreciated."

An hour drifted past. Men of the town lounged by, looking curiously at
the strangers, some nodding and voicing a friendly, "_Boa dia._" Women,
too, watched them from windows and doors, and children slyly peeped
around corners until something more important--such as a cat, a goat, or
a gorgeous butterfly--came their way. Tim went inside and slicked up a
bit by buttoning and lacing his clothes and combing his rebellious hair.
At length a long boat put out from the farther shore and came surging
across the sun-gleaming river.

"Handle themselves well," McKay approved, noting the easy grace of the
crew. In the bow a tall, slender fellow stood with arms folded,
balancing himself to the sway of the rather clumsy craft and watching
the water ahead. In the stern, on a little platform whence he could look
over the heads of the others and catch any signal from the lookout, a
squat, dark-faced steersman lounged against his crude rudder. Between
these two the paddlers stood, each with one foot on the bottom of the
long dugout and the other on the gunwale, swinging in nonchalant unison
as their blades moved fore and aft. Under the curving roof of a
rough-and-ready cabin, open at the sides to allow free play of air,
Schwandorf lolled like some old-time barbarian king.

Down to the landing place trudged the three Americans, and there the
employers and the prospective employees looked one another over with
interest. Eight men had come with Schwandorf, and a hard gang they were.
The bowman, hawk nosed, slant eyed, black mustached, with hairy chest
showing under his unbuttoned cotton shirt, had the face and bearing of a
buccaneer chieftain; and the effect was intensified by a flaring red
handkerchief around his head and the haft of a knife pr