* * * * *

Paula nodded.

"That was what my father had written down for you," she said quietly.
"Any man who can be lured to eat or drink anything these men have
prepared is lost. He gains no pleasure, as a drug might give. He is
entrapped into a lifetime of awful fear, knowing that a moment's
disobedience, a moment's reluctance to obey whatever command they
give, will cause his madness."

"I'm trying to think what we can work out of this," said Bell shortly.
"Some things are clear. There's a radio receiving set nearby, which
listened to those short-wave reports. Within five or six miles, at
most. We're going to find that to-morrow. And there's a central point,
a _fazenda_, where one may talk direct with The Master, whoever and
wherever he may be. And--judging by Ribiera--my guess is that The
Master has the same hold upon them that they have on their underlings.
Ribiera is too arrogant a scoundrel to make obsequious reports if he
were not afraid to omit them." He was silent for a moment, thinking.
Then he said abruptly, "Try to get some sleep, if you can. That pistol
of Ribiera's--you have it handy? Keep it where you can reach it in the
dark. I'm going to watch, though."

Paula settled herself comfortably, and looked queerly across the dimly
lit little cabin at him.

"My friend," she said with the faintest of quavering smiles, "Please
do not reassure me. I have the courage of endurance, at least. And--I
do not fear you."

* * * * *

It seemed to Bell, listening in the darkness that fell when he turned
off the switch, that she stayed awake for a long time. But when she
did sleep, she slept heavily.

Bell had a raft of canes afloat beside the amphibian when she waked.
He was sweat-streaked and bitten by many insects. He was tired, and
his clothes were rags. But the raft was nearly twenty feet long, it
would easily float two persons and what small supplies the plane
carried, and it could be handled by a long pole.

"Hullo," he said cheerfully when she climbed on top of the waterlogged
hull of the plane. "We're nearly ready to start off. I'm sorry I can't
advise you to try to refresh yourself in the river. There are some
fish in it that are fiends. One of them took a slice out of the side
of my hand."

"_Piranhas!_" she exclaimed, and was pale. "You should have known!"

_Piranhas_ are small fresh-water fish of the Brazilian rivers, never
more than