ip
on which you sent us to locate new rubber trees. We were
seven--eight--seven--"

"Eight days' journey from here," prompted Pedro.

"_Si._ We were in our canoe when a sudden storm broke and we got
ashore to wait until it was over. The place was on an _ygarape_--a
creek--about two days away from the river. The trees were large and the
ground free from bush. In a flash of lightning we saw a man peering out
at us from a hollow tree.

"He was naked and streaked with paint--that was all we saw in the
flashes that came and went. The rain was heavy, and we stayed where we
were until it ended. Then we ordered that man to come out.

"He came, and he held bow and arrow ready to shoot. We, too, were ready
to shoot, but we held back our bullets and he held back his arrow. We
saw that his paint was red and that it traced his bones; that his skin
was that of a tanned white man and his hair was dark with a white streak
over one ear. No, we did not notice the color of his eyes--the light was
not good and he stood well away from us.

"We looked around for other men, but saw none. We asked him who he was
and what he wanted, but he gave no answer. He looked at us for a long
time, and we at him. Then he began walking away sidewise, watching us
steadily, holding his arrow always ready. Finally he disappeared among
the trees and we saw him no more. But we heard him, senhores; twice
before we lost sight of him he spoke out in a queer voice like that of a
parrot. And the thing he said was, 'Poor Davey!'"

McKay thumped a fist on his chair.

"Davey! David Rand!"

"Perhaps so, Capitao. I do not know. But he spoke English."

"By thunder! David Rand! Merry, where's that picture?"

Knowlton was already unbuttoning his pocket flap. Quickly he produced
the photograph.

"That the fellow?"

Lourenco studied the face. The eagerly anticipated affirmative did not
come.

"I cannot say surely. This is a full-faced, clean-shaven man with hair
close trimmed. That one's face was gaunt, covered partly with beard and
partly by long hair, and we were not close to him, as I have said. I
would not say the two were the same until I could have a better look at
the wild man."

"You didn't follow him?"

"No. Why should we? He had done nothing to us and we let him go his way.
We did look at his hollow tree, though. But it was only an empty tree,
not his home; a place where he had stepped in out of the storm. We had
other things to do, so we got in