Say, I'll do that, jest to show these guys I don't give a rip. And
while their ears are dazzled by me melody I'm goin' to git me holster
unbottoned and me masheet kinder limbered up. Git set. Here it comes:

"Ol' Hindyburg thought he was swell,
Pa-a-arley-voo!
He made the kids in Belgium yell,
Pa-a-arley-voo!
But the Yanks come over with shot and shell
And Hindyburg he run like hell,
Rinkydinky-parley-voo!"

Under cover of his outbreak, which made the savages clutch their weapons
and glare at him in mingled suspicion and amazement, there proceeded a
furtive loosening of pistols and machetes.

"A noble sentiment, and more or less appropriate," grinned Knowlton.
"But don't give them another spasm for a few minutes, or they may rise
up and kill us all in self-defense. They're on the ragged edge now."

"Aw, them guys dunno how to appreciate good singin'. But I should worry;
I got me gat fixed now like I want it."

Time dragged past. The Americans and Brazilians smoked and exchanged
casual comments on subjects far removed from their present environment.
The Mayorunas watched them with unceasing vigilance, as if expecting a
sudden break for life and liberty. Their chief had intimated that
Monitaya would kill these men; and now was their last chance to try to
dodge death. But neither the black-bearded McKay nor any of his mates
manifested the slightest concern. And at last the canoe of Yuara came
back.

It came, however, without Yuara himself. The son of Rana had remained at
the _malocas_ ahead, whence he sent the command to advance. Closely
hemmed in by the men of Suba, the white men's boat surged onward at a
brisk pace. Around a bend in the creek it went, and at once the domain
of Monitaya leaped into view.

Two big tribal houses, each considerably larger than the one of Suba,
rose pompously in a wide cleared space beside the stream. Before them,
ranged in a semicircle, stood hundreds of Mayorunas--men, women,
children--all silently watching the canoes of the newcomers. In the
center of the arc, like the hub of a human half wheel, a small knot of
men waited in aloof dignity, four of them adorned with the ornate
feather dresses of subchiefs, backed by a dozen tall, muscular savages,
each armed with a huge war club. Before all stood a powerful,
magnificently proportioned savage belted with a wide girdle of squirrel
tails, decked with necklaces of jaguar teeth and ebony nuts, cr