is negligible. He is in this
country for the express purpose of getting girls, and with Monitaya's
men away from their _malocas_ he has a wide-open chance to make the
biggest slave haul of his life. So he plans to outmaneuver Monitaya,
attack this place, capture all the young women, allow the Red Bones to
massacre everyone else and burn the houses, and then move on without the
loss of a man. After that perhaps he intends to find us and get Rand, or
perhaps to attack other Mayoruna _malocas_. At any rate, his first
objective is this place. Am I right so far?"

"Dead right," Knowlton nodded.

"Very well. Now he may figure that, having found the water connection
between the two creeks, the Mayorunas will come against Umanuh by the
canoe route. Or he may think they'll make the overland trip. In either
case, the Red Bones have to come through the bush, for the simple reason
that they haven't boats enough to carry all their force. Their canoes
were rather few when we were there, and we commandeered several of them
for our own use. If they decide to come part of the way in canoes
they'll have to work a come-and-go transport service, bringing the
fighting men down in batches to some rendezvous from which they must
finish the journey on foot. Chances are that they'll disregard the
canoes and all march overland by some route that would dodge the
Mayoruna line of march. But in either case they're coming here. And it's
here, in the place where he's not expected to be, that Monitaya should
meet them. Let him fortify himself and await the assault. It will come."

"And we shall be saved many weary miles of leg work," Jose smiled.
"Capitan, your strategy is magnificent."

"Begorry! it ain't so bad at that!" Tim approved. "Hozy, me and you will
have our hammicks slung out front here when the show starts and do our
shootin' prone. Suits me fine. Put it up to the chief, Renzo."

Lourenco did. Very carefully he explained it all to Monitaya, dwelling
on the fact that McKay himself was a warrior chieftain and familiar with
the fighting methods of such men as the atrocious Blackbeard, and
depicting graphically the horror of an attack by the barbarous Red Bones
on the defenseless women. It took him some time to divert the chief's
stubborn mind from the original plan, but in the end he succeeded.

To the vast astonishment and disappointment of the vengeful warriors,
Monitaya curtly announced that the projected march would not take place.