They stared as if disbelieving their ears, and more than one black look
was given Lourenco. But not a man questioned the countermanding of
orders, not a mutter was heard. The great chief had spoken, and his word
was final.

Reluctantly they laid aside the weapons on which they had been toiling
with such purposeful zeal. The chief watched them with a little smile of
pride--pride in their zest for war, pride in their unquestioning
acceptance of his dampening order. Then he coolly told them to continue
their work; told them, further, that the next morning all the streams
were to be poisoned, new traps set, and scouts stationed far out on
every trail to await and report the approach of foes. Instantly their
faces flamed again and from every quarter of the wide house rose an
excited hum. They were to fight, after all!

"Tough eggs, these lads, if ye ask me," yawned Tim. "Bet ye we'll see a
row worth lookin' at when she does break."

He forebore to mention the fact that in rifle power their assailants
would outnumber them four to one.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE BATTLE OF THE TRIBES

The next four days, though they were days of waiting, were busy enough
to satisfy the most impatient Mayoruna warrior.

Outposts were established on every route by which the attacking force
would be likely to approach the twin _malocas_, the watchmen being given
the strictest commands not to fight, nor even to allow themselves to be
seen, but to run at top speed with the warning.

Poison detachments went forth to collect the ingredients for making
deadly the water and the weapons. Those detailed to the work of
polluting the streams gathered quantities of blue-blossomed,
short-podded plants with yellow roots, the roots being pulped and thrown
into the slow currents, which straightway became fatal to man or beast
The wurali squad procured their favorite materials and, in a flimsy shed
well away from the houses, prepared a plentiful supply of the venomed
brew.

New traps were set at points where a man or two might be picked off,
though it was realized that these would have little effect on the final
result. And inside the big houses men especially skilled in the
manufacture of arrows and darts toiled swiftly and steadily from dawn
till far into the night.

These activities, however, were only the usual defensive preparations
made by the warriors whenever they knew a sizable body of foes was
somewhere in the vicinity. It remained for th