s seventy
iron-walled and palm-roofed houses set on high palm-trunk poles, each
with its ladder dropping from the doorway to the one muddy street. Then
spoke the tall man.

"Before you see it again, Tim, you'll think it's quite a town. Above
here is nothing but a few rubber estates, seven hundred miles of unknown
river, and empty jungle."

"Empty, huh? Then they kidded us on the boat. From what they said it's
fair crawlin' with snakes and jaggers and lizards and bloody vampires
and spiders as big as yer fist. And the water is full o' man-eatin' fish
and the bush full o' man-eatin' Injuns. If that's what ye call empty,
Cap, don't take me no place where it's crowded."

A slight smile twitched the set lips of the tall "cap."

"They're all here, Tim, though maybe not so thick as you expect. Lots of
other things too. Who's this?"

Through the knot of pipe-puffing idlers came a portly coppery man in
uniform.

"Well, I'll be--Say, he's the same chap who came onto the boat in a
police uniform. Now he's in army rig," the light-haired member of the
trio exclaimed. "O Lordy! I've got it! He's the police force and the
army! The whole blooming works! Ha!"

Tim snickered and stepped forward.

"Hullo, buddy!" he greeted. "What's on yer mind?"

"_Boa dia_, senhor," responded the official, affably. With the words he
deftly slipped an arm around Tim's waist and lifted the other hand
toward his shoulder. But that hand stopped short, then flew wildly out
into the air.

Tim gave a grunt and a heave. The official went skidding and slithering
six feet through the mud, clutching at nothing and contorting himself in
a frantic effort to keep from sprawling in the muck. By a margin thin as
an eyelash he succeeded in preserving his balance and stood where he
stopped, amazement and anger in his face.

"Lay off that stuff!" growled Tim, head forward and jaw out. "If ye want
trouble come and git it like a man, not sneak up with a grin and then
clinch. Don't reach for no knife, now, or I'll drill ye--"

"Tim!" barked the black-haired one. "Ten-_shun_!"

Automatically Tim's head snapped erect and his shoulders went back. He
relaxed again almost at once. But in the meantime the tall man had
stepped forward and faced the raging representative of the government of
Brazil.

"Pardon, comrade," he said with an engaging smile. "My friend is a
stranger to Brazil and not acquainted with your manner of welcome. In
our own country men never put