e?" Oomah asked.

"There is even more. Scarcely had Choflo died than a blanket of dark
clouds rolled across the heavens and rain fell throughout the night.
Tumwah had been appeased. We are saved. The earth is saved. And you,
Oomah, shall be rewarded and honored above all men."

The Patocos stood about in a spell-bound group.

"If this youth speaks truly, why has not the rain fallen here?" one
asked. "Our yuca fields are parched and the animals of the forest are
disappearing. Soon we will die of starvation."

"I have spoken the truth," Agoo persisted. Then, pointing to the sky
with both hands, he begged "Tumwah, send the rain-clouds here too. They
do not believe that the Black Phantom has been slain. Why, see," he
exclaimed suddenly, pointing to the East "even now the sky is overcast
where the sun rises and soon the rain will fall upon you. Look, Oomah!
They can ask for no other proof. Tumwah has come to save you."

Just then shouts from the forest announced the coming of the hunters and
before long the excited youths had filed into the village and joined the
circle.

"Now tell us what you found," the headman demanded. "Let your voice be
clear and loud so that all may hear and understand. Did you find
evidence that the first captive spoke the truth? His companion too says
strange things. Either the one is a great hunter who has fulfilled a
sacred mission, or both are spies and shall be dealt with before the
setting of another sun."

One of the youths who had just returned stepped into the circle.

"These many days we searched the forest and the sandbars, but found
nothing," he said impressively. "So we returned."

A hush had fallen upon all. Even the women and children peeping out of
the palm-leaf hovels stopped their chatter and looked with wide-open
eyes.

[Illustration: "Tumwah, send the rain-clouds here"]

"Build the fires!" the headman ordered. "I suspected treachery from the
very beginning."

"Wait!" the hunter, continued. "This morning as we rounded the bend in
the river where the banks are set close together and where the water
roars and boils in its haste to pass the terrible place so it may join
the peaceful stretches below, Tupi's sharp eyes saw the form of a
vulture in the sky. We watched the evil bird and soon discovered other
black specks circling above the gorge. It was there we found the proof,
on a rock in the midst of the raging water; a black tiger of such great
size that it could be non