re is probably no creature in this world of ours more vindictive
than an angry Indian; and these particular Mayubuna Indians considered
that they had ample cause for their anger against the two white men whom
they were taking so much trouble to capture; for had not those same
white men been directly responsible for the loss of seventeen male
Mayubuna lives? And among the South American Indians, who, even then,
were beginning from a variety of causes to die out, nothing is so
valuable as the life of a male--females they care nothing about; they
may live or die as they please--therefore those who were responsible for
the sacrifice of no less than seventeen men's lives must receive a
punishment, the severity of which should be proportionate to the
enormity of their crime. Consequently not one of those Indians closed
his eyes for a moment throughout the long hours of that night; and with
the first hint of approaching dawn, long before either of the occupants
of the ceiba were awake, they were keenly looking about them for "sign"
of the white men's presence. For some time, however, they looked in
vain, for the Englishmen had learned a few of the ways of the wild from
Vilcamapata, and had succeeded in obliterating their tracks so
completely that even the sharp eyes of the savages failed to detect
them. But by and by, when it was broad daylight, one of the Mayubuna
who had recognised the possibilities of concealment afforded by the
ceiba detected spots here and there on two of the depending lianas where
small strips of the bark had been freshly torn off as though somebody
had very recently climbed up them, and to this he immediately directed
the attention of the rest, with the result that it soon became a
practical certainty that the fugitives were somewhere in that tree.
This having been determined, certain of the Mayubuna young men of the
party, anxious to distinguish themselves, proposed to climb the tree
forthwith and bring the white men down, dead or alive; but the cacique
in command of the party, who happened to have been in one of the
attacking canoes on the preceding night, and had therefore already had
experience of the prowess of the hunted men, at once vetoed the plan as
being far too dangerous; besides, for certain grim reasons which will in
due time appear, he wanted the quarry to be taken alive and unhurt, if
possible. Therefore, instead of permitting any of his men to climb the
tree, he so disposed them round