s not to be dashed by the
sneers of Professor Summerlee. He has a gentle voice and a quiet
manner, but behind his twinkling blue eyes there lurks a capacity for
furious wrath and implacable resolution, the more dangerous because
they are held in leash. He spoke little of his own exploits in Brazil
and Peru, but it was a revelation to me to find the excitement which
was caused by his presence among the riverine natives, who looked upon
him as their champion and protector. The exploits of the Red Chief, as
they called him, had become legends among them, but the real facts, as
far as I could learn them, were amazing enough.

These were that Lord John had found himself some years before in that
no-man's-land which is formed by the half-defined frontiers between
Peru, Brazil, and Columbia. In this great district the wild rubber
tree flourishes, and has become, as in the Congo, a curse to the
natives which can only be compared to their forced labor under the
Spaniards upon the old silver mines of Darien. A handful of villainous
half-breeds dominated the country, armed such Indians as would support
them, and turned the rest into slaves, terrorizing them with the most
inhuman tortures in order to force them to gather the india-rubber,
which was then floated down the river to Para. Lord John Roxton
expostulated on behalf of the wretched victims, and received nothing
but threats and insults for his pains. He then formally declared war
against Pedro Lopez, the leader of the slave-drivers, enrolled a band
of runaway slaves in his service, armed them, and conducted a campaign,
which ended by his killing with his own hands the notorious half-breed
and breaking down the system which he represented.

No wonder that the ginger-headed man with the silky voice and the free
and easy manners was now looked upon with deep interest upon the banks
of the great South American river, though the feelings he inspired were
naturally mixed, since the gratitude of the natives was equaled by the
resentment of those who desired to exploit them. One useful result of
his former experiences was that he could talk fluently in the Lingoa
Geral, which is the peculiar talk, one-third Portuguese and two-thirds
Indian, which is current all over Brazil.

I have said before that Lord John Roxton was a South Americomaniac. He
could not speak of that great country without ardor, and this ardor was
infectious, for, ignorant as I was, he fixed my attention