Part 1 (1/2)
The Pathless Trail
by Arthur O (Arthur Olney) Friel
CHAPTER I
SONS OF THE NORTH
Three le river, silently watching a ribbon of smoke drift and dissolve above the somber mass of trees to the northwest
Three men of widely different types they were, yet all cradled in the same far-off northern land The tallest, lean bodied but broad shouldered, black of hair and gray of eye, held hiazed unmoved His two mates--one stocky, red faced and red headed; the other slender, bronzed and blond--betrayed their thoughts in their blue eyes The red man squinted quizzically at the smoke feather as if it mattered little to him where he was The blond watched it with the wistfulness of one who sees the last sign of his oorld fade out
Behind them, at a respectful distance, a nuarments smoked and stared at the trio with the interest always accorded strangers by the dwellers of the Out Places They eyed the uncoe of the red one, the thoughtful attitude of the light one The copper-faced ht hands of the newco, and wide hats The wo in the les?_” hazarded a woh the stem of the black pipe clutched in her filed teeth
”_Notre-A toward the broad hats
”Englishmen would wear the round helested the woain over the bundles
”_Exploradores_,” the man corrected ”Explorers of the bush Have you no eyes? Do you not see the guns and high boots?”
The woman subsided The others continued what see
The smoke streamer in the north vanished As if ers turned their heads and looked south-ard, upriver The red-haired man spoke
”So we've lit at last, as the feller said when him and his airyplane landed in a sewer Faith, I dunno but he was better off than us, at that--he wasn't two thousand one, and us three pore li'l' boys are left a long ways fro the tone of a showirls, ye see the well known Ja-va-ree River, which I never seen before and coosh-knohere and ends in the Ammyzon
Over there on t'other side the water is Peru Yer feet are in the mud of Brazil This other river to yer left is the Tickywahoo--”
”Tecuahy,” the blond
”Yeah And behind ye is the last town in the world and the place that God forgot What d'ye call this here, now, city?”
”Remate de Males Which means 'Culmination of Evils'”
”Yeah It looks it Wonder if it's anything like hell's Kitchen, up in li'l' old N'Yawk”
They turned and looked dubiously at the town--a row of perhaps seventy iron-walled and palh pal from the doorway to the one muddy street Then spoke the tall ain, Ti but a few rubber estates, seven hundred le”
”Empty, huh? Then they kidded us on the boat Froers and lizards and bloody va 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 ht smile twitched the set lips of the tall ”cap”