Part 37 (1/2)
At the edge of the bush a man's head peered frole canoe ca place The head behind the tree was that of a Red Bone spy
The two in the small canoe were Yuara and a companion from the Suba tribe
”Lourenco!” hoarsely whispered Pedro ”Yuara couide hi If Yuara walks on the pits he dies and our trap is revealed _Por airls quickly!”
Lourenco acted instantly Seizing two young wo swiftly the while Yuara and his irls outside, none of whoh to warn hirasped happened to be of quick intelligence, and now they darted out Before the visiting pair could reach the death trap the girls were upon thehted to see athem aside to the point where two unobtrusive stubs e of safety
Vastly astonished by such effusive welcoirls whom they did not know, but by nowarriors of the Suba clan were piloted to the door and inside As they disappeared, the head of the spy also vanished
”Woof!”sweat fro we have no more visitors”
Yuara and his coated by both Lourenco and Monitaya, who in turn enlightened them as to the present state of affairs At the promise of war the faces of the Suba men lit up
”Yuara comes only on a visit to learn news,” Lourenco told the rest
”You remember that the day after our return a canoe was sent downstream to a point where the wooden bars could be beaten and heard by Suba's ainst the Red Bones and Schwandorf was given in that way Yuara has become anxious to know more, so he is here”
”If he sticks around he'll learn a lot,” predicted Tim
With no waste of words or motion Yuara coolly attached himself and his fellow-tribesman to McKay Monitaya and his subchiefs were informed of the arrival and departure of the ene the warriors, who, despite their innate equanis held in leash But another hour passed, and yet another; and still no word from the outposts arrived
Suddenly a chorus of screams shrilled froh the doorways Blending with their outcries, a hoarse yell of ferocity rose raucously from the direction of the creek At once a louder ululation burst forth at the rear and sides of the clearing Monitaya's outguards had failed and the _ the stream came a score of yellow-faced, shi+rtless, barefooted brutes crisscrossed with cartridge belts and gripping rifles At their head loomed a burly black-whiskered creature with a revolver in each hand--thelike a pack of yellow-fanged wolves, they doubled toward the low entrances, their guns spouting wantonly at the upper walls--a ragged volley meant to terrorize the defenseless women within, none of ere to be killed until the handsomest had been cut out and set aside for slavery Sos and thudded wickedly into rafters and roof poles within But fro rifles lurked no shot cracked in reply
The fiendish howling of the Red Bones, sweeping in from all sides to the butchery, swelled into a feline screech that almost drowned the roar of the rifles Into the view of the watchers at the loopholes strea inward froht to follow at the heels of the Blackbeard and his gun line of Peruvians was backed and flanked by a horde of de for the taste of women and babes On they caround opened Rifle triuone in the flick of an eye Others, instinctively digging their heels into the ground the instant those ahead of them disappeared, were hurled forward and down by themass Before the rush could be checked the trenches were packed withthemselves and one another with the deadly points of their poisoned weapons
Of the twenty gunmen only four remained They were the four immediately behind Schwandorf By blind chance the Ger the twin trenches, saving hiulfed Now, as the Red Bones fought back fro Peruvians stood staring in momentary stupefaction at the welter of death on their flanks The es had been cut short by the catastrophe, and for the ling hty voice--the battlefield voice of McKay
”Now! Fire at will!”
The walls spat flaround where stood Schwandorf and his riflemen The Peruvian half-breeds collapsed and lay still But Schwandorf, shocked into activity by the ied death by an infinitesi himself backward, he struck the earth just as the bullets sped through the air over hies were ju he dived into theafter hi him unharmed
The co Mayorunas into the fight In a flash everytunnel cover was thrown bodily into the air Before the thunderstruck Red Bones had recovered froun-ar swept by swift-shooting rifles hidden in the walls, they beheld a horde of vindictive foes erupting fro fro yell of concentrated fury smote their ears; a hastily loosed stor-spears ripped into their flesh; a swift-running arc of light-skinnedas they went They, who had so exultantly surrounded the homes of women and children, noere surrounded in turn
From the doorway of Monitaya's _maloca_ the two Brazilians and Jose now leaped forth and, firing as they ran, dashed to hold the entrance of the other big house A few arrohirred around the their transit, but the shafts were shot hurriedly anddown ene with the swift surety of veterans of ht They reached their objective unwounded; and when they reached it a fringe of dead foesthe face of the hostile array Once within the door, they rapidly reloaded and sprayed lead along the trenches, which, though now nearly full, had becoo
Up on the earth eht steadily on; the soldiers shooting as coolly as if engaged et practice, the silent Randarrows in swift succession fro them Bullets, too, slammed into their rampart--bullets fro himself protected by the bodies of his cannibal allies, shot with both hands as the chance caun ets, he planted bullets so close as to knock dirt more than once into the eyes of the rifleot a bullet fair into a loophole
Knowlton grunted suddenly, swayed back, toppled, fell down the parapet
For a few seconds he lay still