Part 39 (1/2)
Five of the h their shi+rts and breeches were so tattered and stained that a civilized community would have looked askance at thees, but their beards and tanned skins were those of white th seemed, in fact, to be the fashi+on, for everyone present wore one, and all but tere very dark Of the odd pair, one's thin face was partly covered by stubby, blond hair, while the other's jaastheir cigarettes, the blond le-faced comrade moved their arms stiffly, as if still hampered by injuries Newly healed scars showed on the skins of the rest
”Injuns are a funny lot,” declared the red-haired one ”There's Monitaya, now Keeps us a couple weeks, doctors us half to death, feeds us till we gag, gives us new canoes, sends a platoon o' hard guys with us to see that we git to the river safe--and don't even say good-by No handshake, no 'Good luck, fellers'--jest a grin like as goin' to walk round the house and coht back And the lads that come out with us done the same--turned round and quit us without a word I bet if we lived ait to be dummies, too”
For a lanced at one of the naked men, on whose skin faintly showed reddish streaks
”You would,” he said
”Huh! Gee! Rand's talkin' again! First time since we licked them Red Boneheads Thole words Go easy, feller, easy!”
”I will be easy But it's tireen-eyedeach word in hisit The rest squatted with eyes riveted on his face
”I have not talked before because I had to find lish spoken and becoether in s are not clear But I can talk and make sense of my talk I will tell what I can re
McKay, am I a murderer?”
”A murderer? You? If you are we never heard of it”
”A man named Schmidt Gustav Schy little runt, bald and fat, with a scar across his chin?”
”Yes”
”He's dead, but you didn't kill hietting too inti felloife
We heard about it while ere in Manaos, and saw his picture What about hiht I killed him I struck hi have I been here?”
”You left the States in 1915 It is now 1920”
”Five years? My God! What has happened in that tily at hio from heart trouble Your uncle, Philip Dawson, also is dead”
Rand's jaw set The others shi+fted their gaze and busied the much time over the simple task
”Poor ood old scout
And I was here--buried alive--only half alive! My head--Tell ht before you dressedfro Before that there is a blur”
Knowlton sketched the events of that night, and told also of the gliht of the ”wildoutside the house of the Red Bone chief A flash lit up Rand's face
”So that is how I got my sore head You struck me with your rifle butt
That explains much Before I became a wild beast I was shot in the head
The bullet did not go through the skull It struck me a terrible blow on the crown When I recovered consciousness I was not myself I have never been the same until--”
”Gee cripes!” exploded Ti Sullivan, it was When he was a li'l' feller he tumbled downstairs and hit his head, and for 'most ten years he was foolish Then a brick fell off a buildin' and landed on his bean It knocked hiht as a new diun ye jarred soood as any of us”