01 Amazon Adventure (10 page)

‘What do you mean, economic?’ Roger wanted to know.

‘Someone stood to gain if dad lost. Now, the only ones who could possibly gain if our business suffered would be our competitors — the other animal collectors. Most of the zoos and circuses and museums turn to us first. With us out of the market they will have to turn to somebody else.’

‘You’re talking nonsense, Hal. None of the collectors would do this to me. I’m on the best terms with them.’

‘How about the biggest collector of all, except you?’

‘You mean Griffis? Why, Griffis is an old friend. Besides, he sold out his business.’

‘Exactly,’ said Hal tensely.

‘What are you driving at?’

‘He sold it to a man named Sands. Do you know him?’

‘Only by reputation,’ admitted John Hunt. ‘I think they call him Shark Sands — because he used to do some sharking in the South Seas. He seems to be a general roustabout. They say he ran a pearl-diving business and then got into gold mining in Australia. There was something about his working a mine that didn’t belong to him and he got out just ahead of the law. He got into more trouble in the Philippines and skipped just in time to escape a murder charge. Oh, there are plenty of stories about Shark Sands. But he’s no animal man. He wouldn’t know a kangaroo from an elephant. He hasn’t either the knowledge or the honesty to make a success of this business.’

‘Right,’ said Hal. ‘And that’s exactly why he has to win by foul means.’

John Hunt brushed away the suggestion impatiently. ‘You have a healthy imagination, Hal. But the important thing right now is to get home. A plane leaves here Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. That means there’s one tomorrow morning. We’ll be on it.’

And he strode uptown to make reservations.

Hal lay awake most of the night, thinking. In the morning over coffee he said, ‘Dad, you can cancel one of those reservations.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I mean I’m going to stay on the job here. Don’t you see that what this — whoever it is — wants most is to make us call off this expedition? There’s nothing he’d like better than to see us all come trotting home. He destroyed our animals — the last thing he’d like to see would be a new Amazon collection in the market. We can’t let him beat us. Of course you have to go. I can handle this thing alone. I’ll hire some men to help me.’

‘I wouldn’t think of it,’ said John Hunt. ‘You’re only a boy.’

‘But I’ll stay with him. And I’ll help him,’ said Roger.

John Hunt smiled at Roger’s notion that his services would be valuable. ‘No, you are both too young to wrestle with this jungle.’

‘Listen, dad,’ said Hal earnestly. ‘Your collection is gone. What are you going to do for money? The only way you can get back into business is to get a new collection. You’ve already invested a lot in this trip. If that fails, you are broke. Am I right?’

John Hunt reflected moodily. ‘I’m afraid you are.’

‘Think of mom, think of all of us. The best thing you can do for us is to let Roger and me go through with this job.’

‘You don’t seem to realize, Hal, that this is dangerous country. It’s not Colorado.’

Hal resorted to sarcasm. ‘So you think you have to take care of your little boys, don’t you? I hate to rub it in, dad, but I’ve got to remind you that you’ve been on the sick list half the time so far. Roger and I have done the work. If we could do it then we could keep on doing it.’

‘I couldn’t let Roger. He’s too scatterbrained.’

Roger looked crestfallen. ‘I won’t be scatterbrained. I’ll promise to be as sensible as a judge.’

‘He’ll mind what I say,’ said Hal, ‘won’t you Roger?’

Roger shot his brother a venomous look. But he swallowed the bitter pill. ‘Yes, I’ll even take orders from Hal if you’ll let me stay.’

‘All right,’ said John Hunt reluctantly. ‘But remember …’ And he launched into detailed instructions to Hal. ‘And you,’ he said to Roger sternly, ‘no mischief!’

‘Cross my heart!’

Dad flew on the morning plane.

The boys watched the plane until it was a mere speck in the sky.

Then they turned to each other with a solemn look. Suddenly they felt very much alone. They were two boys against the jungle. Hal’s brave words of a little while ago seemed rather silly.

‘We’ve got the easy end of it,’ Hal said, trying to reassure both himself and Roger. ‘We’re only up against animals. He’s up against an enemy who will stop at nothing.’

‘Well, if he’ll stop at nothing,’ said Roger uneasily, ‘perhaps he’ll even get at us down here.’

‘How could he?’ scoffed Hal. ‘If dad had thought that, he wouldn’t have left us here. No, the danger spot right now is Long Island. Well, come on, we have a job to do.’ And they struck off towards the piers.

Hal was relieved to see that the raft was still there. He had somehow had a crazy notion that it would be stolen.

As they approached the raft the local policeman who had been asked to keep an eye on it came running up waving his arms and talking excitedly. Hal had studied Spanish for two years and Portuguese for one in preparation for this trip. But he was not prepared for the weird hodge-podge of the two languages hurled at him by the policeman. He made out that during their absence a boat had arrived and the crew had set about untying the raft’s cable from the pier and making it fast to the stern of the boat as if to take the raft in tow.

When the policeman objected, a man came out of the boat on to the pier and claimed that he was one of the owners of the raft. He just wanted to move it to a safer position. The policeman was polite, but suspicious and asked the stranger to wait until the others returned. There was quite an argument. Finally the stranger said he wouldn’t wait, but would come back later, and off he went in his boat.

Hal tried to get a description of the stranger, but all that he could make out was that he was big, bad looking, and ‘no gentleman’. And he spoke Spanish with an English accent.

Hal rewarded the faithful policeman with an extra coin and then went with him to the police station to lodge a complaint. Roger, armed to the teeth, and feeling very important, stayed to guard the raft.

The police were inclined to dismiss the matter as of no significance.

‘Just somebody who made a mistake,’ said the chief, and added languidly, ‘However, we’ll keep on the lookout for him.’

It was quite evident that if anything was to be

learned about the mysterious stranger, Hal would have to find it out for himself.

He went to the consul and told him the whole story.

‘No one answering to that description has been here,’ the consul said. ‘Of course he might make a point of staying away. I don’t know how you could find him or what good it would do you if you did. After all, you have nothing against him. He has done nothing actionable, nothing that could put him in jail. If the police arrested him they would have to free him and then he would be more determined than ever to do you down.’

‘What do you advise me to do?’

‘Frankly, I’d advise you to follow your father’s example. Hop on a plane and go home. Evidently there’s a pretty sinister plot hatched up against you. We might protect you while you are in Iquitos, but as soon as you start down the river there’s nothing but jungle law. It’s every man for himself — and you’re only a boy.’

The last words stung Hal. He was taller than the consul, and stronger. Perhaps he didn’t know as much but he would learn, and he would learn by taking any hard knocks the jungle had to give him.

‘Thanks a lot,’ he said, ‘but we have a job to do and we’re not going to let Shark Sands or any gunman of his stop us.’

The consul looked up at him with a smile and put out his hand. ‘Well, you have plenty of spirit. Good luck!’

Hal returned to the pier to find Roger with his .22 in one hand, their father’s Colt .45 in the other, and a bare hunting knife thrust through his belt. He stood on the pier with his feet braced apart and his lower jaw protruding, and he looked for all the world like Horatio defending the bridge.

The truth was the kid was scared to death. He was mightily relieved to see Hal.

‘Did you find him?’ he asked.

‘No. But leave him alone long enough and I think he will find us.’

That’s what I’m afraid of!’

They proceeded to carry out their father’s instructions. The homemade raft had served well on the upper river, but for the wide and often stormy waters that they were about to enter, well-constructed boats were necessary. More room would be needed if they were to take on more animals, especially if they happened to be large ones such as the jaguar and the anaconda. And to propel such boats, they would have to have a crew.

Leaving the friendly policeman on guard over the already valuable animal cargo, they explored the shipyards.

‘Here it is,’ cried Hal at last. ‘Just what we’re looking for.’

This really does look like Noah’s Ark,’ laughed Roger.

It was the sort of craft that the Amazon people call a batalao. Fifty feet long, it had a deep cockpit, and was clinker-built — that is, the planks along its sides overlapped like the clapboards of a house. The whole afterpart of the vessel was covered with a roof that certainly looked as if Noah or some other early man had made it. The barrel-shaped thatch house called a toldo gave the whole thing the appearance of a gipsy van or a covered wagon. The vessel had a generously wide beam of about ten feet.

For the pilot who must manipulate the rudder there was at the stern a little platform perched so high that by standing on it he could look over the top of the house and see what was ahead. On the gunwales near the bow were oarlocks where four men might stand to the oars. There was a sort of sidewalk the full length of each gunwale so that in shallow water the men might pole the boat by starting at the bow, digging their poles into the sand, and pushing while walking down the boat’s edge all the way to the stern.

Hal purchased the batalao that was to be their new Ark. He bought also a lighter boat about twenty-five feet long called a montaria. He and Roger preferred to call it a skiff. It was almost as light as a skiff and capable of considerable speed. It also was fitted with a toldo but smaller than the house on the Ark.

With the help of the shipyard proprietor Hal engaged his crew. To man the two boats and to help him and Roger in trapping animals he worked out that he needed six men. Five of his recruits were Indians and the other, whose name was Banco, was a ‘caboclo’ or mixture of Indian and Portuguese.

There would be a third boat, the dugout in which they had descended the Pastaza, but it would simply be towed like a dinghy behind the Ark.

All were highly excited over the prospect of the long jungle voyage as they rowed the Ark and the skiff alongside the raft and proceeded to transfer the animals and the kit from the raft to the boats. It was already getting dark. Hal was anxious to get the work done while the light lasted so that they could sail at dawn.

A crowd collected on the pier to watch and give advice. They were much entertained by the process of hoisting the awkward iguana into the Ark. The great stork, worried by so much company, flew up to the length of his fifty-foot line and circled in the sky. In the meantime the other end of the line was transferred to the Ark and, as the bird descended, it was drawn down gently into its new quarters.

The work was about done when a figure that stood head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd pushed through and came down on the raft.

Hal at once recognized the man. To make sure, he turned on his flashlight. There could be no doubt about it. It was the same brutal face that had leered out of the night at him in Quito.

‘Hello,’ said Hal. ‘I believe we’ve met before.’

‘Oh, that so? Oh yes — for a minute up on Quito. Believe I was trying to find a church.’

‘I hope you lit your candles and made your prayer.’

‘All right, buddy, enough of that. I been wanting to see you.’

‘You took the words right out of my mouth. I’ve been wanting to see you. I believe you took an interest in this raft when I wasn’t around.’

‘Oh that! Just a case of mistaken identity, mister. We took it for another raft.’

‘Of course,’ said Hal. ‘By the way, I didn’t quite get your name.’

The stranger laughed. ‘I ain’t much on names. Just call me the boy’s best friend.’ Again he opened his snarling mouth in a laugh, and his teeth were snaggled and discoloured like a crocodile’s. Hal at once had a name for him — the name of the big treacherous brute of these waters.

‘All right, IH call you Croc, just to have a handle for you. Now what can I do for you? Besides dumping you overboard.’

‘Now listen, buddy, I don’t want no trouble,’ said the man christened Croc. ‘I just want to make a deal with you.’ ‘For Shark Sands?’

The man started with surprise. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Now I just wanted to see if you’d like to sell your collection.’

‘What’ll you give for it?’ ‘A thousand dollars cash.’ ‘It’s worth five times that.’ ‘Perhaps,’ said Croc, a crueller glint coming into his eyes, ‘but that’s what I offer and you’d better take it. If you don’t, you’ll be kinda sorry. You’d better take it and you’d better do something else. Buy tickets for home.’

‘And you’d better get off this raft before I throw you off.’

Croc’s eyes went bloodshot. ‘You snivelling little rat,’ he said. ‘I see I’ve been too easy with you. All right, if you won’t take it the easy way, take it the hard way. I’ll be seein’ you buddy.’

And he climbed the pier and pushed his way angrily through the crowd.

Roger looked at his brother, wide-eyed. ‘I have a feeling we’re going to see Sunny Boy again before morning.’

‘It would be just like him to do something during the night to prevent us from leaving,’ admitted Hal. ‘Or, if he doesn’t do that, at least he will have Jill night to get ready to chase us down river.’

‘I know the answer to that one.’

‘Yes — get a head start. As soon as these people go away we can slip out of here. We can travel all night. Before he can get started we’ll be half a day’s distance ahead of him.’