Everywhere there were creepers, vines, parasitic orchids and there, in the clearing, exotic flowers of almost every conceivable colour. The air was damp and fetid, a miasmic smell all-prevalent, the heat overpowering and leaden and enervating, the floor underfoot almost an unbroken expanse of thick, clinging, evil-smelling mud.
Everyone, even Hamilton, sank gratefully to what few patches of dry ground they could find. Over the river, not much higher than the tree-tops, several birds, with huge wing-spreads, seemed suspended against the sky, for their wings were motionless. They looked evil, sinister.
Maria said: 'What are those horrible-looking creatures?'
'Urubus,' Hamilton said. 'Amazonian vultures. They seem to be looking for something.'
Maria shuddered. Everybody gazed unhappily at the vultures.
'A poor choice, I suppose,' Hamilton said. 'The cooking-pots, head-hunters or-the vultures. And speaking of cooking-pots, some fresh meat might help. Curassow — a kind of wild turkey — armadillo, wild boar, all very tasty. Navarro?'
Ramon said: 'I’il come too.'
'You stay, Ramon. A little more thoughtfumess, please. Someone has to look after these poor souls.'
Tracy said: 'To keep an eye on us, you mean.'
'I don't see what mischief you can get up to here.'
'Your haversack.'
'I don't understand.'
Tracy said deliberately: 'Heffner appeared to find something there just before you murdered him.'
Ramon said: 'Before Mr Heffner met his.unfortunate end is what Mr Tracy means.'
Hamilton eyed Tracy thoughtfully then turned away into the forest, Navarro following. Less than two hundred yards from the camp Hamilton put a restraining hand on Navarro's arm and pointed ahead. Not forty yards away was a
Navarro nodded arid raised his rifle. One single shot was all that Navarro would ever need. They began to make their way towards the dead animal then halted abruptly. A herd of perhaps three dozen
Only on the riversides do Amazonian trees have breaches, for only there can they get sunlight. Hamilton and Navarro reached the lowermost branches of the nearest tree a short distance ahead of the boars, which proceeded to encircle the tree and then, as if in response to some unseen signal, began to use their vicious tusks to savage the roots of the tree. The roots of the Amazonian trees, like those of the giant sequoia of California, are extremely long — and extremely shallow.
'I would say they have done this sort of thing before,' Navarro said. 'How long is this going to take, do you think?'
'Not long at all.'
Hamilton sighted his pistol and shot a
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Hamilton said:
Involuntarily, Navarro glanced upwards, then down at the boars which had redoubled their efforts. Both men started firing and within seconds a dozen
'Mine too.'
The sight of their dead companions seemed only to increase the blood lust of the boars. They tore at the roots with savage frenzy — and, already, several of the roots had been severed.
Navarro said: 'Senor Hamilton, either Fm shaking or this tree is becoming rather — what is the word for it?'
'Wobbly?'
'Wobbly.'
'I don't think. I know.'
A rifle shot rang out and a boar dropped dead. Hamilton and Navarro swung round to look back the way they had come. Ramon, who seemed to be carrying a pack of some sort on his back, was less than forty yards away and was prudently standing by a low-branched tree. He fired steadily and with deadly accuracy. Suddenly an empty click was heard. Hamilton and Navarro looked at each other thoughtfully, but Ramon remained unperturbed. He reached into his pocket, extracted another magazine clip, fitted it and resumed firing. Three more shots and it finally dawned on the
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'Oh, shut up,' Hamilton said. 'Thoughtful of you to bring my rucksack along with you.'
Ramon said pontifically: 'One should not expose the weak-minded to temptation.'
'Do be quiet,' Navarro said. He turned to Hamilton. 'God only knows he was insufferable enough before. But now, after this —'
The cooking fire burned in the near darkness and boar steaks sizzled in a glowing bed of coals.
Smith said: 'I appreciate the necessity for all the shots. But if the Horena are around — well, that must have attracted the attention of everyone within miles.'
'No worry,' Hamilton said. 'No Horena will ever attack at night. If he dies at night his soul will wander for ever in the hereafter. His gods must see him die.' He prodded a steak with his sheath knife. 'I would say those are just about ready.' Ready or not, the steaks were dispatched with every sign of gusto and when they were finished Hamilton said: 'Better if it had hung a week, but tasty, tasty. Bed. We leave at dawn. I'll keep the first watch.'
They prepared for sleep, some lying on waterproof sheets, others in lightweight hammocks slung between trees at the edge of the clearing. Hamilton flung some fuel on the fire and kept on flinging it until it flared up so brightly that the flames were almost ten feet high. Machete in hand, Hamilton departed to obtain some more fuel and returned with an armful of branches most of which he cast on the already blazing fire.
Smith said: 'Well, granted, granted, you know how to make bonfires. But what's it all in aid of?'
'Safety measures. Keeps the creepy-erawlies at bay. Wild animals fear fire.' He was to be proved half right, half wrong.
He was on his third fuel-hunting trip and was returning to camp when he heard the piercing scream of fear. He dropped the fuel and ran into the brightly lit clearing. He knew the high-pitched scream could only have come from Maria and as he closed on her hammock the reason for her terror was obvious: a giant anaconda, at least thirty feet in length and with its tail still anchored to one of the trees that supported Maria's hammock, had one of its deadly coils wrapped round the base of her hammock. She was in no way pinned down, just too paralysed with fear to move. The anaconda's vast jaws were agape.
It was not Hamilton's first anaconda and he had a nodding respect for them but no more. A full-grown specimen can swallow a 15 o-pound prey in its entirety. But while they could be endlessly patient, even cunning, in waiting for their next meal to come along, they were extremely slow-witted in action. While Maria continued to scream in the same mindless terror, he approached within feet of the fearsome head. No more than any other creature on earth could an anaconda withstand three Luger bullets in the head: it died immediately, but even in its death the coil slipped over the girl's ankles and continued to contract. Hamilton struggled to pull the slimy coil free but was brushed aside by Ramon who carefully placed two rifle bullets into the upper centre of the coil, severing the main spinal nerve. The anaconda at once went limp.
Hamilton carried her across to his groundsheet close by the fire. She was in a state of mild shock. Keep a shocked patient warm, Hamilton had often heard, and the thought had no sooner occurred to him than Ramon knelt alongside, a sleeping-bag in his hands. Together they eased the girl inside, zipped up the bag and sat to wait. Navarro came to join them and jerked a thumb in the direction of an apparently sleeping Smith.
'Observe our gallant hero,' he said. 'Asleep? He's wide awake. Has been all the time. I watched him.'
Ramon said complainingly: 'You might have come and watched us.'
'When you and Senor Hamilton can't take care of a simple-minded reptile like that it's time for us all to retire. I saw his face and he was terrified, seemed quite unable to move: not, I am sure, that he wanted to move or had any intention of moving. Has the girl been hurt?'
'Not physically,' Hamilton said. 'I'm afraid this is basically my fault. I had a big fire going to frighten off wild animals. Well, anacondas are also wild creatures and as frightened of fire as any other. This one just wanted out: it was the devil's bad luck that it was roosting in the tree that helped support Maria's hammock. I'm pretty sure she would have come to no harm. The reptile was simply easing its way down the tree. Apart from the fact that its belly is swollen and obviously would not be requiring another meal for a fortnight, it probably had a much greater matter on its mind, such as getting the hell out of here. All very unfortunate but no harm done.'
'Perhaps,' Ramon said. 'I hope.'
'You hope?' Hamilton said.
'Trauma,' Ramon said. 'How deep does a trauma lie? This has been a traumatic experience. But I think that's only a side issue. I have the feeling that her whole life has been a traumatic experience.'
'You plunging into the deep waters of psychology, psychiatry or what-have-you, Ramon?' Hamilton didn't smile as he spoke.
'I agree with Ramon,' Navarro said. 'Twins, you know,' he added apologetically. 'Something is wrong or not what it appears to be. Her actions, her behaviour, the way she talks and smiles — I find it hard to believe that this is a bad person, a common whore. Smith, we know,
Hamilton just looked at him and moved off into the forest to retrieve his load of firewood.
Early in the morning Hamilton led the others in single file through the rain-forest and across firm ground, firm because the terrain was gently rising and the water table was now well below them. After about two hours' walking Hamilton stopped and waited until the others gathered round him.
'From here on,' Hamilton said, 'no talking. Not one word. And watch where you put your feet. I don't want to hear as much as the crackle of a broken twig. Understood?' He looked at Maria, who looked pale and exhausted, not so much from the rigours of the walk, for there had been none, but because she had not slept at all: the previous night's experience, as Ramon had said, had been something more than traumatic. 'It's not much further. Half an hour, at most, then we'll have a rest and carry on during the afternoon.'
'I’m all right,' she said. 'It's just that I'm beginning to hate this rain-forest. I suppose you'll be telling me again that no-one asked me to come.'
'A snake on every tree, is that it?' She nodded. 'No more worry,' Hamilton said. 'You'll never again spend a night in the forest. That's another promise.'
Tracy said slowly: 'I take it that that can mean only one thing. I take it that we'll be in the Lost City tonight.'
'If things go as I hope, yes.'
'You know where you are?' 'Yes.'
'You've known ever since we left the hovercraft.'
'True. How did you know?'
'Because you haven't used your compass since.'
Half an hour later, exactly as he had forecast, Hamilton, finger to his lips, stopped and waited for the others to come up to him. When he spoke, it was in a whisper.
'On your lives. Not a sound. Stay hidden until I tell you otherwise. On your hands and knees then lie prone until I give the word.'
And so on hands and knees they advanced in total silence. Hamilton dropped forward and eased himself slowly ahead, using elbows and toes. He stopped again and waited until the others had joined him. He pointed forward, through the trees. Irr a lush green valley below them they could see an Indian village. There were dozens of large huts and, in the centre, a very large communal hut, which looked as if it could accommodate at least two hundred people with ease. The place seemed to be deserted until suddenly a small copper-coloured child appeared carrying a flint axe and a nut which he placed on a flat stone and proceeded to belabour. It was like a scene from the Stone Age, from the dawn of prehistory. A laughing woman, statuesque and also copper-coloured, emerged from the same hut and picked up the child.
In slow wonderment, Tracy said: 'That colour? That appearance? Those aren't Indians.'
'Keep your voice down,' Hamilton said urgently. 'They're Indians all right but they do not come from the Amazon basin. They come from the Pacific.'
Tracy stared at him, still in wonderment, and shook his head.
Suddenly people, scores of them, began to emerge from the communal hut. That they were not Amazonian Indians was obvious from the fact that there were as many women as men among them: normally, in the Amazonian basin, women are banned from the meeting places of elders and warriors. All were of the same copper colour, all possessed of a proud, almost regal bearing. They began to disperse towards their huts.
Smith touched Hamilton on the arm and said in a low voice: 'Who are those people?'
'The Muscias.' Smith turned pale.
'Goddamned Muscias!' he said in a vicious whisper. 'What the hell are you playing at? Head-hunters, you said. Head-shrinkers! Cannibals! I'm off!'
'Off where, you clown? You've got no place left to run to. Stay here.
Hamilton rose and walked confidently into the clearing. He had gone at least ten paces before he was noticed. There was a sudden silence, the babble of voices ceased, then the chatter redoubled in volume. An exceptionally tall Indian, old and with his forearms almost covered in what were unquestionably gold bracelets, gazed for some seconds then ran forward. He and Hamilton embraced each other.
The old man, who was surely the chief, and Hamilton engaged in an animated, if incomprehensible, conversation. The chief, with an expression of incredulity on his face, repeatedly shook his head. Just as firmly Hamilton nodded his. Suddenly, Hamilton extended his right arm and made a semi-circular motion, bringing his arm to a sudden halt. The chief looked long at him, seized him by the arms, smiled and nodded his head. He turned and spoke rapidly to his — people.
Tracy said: 'I'd say those two people have met somewhere before.'
The chief finished addressing his people, all of whom had now gathered in the clearing, and spoke again to Hamilton, who nodded and turned.
Hamilton shouted to his waiting companions: 'You can come now. Keep your hands well away from any weapon.'
Not quite dazedly, but not understanding what was happening, the other eight members of the party entered the clearing.
Hamilton said: 'This is Chief Corumba.' He introduced each of the eight in turn. The chief gravely acknowledged each introduction, shaking each in turn by hand.