River Of Death Part 11

Sweat-soaked and stumbling, mostly from near exhaustion, the heavily laden party of nine made their painfully slow way through the afternoon gloom of the rainforest. Even at high noon there was never more than half-light in its depths. The crowns of the great liana-festooned trees stretched out and intertwined a hundred feet or more above the ground, effectively blocking out the sunlight. Progress was not slow because they had to hack their way with machetes through the dense undergrowth, because of dense undergrowth there was none. For plants to grow at ground-level, sunshine is essential. Jungle, in the true African sense of the term, did not exist. The progress was slow primarily because there was as much swampland as there was firm ground and quicksands were an ever-present peril. A man could step confidently on to what appeared to be an inviting stretch of greensward and on his second step find himself shoulder deep in a swamp. For safe locomotion in .the forest, a probe, in the form of a hacked-off and trimmed branch, was essential.

For every mile covered as the crow flew, it was not uncommon to have to traverse five miles. That, and the time it took to locate patches of firm ground, made for time-consuming, frustrating and exhausting travel.

Smith, in particular, was making heavy weather of it. His clothes were so saturated with sweat that he might well have just been dragged from the river. His legs had gone rubbery and he was gasping for breath.

Smith said: 'What the h.e.l.l are you trying to prove, Hamilton? How tough you are and how out of condition we city dwellers are? G.o.d's sake, man, a break. An hour wouldn't kill us, would it?'

'No. But the h.o.r.ena might.'

'But you said their territory was on the right bank.'

'That's what I believe. But don't forget: we killed six of their men.

Great lads for revenge, the h.o.r.ena. I wouldn't put it past them to have crossed the river and be following us. There could be a hundred of them within a hundred yards of here, just waiting to get within blowpipe range, and we wouldn't know a thing about it until too late.'

Smith, it appeared, was possessed of reserves of strength and endurance of which he had been unaware. He hurried on.

Towards evening, they reached a small and largely swampy clearing. Most of the party were now shambling, not walking.

'Enough,' Hamilton said. 'We'll make camp.'

With the approach of dusk the forest appeared to come alive. All around them was sound. Mainly, it carme from birds -- parrots, macaws, parakeets. But there was animal life too. Monkeys screeched, bull-frogs barked and now and again the deeply m.u.f.fled roar of a jaguar came at them from the depths of the forest.

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. Cura.s.sow -- 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 quiexada., that most savage of all the world's wild boars. They are so devoid of fear that they have been known to invade towns in herds, driving the citizens into their houses.

'Supper,' Hamilton said.

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 quiexada had suddenly appeared from the forest. They halted, pawed the ground, then came on again. There was no mistaking their intention.

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 quiexada that seemed to be more industrious than its companions. The dead animal toppled into the river.

Within seconds, the smooth surface of the river was disturbed by a myriad ripples and there came the high-pitched, spine-chilling buzzing whine as the needle teeth of the voracious piranha proceeded to strip the quiexada to the bone.

Navarro cleared his throat and said: 'Perhaps you should have shot one not quite so close to the river.'

Hamilton said: 'Quiexada to one side, piranha to the other. You don't by any chance see a constrictor lurking in the branches above?'

Involuntarily, Navarro glanced upwards, then down at the boars which had redoubled their efforts. Both men started firing and within seconds a dozen quiexada lay dead.

Navarro said: 'Next time I go boar-hunting - if there is a next time -- I shall bring a sub-machine-gun with me. My magazine is empty.'

'Mine too.'

The sight of their dead companions seemed only to increase the blood l.u.s.t 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 quiexada that they were on to a hiding to nothing. Those that remained turned and ran off into the forest.

The three men walked back towards the camp, dragging a quiexada behind them. Ramon said: 'I heard the shooting so I came. Of course, I brought plenty of spare ammunition with me.' Deadpan, he patted a bulging pocket, then shrugged apologetically. 'All my fault. I should never have let you go alone. One has to be a man of the forest --'

'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. 'G.o.d 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 h.o.r.ena are around -- well, that must have attracted the attention of everyone within miles.'

'No worry,' Hamilton said. 'No h.o.r.ena will ever attack at night. If he dies at night his soul will wander for ever in the hereafter. His G.o.ds 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 anch.o.r.ed 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 h.e.l.l 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 wh.o.r.e. Smith, we know, is a bad person. She doesn't care for him, any fool can see that. So what goes on?'

'Well,-' Hamilton said judicially, 'he's got a lot to offer --'

'Ignore Senor Hamilton,' Ramon said. 'He's just trying to provoke us.'

Navarro nodded in agreement then said: 'I think she is a prisoner in some way or another.'

'Possibly,' Hamilton said. 'Possibly. Has it occurred to either of you that he might be in some way her prisoner, without ever knowing it?'

Navarro looked at Ramon, then accusingly at Hamilton. 'There you go again, Senor Hamilton. You know something that we don't know and you're not telling us.'

'I know nothing that you don't know and far be it from me to suggest that I look more closely and, perhaps, think a little more deeply. But, then, you are young.'

'Young?' Navarro was indignant. 'Neither of us, Senor Hamilton, will ever see thirty again.'

'That's what I meant.' He put his fingers to his lips. Beside him, Maria was stirring. She opened her eyes, still huge with fear and horror.

Hamilton touched her gently on the shoulder.

'It's all right now,' he said gently. 'It's all over.'

'That horrible, ghastly head.' Her voice was no more than a husky whisper and she was shaking. Ramon rose and walked away. 'That awful snake --'

'The snake is dead,' Hamilton said. 'And you are unharmed. We promise you, no harm will come to you.'

She lay there breathing shallowly, her eyes closed. She opened them again when Ramon returned and knelt by her side. He had an aluminium cup in one hand, a bottle in the other.

Hamilton said: 'And what do we have here?'

'The finest cognac,' Ramon replied. 'As is only to be expected. Smith's private supplies.'

'I don't like brandy,' she said.

'Ramon is right. You'd better like it. You need it.'

Ramon poured a generous measure. She tasted it, coughed, screwed her eyes shut and emptied the cup in two gulps.

'Good girl,' Hamilton said.

'Awful,' she said. She looked at Ramon. 'But thank you. I feel better already.' She glanced across the clearing and fear touched her eyes again. 'That hammock --'

'You're not going back to that hammock,'

Hamilton said. 'It's safe enough now, of course, it was just sheer bad luck that the anaconda was up the tree when your hammock was slung, but we can understand your not wanting to go back there. You're in Ramon's sleeping-bag and on a groundsheet. You'll stay just where you are.

We'll keep a big fire going all night and one of the three of us will keep an eye on you till the morning. Come the dawn, I promise you not even a mosquito will have come near you.'

Slowly she looked at the three men in turn then said huskily: 'You are all very kind to me.' She tried to smile but it was only a try. 'Damsel in distress. Is that it?'

'Perhaps there's a little bit more to it than that,' Hamilton said. 'But now's not the time to talk about it. Just you try to sleep -- I'm sure Ramon will give you a night-cap to help you on your way. Oh, h.e.l.l.'

Smith, who obviously felt that he had maintained his distance long enough, was approaching, his whole att.i.tude manifesting his resentment of Maria's close proximity to the three men. As he dropped to his knees beside her, Hamilton rose, looked at him, turned and walked away, the twins following.

Ramon said: 'Senor Hamilton.Quiexada, piranha, anaconda, a sick girl and a villain. To pick so divine a resting spot in such unique company is a gift not given to many.'

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 rainforest 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.