Biff felt that he was getting the knack of jungle ways during that day’s trek, but he was due for new surprises. As they hacked a path through a thick growth of brush, he heard a sound that was sharply distinct from the screeches of the vivid parrots and macaws that continually scolded from the trees.

It was exactly like a hammer striking an anvil or some other chunk of solid metal. It came from well back in the jungle, and after it was repeated, Biff said to Kamuka:

“Hear that! There must be a village back there in the jungle!”

Kamuka laughed as the clanging sound came again.

“El campanero,” he defined. “That is what some people call it. Others call it the bellbird.”

“You mean it’s only a bird?”

As if in answer, the sharp note was repeated with methodical precision, and Biff recognized that it had a quality that could be mistaken for a bell rather than the clank of hammer on anvil. Biff kept looking for the bird itself until Kamuka noticed it and told him:

“Bellbird very hard to find. He may be far away when you think he is close by.”

Other creatures were closer at hand. From up ahead, Jacome turned and pointed to the path. He called something in his native tongue, and Biff watched the bearers take quick sidesteps. Then Kamuka was nudging Biff with his elbow and pointing out the reason.

A procession of ants was moving along the trail as though keeping pace with the safari. The insects were carrying thin green slivers that wobbled above their bodies. Biff saw that those were tiny fragments of leaves that the ants had gathered and evidently were going to store for food.

“Umbrella ants,” defined Kamuka. “Be careful or they crawl up your leg instead of along path. Umbrella ants can bite—hard!”

From the way the ants had chopped the leaves they carried, Biff took Kamuka at his word. He played hopscotch with the insects until they veered off the trail. The going became easy again, except that the atmosphere of the jungle was growing more humid. Even the chatter of the birds and monkeys was silenced in the sultry calm.

Then came a sudden rain as torrential as the big downpour that they had encountered on the Rio Negro. With the jungle steam rising about them, it was a case of groping along the trail, which soon became ankle 

 Prev. P 31/104 next