deep with water. As he sloshed through the muck, Biff told Kamuka:

“Those ants are smarter than we are. They must have known this was coming and carried their own umbrellas.”

Kamuka interpreted that to Jacome, who laughed and passed it along to the bearers. The rain stopped suddenly at last, but although the heat returned again, the path remained soggy underfoot. Luiz, it seemed, had lost the trail during the rain and was marching the safari into a jungle swamp.

Mr. Brewster called a halt. It was not just a matter of getting back on the trail; he wanted the best trail. For the first time, Biff heard his father mention “Piedra Del Cucuy” to Luiz, who nodded that he understood.

“We go to Piedra Del Cucuy,” assured Luiz. “That is easy, now I know. I show you the best way.”

Biff’s clothes were dry by now except for his shoes and socks, which felt as if they were filled with lead weights as the march was resumed. Luiz soon took the safari out of the swampy land to a dry path, but at times, he showed hesitancy at places where the trail divided. Always, he came finally to a definite decision, but Jacome began to eye him suspiciously.

“We all hear Senhor Brewster say we go to Piedra Del Cucuy,” Jacome confided to Biff and Kamuka. “Now we know we go there, Luiz is afraid to take us on wrong trail. Some of us go to Piedra Del Cucuy before this. We may remember way if Luiz ‘forget’ it.”

A little later, Biff fell in stride alongside his dad and told him what Jacome had said.

“I think there’s no question but that Luiz is trying to delay us,” declared Mr. Brewster. “The only puzzle is his purpose. He may simply be hoping to make more money by keeping us longer on the hike. Or he may have deliberately stalled us in order to learn our exact destination. That is why I told him. Now, I am forcing him to show his hand.”

Mr. Brewster’s tactics paid off by mid-afternoon. The ringing cry of the bellbird had begun again in the deep jungle, and Biff was still hoping for a sight of the elusive campanero, when Luiz led the safari on a short side trail that terminated in a clearing. There Luiz announced, “We camp here tonight.”

“We could still go on a few miles farther,” objected Mr. Brewster. “In fact, we might stop almost anywhere on the trail.”

“Plenty of water here,” argued Luiz. “Maybe 

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