“Big snake go off into jungle,” added Luiz, wiggling his hand ahead of him to indicate the anaconda’s writhing course. “Hurt bad, I think. Maybe it is dead by now. But the animals were still afraid of it. I hear them run.”

His sharp eyes darted from Biff to Kamuka, but neither boy changed expression. Clumsily, Luiz pocketed the revolver with his left hand and thrust the knife smoothly back into its sheath with his right. He rubbed his side painfully, then beckoned to two of the natives and said, “We go look for water hole again.”

A short while later, the boys had a chance to exchange comments while they were gathering palm fronds for the shelter. After making sure that no one else was nearby, Kamuka confided:

“Luiz had no gun at start of safari. Urubu must have given gun to him.”

“To explain the shots if any of our party heard them!” exclaimed Biff. “And did you see the way Luiz looked at us when he mentioned scared animals? Maybe they glimpsed us going into the brush.”

“Maybe,” agreed Kamuka. “I think they shoot anaconda, or big sucuria would not let Luiz go so easy.”

“That’s another reason why Luiz claimed he shot it,” added Biff. “We might come across the anaconda and find the bullet marks.”

Shortly afterward, the boys found a chance to repeat those opinions to Mr. Brewster, who added a few points that they had overlooked.

“Luiz couldn’t possibly have brought the gun from his pocket, as he claimed,” stated Mr. Brewster, “because the snake was already coiled about his body. For that matter, he could not have drawn his knife, either.

“However, from the clumsy way he showed us the gun and put it back in the wrong pocket, you could tell he had never handled it before. In contrast, he was smooth and quick with his knife, which is obviously his customary weapon.”

One question still perplexed Biff.

“That other camp is a good way off, Dad,” Biff said, “yet we heard the anvil strokes before we started out. How come you didn’t hear the gunfire later?”

“Urubu may have made the first strokes closer by,” replied Mr. Brewster. “The anvil sound is also sharper than a gunshot and should carry farther. That is probably why they chose it as a signal. Kamuka did well to detect it.”

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