When Chujee pulled his dripping mount up the bank, he got out his binoculars and looked at the south shoulder of the notch. He said: "Come on! They've already climbed down toward us; they haven't given up yet. But I think we can lose them if we can find that trail we cut through the alders. They don't know about it yet, and they'll probably scatter trying to find which way we've gone."
Nawputta yawned, stretched, and sat up. Chujee was sitting by the fire at Nguchoy's camp, his rifle in his lap. Both still looked a trifle haggard after their sleepless flight down the river. They had strung the four agoutis in a column, and taken turns riding backward on the last one of the string to keep watch against another attack. But though the pounding had continued, the Men had not shown themselves again. When they arrived at Nguchoy's camp, the timber scout was not to be seen, evidently not having returned.
Chujee said: "I've been thinking, while you were catching up on sleep, about this Nguchoy and his yarns. I don't reckon he intended us to return, though we couldn't prove anything against him.
"And I wonder how it happened that his partner died at such a convenient time... for him. He needed this Jawga person to help him paddle up the rivers. But once they got to the head of navigation, Nguchoy could get back downstream easy enough without help. And when they'd found that great pine forest, it would be mighty convenient if an accident happened to Jawga. When Nguchoy went back to the Colony, he wouldn't have to share the credit for the find, and the bonus, with anybody."
Nawputta raised his eyebrows, and without a word began hunting in their duffel for a spade.
In half an hour they had dug up all that was mortal of Jawga tsu Shrr. Nawputta examined the remains, which were in a most unpleasant state of decay.
"See!" he said."Two holes in the skull, which weren't made by any rattlesnake. The one on the left side is just about right for a No. 14 rifle bullet going in."
They were silent. Over the swish of the wind in the trees came a faint rhythmical pounding.
"Do we want to pinch him?" asked Chujee."It's a long way back to the Colony."
Nawputta thought."I have a better idea. We'll rebury the corpse for the present."
"Nothing illegal," said Chujee firmly.
"N-no, not exactly. It's this way. Have you ever seen a Colony lumberjack gang in action?"
Nawputta shoved the corpse into the grave. The pounding was louder. Both capuchins looked to see that their rifles were within easy reach.
A tuneless whistling came through the trees.
"Quick!" whispered Nawputta."Sprinkle some leaves on the grave. When he arrives, you get his attention. Talk about anything."
The whistling stopped, and presently the timber scout appeared. If he was surprised to see the explorers, he did not show it.
"Hello," he said."Have a good trip?"
He paused and sniffed the air. The explorers realized that there had been one thing they couldn't put back in the grave. Nguchoy looked at the grave, but made no remark.
"Sure, we did," said Chujee in his best good-fellow manner, and went on to talk about the splendor of the gorge and the magnificence of the pines.
The pounding was becoming louder, but nobody seemed to notice.
"Nguchoy," said Nawputta suddenly, "did you and Jawga see any traces of live Men in the forest?"
The timber scout snorted."Don't be a sap. Men have been—what's that word? —extinct for millions of years. How could we see them?"
"Well," the scientist went on, "we did." He paused. The only sound was the pounding. Or were there faint yelping cries?"Moreover, we've just had a look at the remains of your late-lamented partner."
There was silence again, except for the ominous sounds of the approach of Men.
"Are you going to talk to us?" asked Nawputta.
Nguchoy grinned."Sure, I'll talk to you." He sprang back to the tree against which he had left his rifle standing."With this!" He snatched up the weapon and pulled the trigger.
The rifle gave out a metallic click.
Nawputta opened his fist, showing a handful of cartridges. Then he calmly picked up his own rifle and covered the timber scout.
"Chujee," he said, "you take his knife and hatchet and the rest of his ammunition."
The guide, dumfounded by the decisive way of his usually impractical companion, obeyed.
"Now," said Nawputta, "tie the four agoutis together, and hitch the leading one to the end of Nguchoy's canoe. We're pulling out."
"But what?" asked Chujee uncertainly.
Nawputta snapped: "I'll explain later. Hurry."
As the explorers piled into the boat, the timber scout woke to life.
"Hey!" he shouted."Aren't you taking me along? The Men'll be here any minute, and they'll eat me! They even eat their own kind when one's been killed!"
"No," said Nawputta, "we aren't taking you."
The canoe pulled out into the river, the agoutis following unwillingly till only their heads and loads showed above water.
"Hey!" screamed Nguchoy."Come back! I'll confess!"
The canoe kept on, the agoutis swimming in its wake.
As the site of the camp receded, there was a sudden commotion among the trees. The now-familiar yells of the Men were mingled with despairing shrieks from the timber scout. The shrieks ceased, and the voices of the Men were raised in a rhythmical but tuneless chant, which the explorers could hear long after the camp was hidden from view.
Chujee, paddling low, stared straight before him for a while in silence. Finally he turned around in his seat and said deliberately: "That's the lowest damned trick I ever saw in my life. To leave him there defenseless like that to be eaten by those hairless things. I don't care if he was a liar and a murderer."
Nawputta's expression of smugness vanished, and he looked slightly crestfallen."You don't approve, do you? I was afraid you wouldn't. But I had to do it that way."
"Well, why?"
Nawputta took a long breath and rested his paddle."I started to explain before, but I didn't have time. Nguchoy had killed his partner, and was going to return to the Colony with the news of the forest. He tried to have us killed by the Men, and when that didn't work, he'd have killed us himself if I hadn't emptied his gun behind his back.
"When he got back to the Colony, a timber gang would have been sent out. They'd have wiped out that forest in a few years, and you'll admit that it's probably the finest in the whole Eastern Mountain area. Moreover, they'd have killed off the wild life, including the Men, partly for food, partly for self-protection, and partly because they like to shoot.
"We thought Man had been extinct for millions of years, after having spread all over the world and reached a state of civilization as high as or higher than ours. The Men that we saw may well be the last of their species. You're a practical fellow, and I don't know whether I can make you understand a biologist's feeling toward a living fossil like that. To us it's simply priceless, and there's nothing we won't do to preserve it.
"If we can get back to South America before the news of the pine stand reaches the Colony, I can pull the necessary wires to have the area set aside as a park or preserve. The Colony can just as well go else where for its lumber. But if the Colony hears about it first, I shan't have a chance.
"If we'd taken Nguchoy back with us, even if we'd brought him to justice, he'd still have been able to give the news away, especially since he could probably have purchased leniency by it. And that would be the end of my park idea.
"If we'd taken the law into our own hands, even if I'd been able to overcome your objections to doing so, we'd have been in a fix when, as will inevitably happen, the Colony sends an officer up to investigate the disappearance of their scout. If we said he died of a snake bite, for instance, and the officer found a body with a bullet hole through the head, or alternatively if he'd found no body at all, he'd have been suspicious. As it is, we can truthfully say, when they ask us, that Nguchoy was alive and sound of wind and limb the last time we saw him. The officer will then find the remains, having obviously been eaten by the Men. Of course, we needn't volunteer any information until the park proposal is in the bag.