Luiz had plenty to tell when they formed a sympathetic group around him.
“I look for water hole,” Luiz told them, “and I meet una grande sucuria—one big anaconda! He grab me around my body, like this!”
Graphically, Luiz gestured to indicate how the snake’s coils had encircled his body.
Biff and Kamuka kept straight, solemn faces as Luiz continued.
“I pull my gun quick!” Luiz thrust his hand deep in his trouser pocket and brought out a small revolver. “I fire quick, until the gun is empty.” He clicked the trigger repeatedly; then broke open the revolver and showed its empty chambers. “Still, anaconda hold me, until I draw knife and stab him hard!”
From a sheath at the back of his belt, Luiz whipped out a knife that looked far more formidable than his puny gun. He gave fierce stabs at the imaginary anaconda, his face gleaming with an ugly smile that was more vicious than triumphant. Luiz looked like a small edition of Urubu, whose ways he seemed to copy.
“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.”