Serbot dived behind a pack, to use it as a shelter. Pepito and Urubu did the same, expecting Biff to join them with the huddling bearers, for spears, arrows, and darts were now skimming toward them. Instead, Biff acted upon sudden impulse and raced along the jungle trail. He heard guns blast in back of him, but knew Serbot and the others were too busy shooting at the attacking head-hunters to worry about him.
Biff passed a turn in the trail and knew then that he was safe from gunfire, but he had his eye on an opening in the jungle another hundred feet ahead. There, Biff was sure that he could duck from sight the way Kamuka had. But Biff was becoming too hopeful too soon.
Less than halfway to the spot, Biff halted in his tracks as the foliage parted and a painted Macu warrior loomed in sight. Armed with bow and arrow, the deadly marksman was already taking aim at Biff with his bowstring fully drawn.
Another moment, and the poison-tipped arrow would be in flight, allowing Biff no chance of escape at such close range!
CHAPTER XIII
The River of Death
The twang of the head-hunter’s bowstring was drowned by an explosive burst from farther up the trail. With it, the Macu marksman gave an upward, sideward jolt at the very instant the arrow was leaving his bow.
The feathered missile zimmed high and wide by a matter of scant inches, for Biff could hear it whirr past his ear and stop with a sharp thud in a tree trunk just behind him.
A piercing yell seemed to echo the timely gunshot. The Macu had dropped his bow and was gripping his left arm with his right hand as he dived off into the jungle. The bullet had jolted the bow from the Macu’s grasp, sending the arrow wide.
Now, looking up the trail, Biff saw his father hurrying in his direction, rifle in hand. Biff started to meet him, shouting, “Dad!” only to have Mr. Brewster wave him back. Next, Biff saw his father take a quick shot at another Macu huntsman who had popped up in the brush, only to drop from sight again.
Now, from the other side of the trail, a brown head and arm poked from among a mass of blossoms that sprouted from the thin bark of a fallen tree trunk. Biff heard the familiar call: “Biff, come this way! Quick!”