"If I were going alone to find a man among the Red Bones, I should go first to the Mayorunas and work through them to make sure of a friendly reception by the other people. I would—"
"Why, that's the very thing Schwandorf suggested!"
"Yes? I have not heard what he said. Tell me."
McKay did so. Lourenço smiled.
"Sometimes, Capitao, the devil puts into the hands of men a weapon which is turned against himself. So it is now. That Allemao, Schwandorf, never expected you to reach the people you seek, but the plan is good. It would not be good if you followed it exactly as he laid it out, but things have changed; and what you could not do with Peruvian companions, or alone, you perhaps can do with us. I will show you.
"It happens that I have been twice among the cannibals living in a certain maloca which I can find again. Perhaps you know that those people live in scattered malocas, each ruled by its own chief—"
"Yes, we know about that."
"Good. Now if we went to any maloca where we were not known we might be killed at once. But at that maloca of which I speak I am known to the chief and all his fighting men, for I once led them on a raid into Peru. So they will remember me—"
"What's that?" Knowlton interrupted, in amazement. "You led a cannibal tribe on the warpath?"
"Just so, senhor. It is a long story, but these are the facts: