“I’ve told you,” Ino retorted irritably. “You don’t realize your own danger! Once these natives are stirred up, there’s no telling what they’ll do.”
“Captain Carter seems safe enough.”
“Captain Carter is the one who has excited the Indians!” Ino asserted. “He has half convinced them that he is a God greater than their own ruler, Panomuna. Tomorrow at dawn there is to be a test of their powers—a challenge to the Sun God. One or the other will be victorious and gain control. The winner, I fear, will not be Panomuna.”
“And if Captain Carter is the winner?”
“He’ll make short work of me. Captain Carter has no scruples. He’d have done me in a long while ago had he dared.” The voice behind the animal mask crackled with ironical laughter. “The natives, you see, believe that I am a skilled medicine man. My knowledge of first aid and a few herbs has stood me in good stead.”
“Why have you remained here?” Jack demanded. “Tell me your name.”
“It would mean nothing to you.”
“It might,” Jack retorted, annoyed by the man’s unwillingness to disclose his identity. “Are you, by any chance, Burton Monahan?”
His question evoked only silence.
Jack decided upon a bold move. Before the other suspected his intention, he lunged forward to snatch the mask from his face.