They waited under the tree while the helicopter went back and forth above them. Johnny looked at Rick's wound. It didn't look too serious, but Johnny knew better than to count on that. The slightest arrow-bird wound could be deadly if not treated. Johnny had seen hunters brought into the colony sick from an untreated scratch. They should have brought an emergency kit, but the kits were only carried in special pockets of the armor.
They let Rick's wound bleed to cleanse it as much as possible. Then Johnny bound the arm tightly and made a sling for it from a piece of Rick's shirt. Rick gave Johnny his wrist watch to wear, since his wrist was hidden by the sling. After that they waited. It seemed the helicopter would never go away. Once it hovered almost directly above them, but then went on.
While they waited Johnny looked over the map. The outlaw hideout was not as far from the colony as he had feared. They had to start soon and make good time, but they just might be able to make it to the meeting place the outlaws had set before Johnny's father got there. There was a fighting chance if Rick didn't get too sick.
Finally they heard the sound of the helicopter landing far in the distance. Taking direction from the map, they set out on their way. Rick's wound was less painful now, but Johnny kept his eye on his redhaired friend. They started out at a fast clip, following an animal track which led in the direction they wanted to go.
In a few hours of steady marching they were a safe distance from the outlaw hideout. Johnny's idea was working out. Several flights of arrow-birds had passed them by with no more than a glance in their direction. One flight had hovered above them while the arrow-bird on Rick's shoulder twittered and shrieked to them. Then they had flown off at top speed. A troop of monkeys had also let them pass without doing them any harm. Hundreds of the small red apes had followed along beside them for some time. Johnny's monkey chattered to them from his perch on the boy's head. Then they, too, had swung off through the trees at top speed. Rick had been awed, for he had never seen Venus animals so close except when they were attacking.
At first Rick's strides had been long and Johnny had had to run every few steps to keep up. Now Rick's steps were short and slow. He seemed to be getting weaker and weaker. They had stopped and cleaned his wound again at a spring and rebound it, but he was not doing well. The big redhaired man was pale under his freckles; his lips were set tight.
Johnny kept close beside him as they moved forward. They had worked out a path to follow that skirted diamond-wood groves and avoided rivers. It was too easy to become lost in the dense forest, and Johnny was very unsure of what river snakes would do.