For a full quarter of an hour, battling, perspiring, crossing blades, bending, thrusting, each striving for an advantageous opening, the two men fought on.
Then a sudden catastrophe threatened. On stepping backward Johnny caught his heel in a tie-tie vine that grew low to the ground. The next instant, with the Spaniard all but on top of him, he went crashing to earth.
With a look that was terrible to see, the Spaniard aimed what he meant to be a final blow.
A hush hung over the jungle. The blade came swinging down. But not too fast. As if dodging a boxer’s blow, Johnny shot his head to one side. Burying itself a half blade’s length in the ooze, the knife struck there. Nor did it come away when the frantic Spaniard pulled at it. It had become firmly embedded in the buried stump of a mahogany tree.
The next instant the Spaniard felt himself lifted bodily in air. Then with senses reeling he came crashing down.
When he came to himself he found himself bound hand and foot. After crashing him to earth, Johnny had made use of the tie-tie vine which had come near bringing him to his end. With it he had bound his opponent hand and foot.
“You villain! You dirty dog!” Johnny hissed in his ear. “I should kill you. You have no right to live, you who strike when a man is down. But I will spare you. The ants may crawl over you for a few hours. After that I will send some one.”
Gathering up three blades, souvenirs of the expedition, he disappeared into the brush.
Ten hours later, laden to capacity with the golden harvest of the tropics, the North Star pointed her prow toward the north, while the Caribs, now crowded into pit-pans and sailboats, headed for home, lifting their voices in song-like chants.
Only one little thing occurred to interrupt the North Star’s passage out of the Caribbean Sea into the open ocean. The evening was calm. They chanced upon a sailing boat lying becalmed and helpless in the midst of the sea. On the deck of the boat was a prosperous looking man. Short and stout, and with a very red face, he looked the part of a very busy man who thought well of his importance in the world of affairs, and who had by some chance been caught in an eddy from which he could not well extricate himself.