“You take us?” asked Bill in slow English. “Good!”
“I take!”
“Did you expect us?” asked Tom, mystified at the Indian’s calm arrangements for them.
“How did you know?——”
“I know!” answered the old man briefly, and said no more. As they took their designated positions the chief took a paddle several times heavier and broader than the rest, made a signal, and the canoe began to glide away from the Indians, watching on the bank.
That huge paddle served well during the trip up the river, and the amazing strength with which the wiry old man used it was a marvel to Tom. There were rapids, and dangerous ones they proved to be. The swift water almost carried the canoe back, but with a strong sweep of that great driver, the Indian caused it to tremble; with a second heave, while the other Indians strove with their smaller paddles, he sent the boat forward, and then guided and drove it between the rocks, over the rough waters, past dangerous whirlpools. Once, only a swift swing of his paddle turned them aside before they were dashed to death in a whirling smother of foaming waters. Again, by exertions that seemed akin to those of a giant, he took the craft forward when one of the lighter paddles broke and the crew was in confusion and terror.
And when, close to nightfall, they landed, he stepped from the canoe as serene and unwearied as if he had been one of the three white passengers. Tom heard from Bill that the oldest Indians in that country claimed that Toosa lived there and was just as they saw him today, when the Indians themselves had been children.
Quartered in a hut, fed and well cared for, at least two of the white travelers obeyed Toosa’s brief order, which Bill understood to be a command that they must not set foot outside the hut. The reason for it seemed plain. It was a precaution against danger. During Toosa’s absence many of the villagers had become demons through drinking the fermented cane-juice which was brewed in a huge trough in the village and from which much had been taken.
The Indians were not only noisy and, in some cases, quarrelsome; they were beyond control.
In spite of their remonstrances Henry Morgan elbowed his way past Tom and Bill, his rifle under his arm.