CHAPTER X
HENRY TURNS SAVAGE
Late that night a tropical storm whirled down on the village from the mountains. Lightning that seemed more vivid than daylight flashed continuously; thunder that deafened shook and roared; trees thudded to the whipping lash of the lightning. Rain in literal sheets made a wall of water when Tom peered out from the door of their hut.
When the dull dawn came the rain had not subsided; thunder still growled and boomed. The river, rising swiftly, was a very torrent, its water racing toward the rapids below, whose roar could be heard like a growling undertone to the thrum of falling water.
A white rubber-trader, with his canoe full of paddlers, was glad to be able to nose in and ground his craft on the sandy beach and drag it to safety before the river rose any more dangerously.
Toosa knew him and took him at once to his own hut for a talk.
Henry was released from guard, but did not come near his companions; in fact, he stayed close to his hut, more safely guarded from violent action by the downpour than by any watchers.
About noon the rain slackened and the white trader, Buckley, a quiet and yet a pleasant man, bronzed and sturdy, came over and visited with the white pair. Tom found him eager to hear about the situation that had come about on the previous night.
“You needn’t have extracted those bullets, Toosa has told me,” he said with a smile. “Toosa is sure that he could have turned the bullets aside. He is very sure of his magic powers. But I like the old fellow and I am rather glad our young friend had so much foresight.”
He told them that, even without the rain, it would be unlikely that they could start down the river for some time. Yellow fever, that terror of the tropics, had broken out near the coast, and inland, and a “deadline” had been established near the costal villages by the Honduran government. That deadline was a real thing, not merely a place where officers stopped people and examined their health. When fever broke out, the trader explained, a line was drawn across the roads, and a patrol established on the rivers. If anyone passed through an infected area they would be turned back at the line, and if they tried to pass bullets would follow the act. The government meant its quarantine! And to get to the cruiser they must pass through the infected area!
“You came here to learn about a man,” the trader told them.