A machete is a cutlass, a broadsword about two feet long, used by the South Americans for scratching the ground and felling small trees, and it makes a terribly effective weapon.
"That's your game, is it?" Jack exclaimed, snatching up the machete. "Then come on!" and in his excitement he advanced upon the Venezuelan without further ceremony.
Felipe's knife was a trifle compared with the machete; and with the young Americano boiling over with rage, and the machete cutting circles in the air dangerously near his head, it was no wonder that the half-breed turned and fled ignominiously.
The flight gave the affair a humorous turn that Jack was quick to see, and he followed the native at a lively pace, more for sport than in anger, but shouting and waving the cutlass as if he intended to cut him to pieces.
Down the hill Felipe ran like a deer, looking neither to the right nor the left till he was by the side of Ned and under his protection.
"Never mind, Felipe," Ned said, with a sly look at Jack, after explanations had been made; "if he should kill you with the cutlass I'd give him a good trouncing for it, so you'd be avenged anyhow."
This was quite satisfactory to the Venezuelan, for he knew as little about a joke as he did about using his fists. But as Jack turned and went back to the house, Felipe cautiously waited to return with Ned.
This caution of Felipe's meant a great deal to the young Americans, though they little suspected it. It gave Jack five minutes alone with Maria in the hut, and that five minutes was of great importance. She thanked him with her velvety eyes for rescuing her, but said no word about it; what she did say was of much more account.
"It's no use for you to look in the river where you have been looking," she said, keeping a bright lookout for her father's return. "He is showing you the wrong places."
"Is that so?" Jack exclaimed. "Can you show us the right place?"