Biff Brewster - Brazilian Gold Mine Mystery Part 2

"Joe Nara is a husky chap," returned Mr. Brewster, "with dark hair, a bit gray, but not white. He's tough, but he doesn't get angry and excited. He has too good a sense of humor."

Biff saw a twinkle in the wizened man's eyes. The scrawny face relaxed in a genuine smile. In a soft, faraway tone, he asked, "And who told you all that?"

"Joe Nara's partner, Lew Kirby, before he died."

"So Lew is dead. I was afraid of that."

As he spoke, the wizened man's expression became very sorrowful. He gestured to Ubi, and the Indian cut the crude ropes that bound the prisoners.

28 .

"I am Joe Nara," the white-haired man said. "I've grown a lot older in the years since I saw Lew Kirby last. Kind of lost my sense of humor, too, living up-river with n.o.body but Indians to talk to. What's your name?"

"Tom Brewster. And this is my son Biff."

Mr. Brewster extended his own hand, palm up. Old Joe Nara slapped his own hand palm downward, meeting Mr. Brewster's with a solid whack, followed by a tight grip to which Mr. Brewster responded firmly.

"That's how Lew and I always shook hands," declared Nara. "I guess you and Lew were friends all right, or he wouldn't have shown you that grip."

Ubi was bringing gourds of water. Nara waited until Biff and his father had slaked their thirst. Then, with a chuckle, the white-haired man remarked: "I guess Lew must have told you about the time he and I went to Lake t.i.ticaca down in Peru to look for Incagold?"

"No, Kirby never told me that," returned Mr. Brewster, "because you never went there. He said you planned the trip but gave it up. You came up this way instead."

"And where would we have found gold near the headwaters of the Rio Negro?"

"I can tell you in two words: El Dorado."

That convinced Joe Nara. He opened a door beneath the short forward deck and revealed a compact kitchen galley. He heated up a pot of feijoada, a Bra- THE SAFARI STARTS 29.

zilian dish of black beans cooked with dried meat. With it he served bowls of mandioca, a mush made from the pulp of the ca.s.sava.

Simple though the fare was, it tasted so good that Biff eagerly accepted the second helping that Nara offered him.

"I was really hungry," said Biff. "I feel as though I had been asleep for hours."

"You were," returned Nara. "That stuff you inhaled is a secret Indian brew that acts like chloroform. Gives you an appet.i.te, though, when you do wake up."

"And just why," asked Mr. Brewster dryly, "did you happen to try the stuff out on us?"

"I'll tell you why," a.s.serted Nara. "Every now and then, I come down from the mine with Igo and Ubi to buy supplies. Whatever I buy, I pay for with these."

From his pocket, Nara brought some small nuggets of pure gold which clinked heavily when he trickled them from one hand to the other.

"People have been trying to trail me back up to the mine," continued Nara, "so I bought this boat, the Xanadu, from a rubber outfit that had gone broke. I decided to come downriver to see who was spying on me. Before I even got to Santa Isabel, I saw a crew unloading supplies at an old abandoned camp."

"Whitman's crew!" exclaimed Mr. Brewster. "I sent them up the Rio Negro to wait for me, so I could start on a safari to find your mine."

30 .

Nara gave an understanding chuckle.

"I had Igo and Ubi talk to the natives," Nara said. "They learned that the expedition had started from a boathouse outside of Manaus. So I came all the way down the river to look into it. We were watching the boathouse when you came along."

"So you thought we were enemies-"

"Not exactly enemies," corrected Nara. "Just suspicious characters. After Igo and Ubi grabbed you, I decided to bring you along. Now that you've explained yourselves, I'll turn around and take you back down to Manaus if you want."

"Now that we've started upriver," decided Mr. Brewster, "there is no need to go back. We sent our luggage on to Santa Isabel by air, and we intended to take a plane ourselves. But now we may as well keep on with you."

All that day, the Xanadu sped swiftly up the Rio Negro. Biff took his turn at the wheel and was pleased by the way the cruiser handled. At intervals, the river became so thick with islands that it reminded Biff of the famous Narrows that he had seen from the air above the lower Amazon. But here on the Rio Negro, the channels were shallow as well as twisty. Still, Biff found no difficulty in guiding the sleek craft through the maze.

"The Xanadu was built to order for this river," Nara told Biff. "That's why I bought her. Be careful, though, when we reach that island dead ahead. The channel appears to split there-"

32 .

As Nara spoke, the palm-fringed island vanished. The whole sky had opened in one tremendous downpour. Biff couldn't believe that it was only rain. He thought for the moment that the Xanadu had come beneath a tremendous waterfall. Adding to the illusion was the sudden rise of steam from the heated jungle that flanked the channel. Instantly, the speeding cruiser was shrouded in a mist that swelled above it.

"Swing her about!" shrilled Nara. "Our only chance is to turn downstream before the flood hits us!"

Mr. Brewster stepped up and took the wheel. Instead of taking Nara's advice, he sped the boat straight upstream, picking his course in an amazing fas.h.i.+on. Somehow, he must have gauged the exact position of the threatening island, for he veered past it. New channels seemed to open with each swerve of the cruiser's bow.

Biff's father had seen Navy service in the South Pacific and was familiar with jungle waterways as well as tropical storms. As a Lieutenant, Junior Grade, he had been trained specially for jungle fighting and had won medals for bravery, finally leaving the service as a Lieutenant Commander.

"It's better to buck the current," Mr. Brewster declared, "than to let it carry us into something we can't avoid."

Igo and Ubi were releasing curtains from beneath the permanent top, giving the cruiser's interior the THE SAFARI STARTS 33.

effect of a long, narrow tent, completely sheltered from the terrific downpour, which like many tropical rains, was coming straight downward.

Some of the narrow channels were flooding rapidly, and there, big logs and branches occasionally met the cruiser's rounded prow, only to glance aside as Mr. Brewster deftly turned the wheel. They reached a wider channel where a headland bulked suddenly in midstream; but it proved to be a small floating island, composed of small palm trees sprouting from a ma.s.s of soil and undergrowth that had come loose from an overhanging bank.

Biff could hear the chatter of monkeys and the screech of birds as the pa.s.sing branches sc.r.a.ped the hanging canvas on the cruiser's side. Then the tiny islet and its excited living freight had drifted far downstream. Still Mr. Brewster kept steadily to his course, staring upstream through the cruiser's rainswept winds.h.i.+eld.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the rain ended, revealing a new maze of channels that could be found only by looking for gaps among the tree branches, so high had the water risen in this sunken area. Cutting the speed, Mr. Brewster navigated the openings gingerly. That brought a chuckle from Joe Nara.

"Kind of lucky, weren't you?" he remarked.

"Yes, I was rather lucky," acknowledged Mr. Brewster. "Like you and Lew Kirby, when you stumbled onto that mine of yours."

"We were more than lucky," retorted Nara. "We 34 .

were smart. Didn't Lew tell you how we doped it out?"

"He said you ran into a tribe of Indians who were guarding a mountain that they claimed was sacred."

"That's right. Wai Wai Indians. Igo and Ubi are members of the tribe." Nara gestured toward the stolid pair who now were rolling up the canvas curtains. "What else did Lew say?"

"He said you convinced the Indians that you were a powerful witch doctor, so they led you to the lost mine."

"From the tricks I showed them," chuckled Nara, "they thought I was El Dorado the Original, and that the mine belonged to me and Lew. You know the story of the man who turned all golden? Well, I proved it could be done."

Biff was hoping that Nara would give more details on that subject, when suddenly, the white-haired man demanded: "Did Lew give you a map to locate the mine?"

"Not exactly," replied Mr. Brewster. "He gave me one showing a route from the mine to some waterways which he said led to the Orinoco River. That was all."

"That was enough. It proved there was a short way out."

"Yes, but I still have to go over the actual route to make sure that gold ore could be transported by it, down the Orinoco."

"Do you have the map with you now?"

THE SAFARI STARTS 35.

"Only part of it."

From deep in his pocket, Mr. Brewster produced the torn corner from Kirby's map.

"A prowler stole the rest from my hotel room," he explained. "I managed to hold on to the part that shows the mine."

Joe Nara stroked his chin in worried fas.h.i.+on.

"If somebody showed me the rest of the map," he commented, "I might have to believe them if they said they knew Lew Kirby, too."

"I thought of that," returned Mr. Brewster calmly, "and I would be glad if such a person should appear. It would be a case of a thief trapping himself."

Joe Nara nodded as though he agreed; but he immediately dropped the subject of the map and the mine as well.

During the next few days, the Xanadu thrummed upriver, keeping to broad channels instead of shortcuts between islands. This simplified the handling of the cruiser during brief but heavy rainstorms. Biff noted that after each rain the air soon became as humid as before. It was hot at night as well as in the daytime, and while one member of the group piloted the cruiser under the bright tropical moon, the others slept in the ample c.o.c.kpit; never in the tiny forward cabin.

One evening when Nara was at the wheel, Biff and his father were seated near the stern, far enough away for Biff to ask: "Do you think Joe Nara doubts your story, Dad?"

36 .

"About the map being stolen?" returned Mr. Brew-ster. "He might be wondering about it. After all, I could have torn the corner from a map that belonged to someone else."

"But you gave him Kirby's hand grip and when you mentioned 'El Dorado' it was like a pa.s.sword."

"I could have learned those from some other person. Nara has to be cautious, with a gold mine at stake. I think he trusts me but wants to sound me out. Watch him, and you'll see he is suspicious of everything."

Biff noted that as the trip continued, Nara insisted upon giving other river craft a wide berth. When occasional airplanes flew high above, Nara always leaned out from beneath the canopy to study them suspiciously, but the planes apparently took no notice of the boat below.

After the cruiser had pa.s.sed Santa Isabel, Biff was taking his turn at the wheel when Nara approached and remarked: "Pretty soon we'll drop you and your dad at the old rubber camp where your friend Whitman is waiting for you."

"Aren't you going to join us on the safari?"

"Not there," returned Nara. "I'm taking the Xanadu on to Sao Gabriel, to see if we can buck the rapids and reach the upper river."

Mr. Brewster had been close enough to hear Nara's comment. Now, he put the query: "Then where will we meet you, Joe?"

"At Piedra Del Cucuy," Nara replied. "You can see THE SAFARI STARTS 37.

it for miles, a big rock rising from the forest, where Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia all meet up. By the time you arrive there, we will know if it is safe to go on."

"Why wouldn't it be safe?" asked Biff.

"Because of the Macus, the head-hunters who raid the river settlements." Nara turned to his two Indians and said: "Tell them about the Macus."

"Macu very bad," stated Igo.

"Macu kiU for head," added Ubi.

At last the Xanadu reached an old, dilapidated landing, where half a dozen men stood beside some huts on the high bank. Mr. Brewster indicated one man who was wearing khaki shorts, white s.h.i.+rt, and pith helmet.

"That's Whitman," said Mr. Brewster. "He's too far away to hail him." He brought out a leather case containing a flat metal mirror and handed it to Biff.

"Whitman understands Morse," Mr. Brewster said. "Signal him to send out a boat for us, Biff."

Biff turned the mirror toward the sun, then slanted it in Whitman's direction. Covering the mirror with his hand, he flashed the message in dots and dashes: S-E-N-D B-O-A-T.

Whitman pointed to a canoe on the sh.o.r.e. Biff watched two figures hurry doVn and clamber into the craft, a small figure at the bow, a big one in the stern. They paddled out to the waiting cruiser and swung alongside. The man in the stern, a husky, barrel-chested native, furnished a broad, friendly smile.

38 .

"Me Jacome," he announced.

The bow paddler was an Indian boy about Biff's age and size. He was wearing faded blue denim trousers, ragged at the knees, and a s.h.i.+rt that matched it in color and tattered sleeves. He reached up to grab the cruiser's side, adding, "I'm Kamuka."

Biff extended his own hand and responded, "I'm Biff." In that unexpected handshake, the two boys established an immediate friends.h.i.+p. They grinned at each other as Biff helped Kamuka swing the canoe about so that Jacome could hold the stern alongside.

As soon as Biff and his father stepped into the canoe the Xanadu sped off like a startled creature. Joe Nara at the wheel, waved good-by, while Igo and Ubi simply stared back like a pair of reversed figureheads. Jacome and Kamuka did fast work with their paddles to prevent the canoe from tipping in the cruiser's swell. Then they headed toward the dock.

Kamuka looked over his shoulder and said to Biff, "I like the way you send message. You show me how?"

Biff nodded. "I'll show you how."

During the short paddle, Mr. Brewster talked to Jacome in Portuguese and Biff, listening closely, understood most of what was said. Mr. Brewster asked about the luggage and was told that it had arrived by air. Also, he wanted to know if the safari was ready to start. Jacome told him yes, that they had been waiting for him to arrive.

When they reached the sh.o.r.e, Hal Whitman was THE SAFARI STARTS 39.

still up by the huts engaged with the natives in an excited conversation. Mr. Brewster started in that direction, and Biff was about to follow when a hand plucked his sleeve. It was Kamuka, with the request: "You spell message now?"

"All right," agreed Biff. He produced the mirror, caught the sun's glint, and focused it on the wall of a hut perhaps a hundred feet away. "Now, watch-"

Biff halted abruptly. A burly native, wearing baggy white s.h.i.+rt and trousers, with a red bandanna tied about his head, had joined the argument and was pus.h.i.+ng Mr. Whitman back into the hut "Urubu!" exclaimed Kamuka. "He make trouble!"