Adventure, December 3, 1920 — page 81: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Tucandeira’ noticed the Golden One looked sort of upset about it too.“.I know bally well what a tucandeira is, < course. Do I have to let one of them bite me “Not only one of them, senor, but many,” I told him. “TI have never seen this test, but I have heard of it, for it is used by some of the Indian tribes of our river country. When a young man would take a wife he must put his arms into a cylinder in which many of those ants have been kept without food until they are even more savage than usual. If he can endure the torment he is considered fit to live with a woman.” “Ouch!” he muttered. Slowly he made a cigaret, and slowly he smoked it. “But that seems impossible,’ he objected when the cigaret was dead. ‘I have been bitten once by one tucandeira, and it put me in agony. I have heard that four tucandeiras can killa man. How can any man be bitten many times and live?” . I could not answer this, nor could Pedro. We all squatted there for some time without | speaking. Finally the American said: “It may be possible after all. Perhaps the ants used are not all tucandeiras—they may be mostly other ants with a few of those bad fellows mixed in. Otherwise there are only two ways I can figure it. “Tn the first place, the bite of friend tucandeira hurts like the devil. Death can be caused by too much pain, even without poison. The tucandeira gives you pain and poison too. “Now this matter of pain depends altogether on your nerves. An Indian’s nerves are no- where near as sensitive as those of highly civilized folks, and maybe that gives him greater endurance, simply because he doesn’t feel the same amount of pain a white man would. “And as for the poison—well, these Indians have been living among these ants for hundreds of years. At one time or another they or their ancestors have been bitten a good many times, and no doubt they’ve acquired some immunity to the poison. The upshot of all this is that your jungle Indian can live through this tucan- deira test when it would knock a white man dead. I bet that’s the answer. Sounds reason- able, what?” “You may have it right,” I agreed. “But that only makes it worse for you. You are a white man, and your fathers have not been bitten by these horrible things. And to speak plainly, senhor, I do not believe you will be given any false tucandeiras in your test. They will all be real ones.” “Which means that they will kill me,” he nodded, ‘‘unless I can dope out some way to beat the game. Cheerful old joker, that chief: Do you jiggers know any antid&Ste to that ant- juice?” 71 We thought, and after a time an idea came to me. “T know of nothing except this,” I said. “Most of the wild men of our jungle use the blow-gun and poisoned darts in hunting. The poison they use will quickly paralyze and kill anything after it enters the bleod, but still it does not make the animal or bird unfit for food. Different tribes make this poison in different ways, but I know that at least one tribe makes it from certain roots and tucandeiras. “Now it sometimes happens that a wild man wants to strike down an:animal but not to kill it—he wants to keep it alive. He weakens his poison with water, so that the animal falls and lies still but does not die. When he has secured it he puts a little salt in its mouth, and this makes the beast lively again. It may be, senhor, that salt would weaken the effect of the tucandeira bites.” He slapped his thigh. “Good dope!” he said. “It’s worth trying anyhow. Yep, I’ll give it a whirl just to see if it works.” Pedro and I, however, had the same idea, and we told it to him—that the best thing to do was to try to escape in the night. There were only two guards, and he still had his pistol, while I had his knife. But he shook his head. “There are several little things against that plan,” he said. “Unless they’re bigger fools than I think, they’ll put more guards here at night. We couldn’t kill them all without a racket, and then the whole outfit would be on us. Besides that, I promised the Golden One I wouldn’t use my gun if she’d protect you fellows. She and the chief took my word for it, and I have a bad habit of keeping my promises. “And that isn’t all. I’m going to take that test and win the little lady if I can. She’s decidedly worth it.” There was nothing more for us to say, so we said nothing. “Vou see, there are two sides to this thing— my side and hers,” he went on after a pause. “As you say, Pedro, she seems to have found her man. Like you, I’ve known a few women and can read the signs. She’s in a tough posi- tion here, marooned among these copperheads, and now that she’s met the one man she wants I’d be all kinds of a bally skunk to duck and leave her in the hole. Life would never be the same to her again. “For that matter, the chief might get sore at her for her part in saving us, and if he did he’d make it for her. and run, fellows. It just isn’t done, that’s all. “‘And as for my side of it—well, this isn’t the first time folks have tried to rope me into mar- riage, but it’s the first time I ever wanted to be roped. Up in my own country I’ve had con- siderable money at times, and I shouldn’t COPMICLOOO© Nope, I can’t cut» (F@)