We made our camp and
I shot a pig. That gave us strength, but Louis was very bad then with
the fever.
"'The Indies came down, and we spoke with their head men. They thought
we were mad, but the clocks pleased them; and they sat round our tents
and shook them to make them tick louder until Louis cried out in his
fever that all the world was a great clock that ticked. They gave us
leave to hunt in their country for butterflies, and the head men told
off six to help us. One was very clever. He used to wear his net
on his head, with the stick hanging down behind, and he snared the
butterflies with a loop of grass as if they were birds.
"'Our tents were of cheap cotton stuff that would not keep the rain
out, and the wet came in on Louis and made him worse. But he was
young, and I saw to it that he had food, and your men loved him. I do
not think he would have died if the clocks had ticked properly.'
"'I do not understand,' said Henkel, blinking his heavy brown eyes.
"'No? They were so cheap that they broke at the first winding. The
Indies brought them back and asked for better ones. I had no better
ones.'
"'Still I do not understand,' said Henkel, smoothly, and blinked in
the lamplight.
"Scott's tired voice went on. 'The Indios were very angry. They
brought us no more butterflies, and no more food. And presently, as
we went about the camp, or the paths of the forest, the little arrows
began to fall in front of us and behind us, though we never saw those
who shot at us.
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