Occasionally, Biff managed to look back, hoping that Kamuka had come from cover and was stealing along behind the safari. Soon Biff gave that up, realizing that if Kamuka had decided to follow them, he would be staying completely out of sight.
When they reached the spot where the Macus had bobbed up the day before, Biff recognized it. He turned to Serbot and said, “This is where the head-hunters were yesterday.”
Serbot swung about and ordered the safari to halt. As the bearers set down their packs, Biff studied their faces and realized that some were members of the group that Whitman had organized, the natives who had started home when Joe Nara had exhibited the shrunken heads.
Their meeting with Serbot’s safari must have scared some of Serbot’s crew into going back to Santa Isabel. But Serbot or Urubu must have talked some of Whitman’s men into coming along as replacements. Now Biff understood how Serbot had learned so much about Luiz.
After a brief rest, Serbot asked Biff, “Were there many head-hunters here?”
Biff pointed to the west. Smoothly, Serbot asked, “If there were so many, how did you manage to escape today?”
“Because most of them had left before dawn to go hunting,” replied Biff. “That’s why I was afraid of running into them.”
Serbot ordered the safari forward. At the end of another mile, they came to a side trail, which cut sharply in the direction of the Rio Negro. After a rapid discussion with Urubu, so thick with dialect that Biff could not understand it, Serbot decided to take the river route.
As they started along it, Serbot spoke to Biff, using the smooth, easy tone that reminded Biff of their first meeting in the airplane above the Amazon.
“If the Macus are hunting along the main trail,” declared Serbot, “they will never bother to come this way. That makes it all the safer for us. Anyone taking the main trail would be gone, for certain.”
That was passed along by Urubu to the bearers, who not only were pleased, but quickened their pace, hoping to get out of Macu territory all the faster. But Biff’s heart sank, for he was afraid there would be no catching up with his own safari now.
Then Biff noted that Serbot was studying him steadily. Evidently, the smiling man was anxious to learn which way the other safari had gone, and was hoping that Biff’s change of manner would give the fact away.