The morning's action had been settled the night before. Tudor was to stay behind in his banyan1 refuge and gather strength while the expedition proceeded. On the far chance that they might rescue even one solitary2 survivor3 of Tudor's party, Joan was fixed4 in her determination to push on; and neither Sheldon nor Tudor could persuade her to remain quietly at the banyan tree while Sheldon went on and searched. With Tudor, Adamu Adam and Arahu were to stop as guards, the latter Tahitian being selected to remain because of a bad foot which had been brought about by stepping on one of the thorns concealed5 by the bushmen. It was evidently a slow poison, and not too strong, that the bushmen used, for the wounded Poonga-Poonga man was still alive, and though his swollen6 shoulder was enormous, the inflammation had already begun to go down. He, too, remained with Tudor.
Binu Charley led the way, by proxy7, however, for, by means of the poisoned spear, he drove the captive bushman ahead. The run-way still ran through the dank and rotten jungle, and they knew no villages would be encountered till rising ground was gained. They plodded8 on, panting and sweating in the humid, stagnant9 air. They were immersed in a sea of wanton, prodigal11 vegetation. All about them the huge-rooted trees blocked their footing, while coiled and knotted climbers, of the girth of a man's arm, were thrown from lofty branch to lofty branch, or hung in tangled12 masses like so many monstrous13 snakes. Lush-stalked plants, larger-leaved than the body of a man, exuded14 a sweaty moisture from all their surfaces. Here and there, banyan trees, like rocky islands, shouldered aside the streaming riot of vegetation between their crowded columns, showing portals and passages wherein all daylight was lost and only midnight gloom remained. Tree-ferns and mosses15 and a myriad16 other parasitic17 forms jostled with gay-coloured fungoid growths for room to live, and the very atmosphere itself seemed to afford clinging space to airy fairy creepers, light and delicate as gem-dust, tremulous with microscopic18 blooms. Pale-golden and vermilion orchids19 flaunted20 their unhealthy blossoms in the golden, dripping sunshine that filtered through the matted roof. It was the mysterious, evil forest, a charnel house of silence, wherein naught21 moved save strange tiny birds--the strangeness of them making the mystery more profound, for they flitted on noiseless wings, emitting neither song nor chirp22, and they were mottled with morbid23 colours, having all the seeming of orchids, flying blossoms of sickness and decay.
He was caught by surprise, fifteen feet in the air above the path, in the forks of a many-branched tree. All saw him as he dropped like a shadow, naked as on his natal24 morn, landing springily on his bent25 knees, and like a shadow leaping along the run-way. It was hard for them to realize that it was a man, for he seemed a weird26 jungle spirit, a goblin of the forest. Only Binu Charley was not perturbed27. He flung his poisoned spear over the head of the captive at the flitting form. It was a mighty28 cast, well intended, but the shadow, leaping, received the spear harmlessly between the legs, and, tripping upon it, was flung sprawling29. Before he could get away, Binu Charley was upon him, clutching him by his snowwhite hair. He was only a young man, and a dandy at that, his face blackened with charcoal30, his hair whitened with wood-ashes, with the freshly severed31 tail of a wild pig thrust through his perforated nose, and two more thrust through his ears. His only other ornament32 was a necklace of human finger-bones. At sight of their other prisoner he chattered33 in a high querulous falsetto, with puckered34 brows and troubled, wild-animal eyes. He was disposed of along the middle of the line, one of the Poonga-Poonga men leading him at the end of a length of bark-rope.
The trail began to rise out of the jungle, dipping at times into festering hollows of unwholesome vegetation, but rising more and more over swelling35, unseen hill-slopes or climbing steep hog-backs and rocky hummocks36 where the forest thinned and blue patches of sky appeared overhead.
"Close up he stop," Binu Charley warned them in a whisper.
Even as he spoke37, from high overhead came the deep resonant38 boom of a village drum. But the beat was slow, there was no panic in the sound. They were directly beneath the village, and they could hear the crowing of roosters, two women's voices raised in brief dispute, and, once, the crying of a child. The run-way now became a deeply worn path, rising so steeply that several times the party paused for breath. The path never widened, and in places the feet and the rains of generations had scoured39 it till it was sunken twenty feet beneath the surface.
"One man with a rifle could hold it against a thousand," Sheldon whispered to Joan. "And twenty men could hold it with spears and arrows."
They came out on the village, situated40 on a small, upland plateau, grass-covered, and with only occasional trees. There was a wild chorus of warning cries from the women, who scurried41 out of the grass houses, and like frightened quail42 dived over the opposite edge of the clearing, gathering43 up their babies and children as they ran. At the same time spears and arrows began to fall among the invaders44. At Sheldon's command, the Tahitians and PoongaPoonga men got into action with their rifles. The spears and arrows ceased, the last bushman disappeared, and the fight was over almost as soon as it had begun. On their own side no one had been hurt, while half a dozen bushmen had been killed. These alone remained, the wounded having been carried off. The Tahitians and Poonga-Poonga men had warmed up and were for pursuit, but this Sheldon would not permit. To his pleased surprise, Joan backed him up in the decision; for, glancing at her once during the firing, he had seen her white face, like a glittering sword in its fighting intensity45, the nostrils46 dilated47, the eyes bright and steady and shining.
"Poor brutes," she said. "They act only according to their natures. To eat their kind and take heads is good morality for them."
"But they should be taught not to take white men's heads," Sheldon argued.
She nodded approval, and said, "If we find one head we'll burn the village. Hey, you, Charley! What fella place head he stop?"
"S'pose he stop along devil-devil house," was the answer. "That big fella house, he devil-devil."
It was the largest house in the village, ambitiously ornamented48 with fancy-plaited mats and king-posts carved into obscene and monstrous forms half-human and half-animal. Into it they went, in the obscure light stumbling across the sleeping-logs of the village bachelors and knocking their heads against strings49 of weird votiveofferings, dried and shrivelled, that hung from the roof-beams. On either side were rude gods, some grotesquely50 carved, others no more than shapeless logs swathed in rotten and indescribably filthy51 matting. The air was mouldy and heavy with decay, while strings of fish-tails and of half-cleaned dog and crocodile skulls52 did not add to the wholesomeness53 of the place.
In the centre, crouched54 before a slow-smoking fire, in the littered ashes of a thousand fires, was an old man who blinked apathetically55 at the invaders. He was extremely old--so old that his withered56 skin hung about him in loose folds and did not look like skin. His hands were bony claws, his emaciated57 face a sheer death's-head. His task, it seemed, was to tend the fire, and while he blinked at them he added to it a handful of dead and mouldy wood. And hung in the smoke they found the object of their search. Joan turned and stumbled out hastily, deathly sick, reeling into the sunshine and clutching at the air for support.
"See if all are there," she called back faintly, and tottered58 aimlessly on for a few steps, breathing the air in great draughts59 and trying to forget the sight she had seen.
Upon Sheldon fell the unpleasant task of tallying60 the heads. They were all there, nine of them, white men's heads, the faces of which he had been familiar with when their owners had camped in Berande compound and set up the poling-boats. Binu Charley, hugely interested, lent a hand, turning the heads around for identification, noting the hatchet-strokes, and remarking the distorted expressions. The Poonga-Poonga men gloated as usual, and as usual the Tahitians were shocked and angry, several of them cursing and muttering in undertones. So angry was Matapuu, that he strode suddenly over to the fire-tender and kicked him in the ribs61, whereupon the old savage62 emitted an appalling63 squeal64, pig-like in its wild-animal fear, and fell face downward in the ashes and lay quivering in momentary65 expectation of death.
Other heads, thoroughly66 sun-dried and smoke-cured, were found in abundance, but, with two exceptions, they were the heads of blacks. So this was the manner of hunting that went on in the dark and evil forest, Sheldon thought, as he regarded them. The atmosphere of the place was sickening, yet he could not forbear to pause before one of Binu Charley's finds.
"Me savvee black Mary, me savvee white Mary," quoth Binu Charley. "Me no savvee that fella Mary. What name belong him?"
Sheldon looked. Ancient and withered, blackened by many years of the smoke of the devil-devil house, nevertheless the shrunken, mummy-like face was unmistakably Chinese. How it had come there was the mystery. It was a woman's head, and he had never heard of a Chinese woman in the history of the Solomons. From the ears hung two-inch-long ear-rings, and at Sheldon's direction the Binu man rubbed away the accretions67 of smoke and dirt, and from under his fingers appeared the polished green of jade68, the sheen of pearl, and the warm red of Oriental gold. The other head, equally ancient, was a white man's, as the heavy blond moustache, twisted and askew69 on the shrivelled upper lip, gave sufficient advertisement; and Sheldon wondered what forgotten beche-de-mer fisherman or sandalwood trader had gone to furnish that ghastly trophy70.
Telling Binu Charley to remove the ear-rings, and directing the Poonga-Poonga men to carry out the old fire-tender, Sheldon cleared the devil-devil house and set fire to it. Soon every house was blazing merrily, while the ancient fire-tender sat upright in the sunshine blinking at the destruction of his village. From the heights above, where were evidently other villages, came the booming of drums and a wild blowing of war-conchs; but Sheldon had dared all he cared to with his small following. Besides, his mission was accomplished71. Every member of Tudor's expedition was accounted for; and it was a long, dark way out of the head-hunters' country. Releasing their two prisoners, who leaped away like startled deer, they plunged72 down the steep path into the steaming jungle.
Joan, still shocked by what she had seen, walked on in front of Sheldon, subdued73 and silent. At the end of half an hour she turned to him with a wan10 smile and said,
"I don't think I care to visit the head-hunters any more. It's adventure, I know; but there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing. Riding around the plantation74 will henceforth be good enough for me, or perhaps salving another Martha; but the bushmen of Guadalcanar need never worry for fear that I shall visit them again. I shall have nightmares for months to come, I know I shall. Ugh!--the horrid75 beasts!"
That night found them back in camp with Tudor, who, while improved, would still have to be carried down on a stretcher. The swelling of the Poonga-Poonga man's shoulder was going down slowly, but Arahu still limped on his thorn-poisoned foot.
Two days later they rejoined the boats at Carli; and at high noon of the third day, travelling with the current and shooting the rapids, the expedition arrived at Berande. Joan, with a sigh, unbuckled her revolver-belt and hung it on the nail in the livingroom, while Sheldon, who had been lurking76 about for the sheer joy of seeing her perform that particular home-coming act, sighed, too, with satisfaction. But the home-coming was not all joy to him, for Joan set about nursing Tudor, and spent much time on the veranda77 where he lay in the hammock under the mosquito-netting.
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banyan
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| n.菩提树，榕树 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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survivor
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| n.生存者，残存者，幸存者 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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proxy
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| n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人 | |
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plodded
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| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
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stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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exuded
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| v.缓慢流出，渗出，分泌出( exude的过去式和过去分词 )；流露出对（某物）的神态或感情 | |
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mosses
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| n. 藓类, 苔藓植物 名词moss的复数形式 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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parasitic
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| adj.寄生的 | |
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microscopic
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| adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的 | |
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orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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flaunted
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| v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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chirp
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| v.(尤指鸟)唧唧喳喳的叫 | |
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morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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natal
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| adj.出生的，先天的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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perturbed
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| adj.烦燥不安的v.使（某人）烦恼，不安( perturb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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chattered
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| （人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤 | |
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puckered
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| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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swelling
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| n.肿胀 | |
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hummocks
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| n.小丘，岗( hummock的名词复数 ) | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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resonant
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| adj.(声音)洪亮的，共鸣的 | |
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scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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quail
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| n.鹌鹑；vi.畏惧，颤抖 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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dilated
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| adj.加宽的，扩大的v.（使某物）扩大，膨胀，张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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strings
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| n.弦 | |
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grotesquely
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| adv. 奇异地,荒诞地 | |
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51
filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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skulls
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| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
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wholesomeness
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| 卫生性 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apathetically
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| adv.不露感情地；无动于衷地；不感兴趣地；冷淡地 | |
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withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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draughts
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| n. <英>国际跳棋 | |
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tallying
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| v.计算，清点( tally的现在分词 )；加标签（或标记）于；（使）符合；（使）吻合 | |
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ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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squeal
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| v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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accretions
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| n.堆积( accretion的名词复数 )；连生；添加生长；吸积 | |
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jade
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| n.玉石；碧玉；翡翠 | |
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askew
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| adv.斜地；adj.歪斜的 | |
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trophy
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| n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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