And I was proud. He was my very first recruit--"
"My word! Look 'm that fella," Binu Charley interrupted, brushing aside
the leafy wall of the run-way and exposing a bow so massive that no one
bushman could have bent it.
The Binu man traced out the mechanics of the trap, and exposed the hidden
fibre in the tangled undergrowth that at contact with Koogoo's foot had
released the taut bow.
They were deep in the primeval forest. A dim twilight prevailed, for no
random shaft of sunlight broke through the thick roof of leaves and
creepers overhead. The Tahitians were plainly awed by the silence and
gloom and mystery of the place and happening, but they showed themselves
doggedly unafraid, and were for pushing on. The Poonga-Poonga men, on
the contrary, were not awed. They were bushmen themselves, and they were
used to this silent warfare, though the devices were different from those
employed by them in their own bush. Most awed of all were Joan and
Sheldon, but, being whites, they were not supposed to be subject to such
commonplace emotions, and their task was to carry the situation off with
careless bravado as befitted "big fella marsters" of the dominant breed.
Binu Charley took the lead as they pushed on, and trap after trap yielded
its secret lurking-place to his keen scrutiny.
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