Scene 30

The Guyana Highlands

As the woman and I followed the hunter into the jungle, I heard the alarm being raised in the camp behind us. I glanced back and saw several guards running in our direction.

I continued farther into the jungle, pulling the woman with me. Ahead, the hunter gestured frantically for us to follow.

The hunter stopped next to a clump of small trees and again gestured.

“Manna Konnal, eesway!”

The woman and I ran into the shady patch he had indicated and someone immediately knocked us to the ground and clamped their hands over our mouths. At the same time, the hunter pulled a small vine and a net of leaves fell over us, concealing us from our pursuers.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw that is was Ms. Crane and Ms. Stork who had pulled us down. Ms. Stork had grabbed the woman who had fled with me and was whispering to her to keep her quiet. Ms. Crane released her hold on me when I relaxed. I saw the young girl we had rescued hidden with us, her eyes wide with fear. The young hunter also lay hidden with us, completely silent.

As we hid, we heard the guards run by our position, unable to find us.

After several minutes without hearing the guards, Ms. Crane carefully peeked out from under the leaves. “Clear,” she whispered to us.

As we crawled out from under the camouflage, I spoke to my associates. “Thank you, where are the others?”

“Unknown,” Ms. Crane answered. “We circled around to join up with them and they were gone. I found where they had been and there were many extra tracks from men and some strange animal tracks from a large creature I couldn’t identify.”

“Couldn’t identify?” I asked.

“Well, that’s not exactly accurate. I know what they looked like.”

“And what was that?”

“They looked from all appearances to be rabbit tracks, but bigger than any rabbit I’ve ever seen. From the size of the tracks, they would have been the size of horses.”

Just then, the hunter gently tugged on my shirt. “Manna Konnal, oowell?”

Ms. Stork turned to him. “Es Pivat, eeswell,” she answered.

“You speak his language?” I asked.

“Of course I do,” she answered. “So do you.”

“What do you mean? It’s no language I know.”

“Ah, but you do,” she insisted. “He’s speaking English.”