THE PATHLESS TRAIL by ARTHUR O. FRIEL New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers Made in the United States of America THE PATHLESS TRAIL Copyright, 1922, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER GEORGE WILLIAM FRIEL CONTENTS I. SONS OF THE NORTH II. AT SUNDOWN III. THE VOICE OF THE WILDS IV. THE GERMAN V. INTO THE BUSH VI. IN THE NIGHT WATCH VII. COLD STEEL VII. THE DOUBLE-CROSS IX. FIDDLERS THREE X. BY THE LIGHT OF STORM XI. OUT OF THE AIR XII. THE ARROW XIII. THE WAY OF THE JUNGLE XIV. A DUEL WITH DEATH XV. THE CANNIBALS XVI. BLACKBEARD XVII. FEVER XIX. FRUIT OF THE TRAP XIX. THE RED BONES XX. THE RAPOSA XXI. SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT XXII. THE SIREN OF WAR XXIII. STRATEGY XXIV. THE BATTLE OF THE TRIBES XXV. THE PASSING OF SCHWANDORF XXVI. PARTNERS THE PATHLESS TRAIL CHAPTER I. SONS OF THE NORTH Three men stood ankle deep in mud on the shore of a jungle river, silently watching a ribbon of smoke drift and dissolve above the somber mass of trees to the northwest. Three men of widely different types they were, yet all cradled in the same far-off northern land. The tallest, lean bodied but broad shouldered, black of hair and gray of eye, held himself in soldierly fashion and gazed unmoved. His two mates--one stocky, red faced and red headed; the other slender, bronzed and blond--betrayed their thoughts in their blue eyes. The red man squinted quizzically at the smoke feather as if it mattered little to him where he was. The blond watched it with the wistfulness of one who sees the last sign of his own world fade out. Behind them, at a respectful distance, a number of swarthy individuals of both sexes in nondescript garments smoked and stared at the trio with the interest always accorded strangers by the dwellers of the Out Places. They eyed the uncompromising back of the tall one, the easy lounge of the red one, the thoughtful attitude of the light one. The copper-faced men peered at the rifles hanging in the right hands of the newcomers, their knee boots, khaki clothing, and wide hats. The women let their eyes rove over the boxes and bundles reposing in the mud beside the three. "_Ingles?_" hazarded a woman, speaking through the stem of the black pipe clutched in her filed teeth. "_Notre-Americano_," asserted a man, nodding toward the broad hats. "Englishmen would wear the round helmets of pith." "_Mercadores?_ Traders?" suggested the woman, hopefully running an eye again over the bundles. "_Exploradores_," the man corrected. "Explorers of the bush. Have you no eyes? Do you not see the guns and high boots?" The woman subsided. The others continued what seemed to be their only occupation--smoking.