"Good trout water," Lee said.
They stopped at several houses to ask where Cotter's place was. Everyone said they were headed right. How far? Two, three hours. Maybe more. Word seemed to have gone ahead. One man they met on the trail shifted his machete to shake hands and said at once, "You are looking for Cotter? He is in his house now."
"How far?" Lee asked.
The man looked at Lee and Allerton. "It will take you about three hours more."
They walked on and on. It was late afternoon now. They flipped a coin to see who would ask at the next house. Allerton lost.
"He says three more hours," Allerton said.
"We been hearing that for the past six hours."
Allerton wanted to rest. Lee said, "No. If you rest, your legs get stiff. It's the worst thing you can do."
"Who told you that?"
"Old Man Morgan."
"Well, Morgan or no, I am going to rest."
"Don't make it too long. It will be a hell of a note if we get caught short, stumbling over snakes and jaguars in the dark and falling into quebrajas— that's what they call these deep crevices cut by streams of water. Some of them are sixty feet deep and four feet wide. Just room enough to fall in."
They stopped to rest in a deserted house. The walls were gone, but there was a roof that looked pretty sound. "We could stop here in a pinch," said Allerton, looking around.
"A definite pinch. No blankets."
It was dark when they reached Cotter's place, a small thatched hut in a clearing. Cotter was a wiry little man in his middle fifties. Lee observed that the reception was a bit cool. Lee brought out the liquor, and they all had a drink. Cotter's wife, a large, strong-looking, red-haired woman, made some tea with cinnamon to cut the kerosene taste of the Puro. Lee got drunk on three drinks.
Cotter was asking Lee a lot of questions. "How did you happen to come here? Where are you from? How long have you been in Ecuador? Who told you about me? Are you a tourist or travelling on business?"
Lee was drunk. He began talking in junky lingo, explaining that he was looking for Yage, or Ayahuasca. He understood the Russians and the Americans were experimenting with this drug.
Lee said he figured there might be a buck in the deal for both of them. The more Lee talked, the cooler Cotter's manner became. The man was clearly suspicious, but why or of what, Lee could not decide.
Dinner was pretty good, considering the chief ingredient was a sort of fibrous root and bananas.
After dinner, Cotter's wife said, 'These boys must be tired, Jim."
Cotter led the way with a flashlight that developed power by pressing a lever. A cot about thirty inches wide made of bamboo slats. "I guess you can both make out here," he said. Mrs. Cotter was spreading a blanket on the cot as a mattress, with another blanket as cover. Lee lay down on the cot next to the wall. Allerton lay on the outside, and Cotter adjusted a mosquito net.
"Mosquitos?" Lee asked.
"No, vampire bats," Cotter said shortly. "Good night."
"Good night."
Lee's muscles ached from the long walk. He was very tired. He put one arm across Allerton's chest, and snuggled close to the boy's body. A feeling of deep tenderness flowed out from Lee's body at the warm contact. He snuggled closer and stroked Allerton's shoulder gently. Allerton moved irritably, pushing Lee's arm away.
"Slack off, will you, and go to sleep," said Allerton. He turned on his side, with his back to Lee.
Lee drew his arm back. His whole body contracted with the shock. Slowly he put his hand under his cheek. He felt a deep hurt, as though he were bleeding inside. Tears ran down his face.
He was standing in front of the Ship Ahoy. The place looked deserted. He could hear someone crying. He saw his little son, and knelt down and took the child in his arms. The sound of crying came closer, a wave of sadness, and now he was crying, his body shaking with sobs.
He held little Willy close against his chest. A group of people were standing there in convict suits.
Lee wondered what they were doing there and why he was crying.
When Lee woke up, he still felt the deep sadness of his dream. He stretched out a hand towards Allerton, then pulled it back. He turned around to face the wall.
Next morning, Lee felt dry and irritable and empty of feeling. He borrowed Cotter's .22 rifle and set out with Allerton to have a look at the jungle. The jungle seemed empty of life.
"Cotter says the Indians have cleaned most of the game out of the area," said Allerton. "They all have shotguns from the money they made working for Shell."
They walked along a trail. Huge trees, some over a hundred feet high, matted with vines, cut off the sunlight.
"May God grant we kill some living creature," Lee said. "Gene, I hear something squawking over there. I'm going to try and shoot it."
"What is it?"
"How should I know? It's alive, isn't it?"
Lee pushed through the undergrowth beside the trail. He tripped on a vine and fell into a saw-toothed plant. When he tried to get up, a hundred sharp points caught his clothes and stuck into his flesh.
"Gene!" he called. "Help me! I been seized by a man-eating plant. Gene, cut me free with the machete!"
They did not see a living animal in the jungle.
Cotter was supposedly trying to find a way to extract curare from the arrow poison the Indians used. He told Lee there were yellow crows to be found in the region, and yellow catfish with extremely poisonous spines. His wife had gotten spined, and Cotter had to administer morphine for the intense pain. He was a medical doctor.
Lee was struck by the story of the Monkey Woman: a brother and sister had come down to this part of Ecuador, to live the simple healthful life on roots and berries and nuts and palm hearts.
Two years later a search-party had found them, hobbling along on improvised crutches, toothless and suffering from half-healed fractures. It seems there was no calcium in the area. Chickens couldn't lay eggs, there was nothing to form the shell. Cows gave milk, but it was watery and translucent, with no calcium in it.
The brother went back to civilization and steaks, but the Monkey Woman was still there. She earned her monicker by watching what monkeys ate: anything a monkey eats, she can eat, anybody can eat. It's a handy thing to know, if you get lost in the jungle. Also handy to bring along some calcium tablets. Even Cotter's wife had lost her teeth "inna thervith." His were long gone.
He had a five-foot viper guarding his house from prowlers after his precious curare notes. He also had two tiny monkeys, cute but ill-tempered and equipped with sharp little teeth, and a two-toed sloth. Sloths live on fruit in trees, swinging along upside down and making a sound like a crying baby. On the ground they are helpless. This one just lay there and thrashed about and hissed.
Cotter warned them not to touch it, even on the back of the neck, since it could reach around with its strong, sharp claws and drive them through one's hand, then pull it to its mouth and start biting.
Cotter was evasive when Lee asked about Ayahuasca. He said he was not sure Yage and Ayahuasca were the same plant. Ayahuasca was connected with Brujena—witchcraft. He himself was a white Brujo. He had access to Brujo secrets. Lee had no such access.
"It would take you years to gain their confidence."
Lee said he did not have years to spend on the deal. "Can't you get me some?" he asked.
Cotter looked at him sourly. "I have been out here three years," he said.