Chapter 2

CANNIBALS

The Jungle Hawk straightened up from his crouched position. Here, where he now stood between the ancient trees and bushes, the scout of the Matonga had been ambushed. The Hawk’s expert eye, trained by years of careful observation, told him this.

The powerful young man bent down again and observed the bruised leaves. He scratched around among them and saw the dark spots where the Matonga blood had mixed with the ground.

Instinctively, the Woodsman knew that this event could not have taken place earlier than the previous afternoon. On his trek here, all along the scout’s winding trail, he had also found the place where he had slept in a tree last night.

The Hawk searched further and then found the four large sandal tracks that had trampled the Matonga’s tracks in places. From here they headed in a northerly direction. The Woodsman stopped again when he noticed that the Matonga’s trail led southwards out of the north and was crossed by that of the Gold Men.

It was clear that the Gold Men, who were on their way from the south to the north, had to have ambushed and overwhelmed the returning Matonga here.

The young man’s jaws bulged with an unprecedented rage. He was convinced that these Gold Men were also responsible for Toto’s wounds.

For an hour, he followed the tracks that wound northwards along the forest path. Then the strange tracks left the path and headed westwards into the undergrowth and tangle of vines and giant ferns. The Hawk was surprised to note that the Matonga had also had to follow this same path, because his tracks came into the path from the vine thicket.

“Looks like the Gold Men got scared of the Wasari,” he muttered. The Wasari, whose territory he was now entering, were known as the most cruel, bloodthirsty, and warlike native tribe in this part of the forest. The Hawk had often heard natives say that part of the Wasari tribe were cannibals and headhunters.

Once, he had led the Matonga against the Wasari and inflicted a heavy defeat on them, after they had carried out repeated raids in the Matonga territory.

Carefully, he examined the tracks in front of him again and then discovered that the Gold Men had apparently followed the same path on their trek southwards.

In between, he also noticed the Matonga scout’s tracks.

This therefore meant that the white expedition had been ambushed ahead.

The Jungle Hawk looked longingly at the trees, but realized that he could lose the trail if he chose the branches now. With long strides, he began to run further. He jumped nimbly over a fallen log, almost stepped on a coiled snake on the other side, which quickly sprang out of its coils and fled hastily into the dark thickets.

A reckless smile appeared on the young man’s face. Four miles further, the direction gradually began to wind northwards. The Wasari area now lay to the northeast of him. In the meantime, a thin, thread-like mist had slowly begun to gather around the trees. Worried, the Hawk looked upwards. Through the dense canopy, he saw black, swirling storm clouds gathering. A quarter of an hour later, he stopped in surprise. Here the tracks he was following crossed those of another group of people. Upon closer inspection, it appeared that these could be those of the white expedition, because he noticed shoe tracks and barefoot tracks, which could have been those of the carriers.

The Hawk stood stunned, looking around him. Somewhere there had to be a mistake. Four men, armed only with spears and possibly other primitive weapons, could not overwhelm a well-equipped company of this size.

However, his doubt disappeared when it struck him that the four men had taken this direction after the Matonga had already followed it back. The four Gold Men could therefore possibly have made up just a small scouting party, which had been sent out by the main force.

This time, a de