The Monkey Howled at Midnight (7 page)

They followed the marked trees through the jungle. The chirping of the tree frogs grew louder. Suddenly a howl tore through the air. They all jumped. It was a howler monkey.

“Wait a minute,” Otis said a moment later. He had heard something moving. “I think we're being followed. I don't think it's human, either. It's an animal.”

“A jaguar? A panther?” Cody asked, snapping his words out.

“I'm not sure what it is.”

Twigs snapped. There was a rustling sound and a kind of snuffling noise.

“It's never a good idea to run,” whispered Otis. “Walk slowly.”

They pressed on. But the rustling in the bushes got louder.
It
was getting closer. There was that snuffling noise again.

“Uh-oh,” said Rae in a hushed voice. “Something is looking at us—and I don't like the glint in its eye.”

“Its
eye
?” asked Otis.

“I can only see one. Oh—it's turning its head. There's another eye on the other side.”

There was another loud rustling. Cody shined his flashlight in the direction of the noise. They all watched in horror as a huge, dark animal burst through the trees. It had a thick body and short legs for its size—but it must have weighed nearly five hundred pounds. And it was thundering right toward them!

[
Chapter Ten
]

C
ody, Otis, and Rae froze. The animal lurched toward them with a clumsy gait. But it was fast. As it sped closer, they could see it had a small head and a nose that looked like an anteater's.

It might have been the time to run, but none of them could move a muscle. Every knee felt like it was made of jelly.

“Do something, Otis. Do it
now
,” Cody said through gritted teeth. If they ever needed Otis's “animal magic,” it was now.

Otis could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He fought to calm down. He knew that animals could smell fear, and this creature was getting quite a whiff of it.

He exhaled slowly and kept his eyes focused on the animal. And then something happened that he didn't understand.

Suddenly, the animal stopped in its tracks. It turned its head and gazed at them with one eye, turned the other way, and looked at them with the other eye. It took a step back, then another, and another. It shook its head. Then, it turned around and thundered off through the jungle.

“You did it, Otis,” Cody said with relief.

“Oh, dudes, I am so glad that thing is gone,” breathed Rae. “It was a tapir—kind of like a cross between a wild pig and an anteater.”

Otis blinked. “Well, maybe I did it—and maybe we just got lucky. It's been known to happen. On the Lewis and Clark expedition a brown bear charged at Captain Lewis with its mouth wide open. But when it got near him it stopped and ran away. He never could figure out why.”

“Well, tapirs
are
naturally shy,” said Rae.

“You could have fooled me,” said Cody.

“Native tribes hunt them and eat them sometimes,” Rae said as she rubbed some dirt off her knees.

“Ew,” said Cody. “Let's hope that's the fiercest animal we encounter tonight.” He glanced at Otis and gave him a lopsided grin. “My brother the
tapir whisperer
.” He chuckled.

“Cut it out,” Otis said with a warning note in his voice. “Come on. Let's get a move on.”

They walked on through the jungle, listening for approaching animals. But the only noises they heard came from the chorus of tree frogs. Now and then a howler monkey let out an explosive yelp. It never failed to make them jump.

Finally they reached the clearing where they had made camp. A litter of young squirrel monkeys chattered happily as they climbed all over Otis's hammock. They chewed on the strings. In the tree above, the parents seemed to be screeching encouragement.

“Hey, get down from there, you guys!” Otis rocked the hammock, sending the monkeys flying into the air. They chattered louder as they landed on the ground and scampered up the tree trunks into the branches. The parents shrieked at Otis.

“Oh, hush up,” he said as he began to untie the hammock. “Fun's over.”

While Cody untied his hammock and Rae's, she looked for the pack where Aldo had put the keys. “Maybe he took it with him,” she said after a moment.

“Keep looking,” Cody said urgently. “If we can't find those keys, we're going to have a tough time getting back to Manaus.”

“We could make a raft,” Otis suggested.

“I found the keys!” Rae held them up. “I'll just put them back in the waist pack and strap it on.”

“Good news,” said Cody. “Come on, let's get our stuff together. Make sure you don't forget anything we might need.”

“We'd better hurry, too,” said Otis. “It sounded like Pino was really concerned about us. But Aldo wasn't. We don't want to be anywhere near here when he shows up.”

They packed up as quickly as they could. Backpacks shouldered, they set off trudging through the jungle. Otis checked his compass. “To get back to where the plane is, we should be heading southeast. I think we could make it by daylight.”

“Let's just try to put as much distance between us and them as we can,” said Rae. “I'll feel a lot better when we take off. Those flying lessons Uncle Vinnie gave you are going to pay off big time. By the way, which one of you is going to be the pilot?”

“I will,” Cody and Otis both said at once. Then each one said, “No you won't.
I'm
going to fly the plane.”

“Oh, come on, guys, don't start arguing,” said Rae. “We've got to stick together. Let's flip a coin or something.”

“Not now,” Otis grumbled. “We'll figure it out later, when we get to the plane.”

But as it turned out, things were decided long before they reached the plane. They had been walking for more than two hours when suddenly Otis let out the most bone-chilling scream that Cody and Rae had ever heard.

They both raced to his side. “What is it, Otis, what happened?”

Otis had fallen to the ground. He was clutching his leg and rolling from side to side. His face was contorted in agony. It was obvious that he was in too much pain to say a word.

Rae shined her flashlight all around him frantically. “Oh no!” she groaned. “I see a bullet ant. Look, Cody!”

In the beam of her flashlight, Cody saw a dark ant about an inch long crawling off toward a tree trunk. Without thinking he took a step backward.

“That's right,” said Rae. “We should stay away from there. Bullet ants build nests at the base of trees. Let's pull Otis away. Maybe he brushed against one that was crawling up the trunk. I read that they don't sting unless they are threatened.”

They both grabbed Otis by the shoulders and pulled him from the tree. He was moaning in pain.

“They call them
bullet
ants because their bite is supposed to be as painful as being hit by a bullet,” said Rae. “It looks like that's true.”

Cody looked at his brother and felt a wave of nausea. “I'm going to be sick,” he said.

“Pull yourself together, Cody,” Rae told him. “Otis is the one who's going to be sick—and feverish and in awful pain for the next three to five hours. Then he should keep getting better all through tomorrow but …”

“But what?”

“They call them
twenty-four-hour ants
, too, because it takes twenty-four hours for the pain to go away. Sometimes longer.”

“He won't die, will he?” Cody's voice pleaded.

Rae put down her backpack and searched for a Benadryl. “Otis, swallow this,” she said, pushing it between his lips. She handed him her bottle of water, and he took a sip.

“Oh, it hurts,” he groaned. “I don't think I can walk.”

“No, I don't think you can. I don't think you should try. We'd better camp here for awhile. Let's just try to get a little farther from that tree where the ant nest is.”

Together Rae and Cody carried Otis a few yards away. Then they began stringing up the hammocks and mosquito netting.

“It's a good thing we brought these with us,” said Cody. “I was going to suggest we leave them because we were in such a hurry.” He bit his lip. “I know Aldo will be looking for us, but Otis just can't go on right now.”

Rae nodded.

By the time they were finished putting up the hammocks and nets, Cody and Rae were both feeling overcome with exhaustion. They lifted Otis into a hammock and then threw themselves into their own. They were both asleep in seconds.

Cody didn't know why, but several hours later he found himself wide awake. For a minute he didn't know where he was. Then the sounds of the chirping tree frogs sunk into his brain and he remembered where he was and what had happened. He glanced over at his brother. Otis was sleeping quietly. A look toward Rae told him that she, too, was sound asleep.

Then the skin on the back of his neck tightened. A chill gripped him in spite of the hot, humid blanket of the night. Two eyes were looking right at him. These eyes were human.

[
Chapter Eleven
]

T
he Chameleon had just received an e-mail from his contact in Brazil that made him furious. He flung his leopard-skin robe to the floor in a fit of rage. Those children should never have been allowed to get involved. If something happened to them, the police would start sniffing around.

On the other hand, if nothing happened to them, they would probably cause more trouble. He clenched his fists at his sides. Why was he surrounded by fools? If anything happened to his new business, they would all have to pay.

[
Chapter Twelve
]

C
ody sat bolt upright and clutched his chest. His other hand gripped the side of his hammock. His heart was hammering with fear. When the man spoke to him he was nearly too astonished to breathe.

“Don't be afraid. I heard you moving in the forest. I want to help you.”

The man was speaking to him in English. But his hair was worn in a bowl cut like many pictures of Amazon basin natives. He had the sharp, chiseled features of the people from the tribes, too. Around his neck was a necklace of feathers, but he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants.

“Who are you?”

“I am Koobi.”

Cody sat up and dangled his feet over the side of the hammock. “But who …”

“Don't be afraid. I am a member of the Pirahã tribe. Our village is not far away.”

“So why do you speak English? And your clothes …”

“I'll explain later. The sun will be up soon. Your friend needs help. I can prepare some medicine that will help him walk. We can take him to my village and he can rest.”

Cody thought it over. It didn't take him long. They needed help to stay away from Aldo, and maybe from Pino as well. What better place to hide than in the village of a native tribe?

“All right. Are you sure your medicine can help him?”

“I can prepare a poultice of plants that will help the swelling go down and make the fever go away. I know he was bitten by a bullet ant.”