42 JUNGLE ISLAND 



tied ourselves to the tree again and used the 

 hanging lianas to lean back against while we 

 worked. Figure 19 shows the base of the spike 

 ladder. 



It was now Saturday morning, and Linder 

 decided that he wanted to get away from the 

 island, that the work was too hard, and that his 

 shoulder hurt him very badly, and so we went 

 back to Frijoles. 



I never knew from one day to the next which 

 of the Frijoles men would help me on the island. 

 Sometimes those who had come with me most 

 regularly would go off for a few days' work in 

 the bananas, leaving a new man for me. Some- 

 times I found only one man waiting for me on 

 the station platform and sometimes there were 

 half a dozen to choose from. When I reached 

 the island again late Monday morning, I found 

 that Linder had brought over Santiago, and 

 Santiago had already run the spike ladder twice 

 as high as I had left it on Saturday. 



Santiago had done much tree chmbing in the 

 days when he collected rubber. He climbed in 

 bare feet, with a rope over his shoulder tied to 

 the highest spike. When he reached the branches, 

 he could stand on them or pass his rope around 

 the body of the tree where it became smaller. 

 By night he had driven spikes to the second big 

 limb. This made a convenient saddle ninety feet 

 above ground. 



