24 
THE GOLDEN DIVER. 
green walls. With startling suddenness, 
rounding one of these loops, the launch came on 
a strange scene. A group of huts and a small 
landing stage stood in a clearing, backed by the 
jungle. And close to the landing stage was a 
knot of people, unconcernedly watching the 
stripping of a dead man. He lay on his back, 
with bent knees, his dank hair making a black 
patch in the brilliant sunlight, his naked limbs 
a yellowish colour like old wax. Two of the 
men were engaged in pulling a stained pink 
vest over his head, but they stopped their work 
to watch us pass, and the body at their feet fell 
back in a huddle. An official, in some sort of 
uniform, lounged idly by, and a woman and 
child coming down the path hardly stopped to 
look at the dead man. The launch was a rarer 
and more interesting sight, and the whole group 
turned to stare. The captain shouted to ask if 
medical help was needed, but the indifferent 
answer came back, ‘Es muerto ya 5 (He is 
already dead). 
The Lelia passed on her way, and soon a turn 
of the river swallowed up the group, still 
staring in the sunlight, with the tumbled heap 
at their feet. 
£ Yes, he is doubtless another, 5 said Pedroso, 
the boatman, as he busied himself with his 
work. ‘He is one of those of whom I have 
told you, Senor, 5 and he went on talking as 
we sat in the bows, watching the green banks 
