Ken Ward in the Jungle (1998) by Zane Grey Read Free Book Online Page B

shirt-sleeves and trousers-legs, using the fiery end of their cigarettes. This feat did not puzzle Ken anything like the one where they held the red point of the cigarettes close to their naked flesh. Ken, and Hal, too, had to see that performance at close range.
    " Why do you do that?" asked Ken.
    "Popping ticks," replied George. He and Pepe were as sober as judges.
    The fact of the matter was soon clear to Ken. The ticks stuck on as if glued. When the hot end of the burning cigarette was held within a quarter of an inch of them they simply blew up, exploded with a pop. Ken could easily distinguish between the tiny pop of an exploding pinaius and the heavier pop of a garrapato.
    "But, boy, while you're taking time to do that, half a dozen other ticks can bite you!" exclaimed Ken.
    "Sure they can," replied George. "But if they get on me I'll kill 'em. I don't mind the little ones--it's the big boys I hate."
    On the other hand, Pete seemed to mind most the pinilius.
    "Say, from now on you fellows will be Garrapato George and Pinilius Pepe."
    "Pretty soon you'll laugh on the other side of your face," said George. " In three days you'll be popping ticks yourself."
    Just then Hal let out a yell and began to hunt for a tick that had bit him. If there was anything that could bother Hal Ward it was a crawling bug of some kind.
    " I'll have to christen you too, brother," said Ken, gurgling with mirth. "A very felicitous name--Hollering Hal!"
    Despite the humor of the thing, Ken really saw its serious side. When he found the grass under his feet alive with ticks he cast about in his mind for some way to get rid of them. And he hit upon a remedy. On the ridge above the bench was a palm-tree, and under it were many dead palm leaves. These were large in size, had long stems, and were as dry as tinder. Ken lighted one, and it made a flaming hot torch. It did not take him long to scorch all the ticks near that camp.
    The boys had supper and enjoyed it hugely. The scene went well with the camp-fire and game-dinner. They gazed out over the foaming pool, the brawling rapids, to the tufted palm-trees, and above them the dark-blue mountain. At dusk Hal and George were so tired they went to bed and at onc e dropped into slumber. Pepe sat smoking before the slumbering fire.
    And Ken chose that quiet hour to begin the map of the river, and to set down in his note-book his observations on the mountains and in the -Valley, and what he had seen that day of bird, animal, and plant life in the jungle.

    Chapter VII - RUNNING THE RAPIDS .
    SOME time in the night a yell awakened Ken. He sat up, clutching his revolver.
    The white moonlight made all as clear as day. Hal lay deep in slumber. George was raising himself, half aroused. But Pepe was gone.
    Ken heard a thrashing about outside. Leaping up he ran out, and was frightened to see Pepe beating and clawing and tearing at himself like a man possessed of demons.
    "Pepe, what's wrong?" shouted Ken.
    It seemed that Pepe only grew more violent in his wrestling about. Then Ken was sure Pepe had been stung by a scorpion or bitten by a snake.
    But he was dumfounded to see George bound like an apparition out of the tent and begin evolutions that made Pepe's look slow.
    "Hey, what's wrong with you jumping-jacks?" yelled Ken.
    George was as grimly silent as an India n running the gantlet, but Ken thought it doubtful if any Indian ever slapped and tore at his body in George's frantic manner. To add to the mystery Hal suddenly popped out of the tent. He was yelling in a way to do justice to the name Ken had lately given him, and, as for wild and whirling antics, his were simply marvelous.
    "Good land!" ejaculated Ken. Had the boys all gone mad? Despite his alarm, Ken had to roar with laughter at those three dancing figures in the moonlight. A rush of ideas went through Ken's confused mind. And the last prompted him to look in the tent.
    He saw a wide bar of black crossing the moonlit ground, the grass, and the