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holding on to the rope that was tied to the bow. He managed to brace himself against a boulder and from there used all of his strength to pull the raft toward the shore. Together we hauled it up on a tiny beachhead and secured it.

Kevin regarded me smugly. 'You see? A bad pass isn't such a big deal.'

'We did it!' Marcus was exultant. 'We made it on our own! Way to go, Kevin! You, too, Yossi!'

We walked back toward camp through the jungle. We were soaking wet. Marcus found walking difficult and complained of pain in his feet, which had gotten wet again. Suddenly a shot rang out. Karl must have bagged something. I raced forward, in the direction of the sounding. There was no trail, and I broke off branches, jumped over fallen logs, and crawled under low-hanging boughs. I was making a terrible commotion, when a horrible thought struck me: Karl was likely to think that I was some kind of wild animal charging through the brush.

'Karl, Karl,' I called out, 'where are you?'
'Here, Yossi, I'm over here,' he roared.

I found him carefully studying a wide tree. 'What were you shooting at?' I asked. 'Did you get anything?'

'Ah, that was a mountain lion. It was too high up a tree. I missed it. But, look, Yossi, a rubber tree.'

Karl struck the tree with the machete, and thick white drops, like glue, came oozing out of the gash. 'I can use it to fix my boots.'