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sucking our blood. If you don't get leeches off in time, they bloat up, and then you have to be careful how you pull them out. You have to dig the head out from under the skin with a pin or risk getting an infection.

Our progress was rapid, as we knew the way and were marching over trails that we had cut only the day before. At night we slept in camps that we ourselves had set up only recently. We walked without enthusiasm, however, barely speaking. Both Kevin's and Marcus's shoes looked as if they had had it. Karl's boots were completely useless, and he was wearing Kevin's sandals. Walking over a rugged trail and wading through streams in sandals couldn't have been very pleasant, but Karl, as I've said, was a very tough guy.

There was an unspoken enmity between Marcus and me. We didn't speak to each other at all, and even in practical matters we communicated through Kevin. It bothered me, but I felt secure, sure of Kevin's friendship.

In the evening, after dinner, Kevin would take out a spool of dental floss and break off a piece for each of us before we brushed our teeth. Kevin's father was a dentist, and he didn't let his dental hygiene lapse, even in the jungle. Marcus was returning from washing the dishes in the river one evening and offered us some of the water remaining in the clean pan to rinse the toothpaste from our mouths. I took a mouthful, sloshed it