Jaguar

In South America, Americans Steve Bailey and Marty Lang, who have been hired by a petroleum company, are planning an expedition into dangerous Motilone Indian country to look for oil. The company's head, Francisco Servente, warns them about the dangers of "Jaguarmen," murderous, jaguar-worshiping Motilone Indian priests identified by the jaguar skins they wear and the smell of the mind-altering drug, "chica," of which they partake. Servente advises the Americans to enlist the help of ethnologist Dr. Henry Powell, who has led many jungle expeditions, and suggests that they pretend they are hunting jaguar, rather than searching for oil, so as not to interest "cutthroat" rivals. While conferring with Powell, Bailey and Lang meet his adopted son Juano, a Motilone whom the doctor rescued from the jungle fifteen years ago. Juano is offended when the Americans treat him as a curiosity and the middle-aged Bailey makes unwelcome advances toward Juano's girl friend Rita, who is also Powell's secretary. Although he remembers little of his jungle experience, Juano, already self-conscious about his "savage" background, is troubled by their rudeness. Juano wants to accompany Powell on the expedition, but his father refuses, as it will interfere with his plans to begin college. However, when Juano learns that his admission has been postponed by the college due to lack of space, he bitterly assumes that the postponement was based on his race and vows to return to the jungle. While the riverboat is being loaded for the expedition, Juano and Powell witness the Americans, who are secretive about their equipment, mistreating the local workers hired as porters. When a porter gets too close to the equipment, Bailey assaults him, pushing him into the river where he is eaten by piranhas. Tupi, a longtime friend of Juano's hired to help with the expedition, confides that the Americans' equipment is for collecting oil, not jaguars, as the Powells have been told. Fifty miles from Motilone country, Powell instructs the men to build a stockade. That night, a group of Jaguarmen shoot a Motilone arrow at the stockade's gate. Hearing the Indians signal each other with bird sounds, Juano is surprised to find that he can understand them. Back in town, meanwhile, Rita receives a letter stating that the college now has an opening for Juano in the coming school term. She hires Garcia Solimos, who owns a motor boat, to take her to rendezvous with the expedition so that she can tell Juano the n