Astounding Stories of Super-Science, December 1930

In the steaming heart of Brazil’s untamed Tapajós basin, a lanky young professor named Hale Oakham forces his small crew deeper into a bewildering maze of lily‑choked waterways. Guided only by a half‑blood rubber‑gatherer who mutters of the cursed Ungapuk village, they encounter a nightmarish creature—a rat with a man’s face—that hints at an ancient, malevolent magic lurking beneath the river’s surface. The uneasy alliance between the scholarly outsider and the local guide cracks as strange legends of silver dust and walking stones surface, urging Hale to confront a darkness that the jungle seems to breathe.

As the river widens, the expedition’s supplies grow scarce, and the forest’s whispers grow louder, promising both hidden riches and unspeakable peril. Hale’s pragmatic disdain for superstition clashes with the unsettling certainty that every step deeper into the matto may seal his fate. Listeners are drawn into a vivid, claustrophobic world where science and superstition collide, setting the stage for a battle between curiosity and the unknown.