“I guess we’ll mount guard,” said the professor. “The forest is full of jaguars. I saw three while I was hunting the deer.”
“Let me stay up,” begged Jerry. “I’m not sleepy, and I’d like to get a shot at one of the beasts.”
Ned also wanted to remain up, but the professor said he could take the second watch; and, content with this, Ned turned in with the others.
As the night wore on the forests resounded more and more with the noises made by wild beasts. The howls of the foxes mingled with the more terrifying yells of the jaguars, and of the latter beasts the woods seemed to be full.
Jerry, with the loaded magazine rifle, was on the alert. He kept up a bright fire, for he knew that unless made desperate by hunger no wild thing would approach a flame. There were queer rustlings and cracklings of the underbrush on every side of the sentinel. Now and then through the leaves he caught glimpses of reddish-green eyes reflecting back the shine of the blaze.
Following the plans they had made, Vasco Bilette and his Mexicans, together with Noddy and the crowd in the automobile, had trailed the boys and the professor to the camp. With great caution, Vasco had led his men to within a short distance of the fire Jerry had kindled, and Noddy’s auto was in readiness for the kidnapping.
So, though Jerry did not know it, there were the eyes of dangerous men on his movements as well as the eyes of dangerous beasts.
Like dark shadows, the Mexicans slowly encircled the camp. They were so close they could distinguish the sleeping forms.