“Maybe he’s mortally wounded,” suggested Randy.
“I hope so,” answered his cousin. “But we can’t take any chances on such a big beast as that. Gee! when he leaped for this shelf, I was scared. I thought he was about ready to eat us up.”
“He’d have killed us both, Jack, if he could have gotten at us,” answered Randy, with a shudder.
The boys realized that they had been in great danger, and if they were exceedingly nervous, who could blame them? With reloaded pistols, they waited where they stood, straining their eyes and ears for any other movement the lion might make.
“And the worst of it is,” said Jack, “if that lion and that goat came ashore from the Coryanda, for all we know, all the other beasts, and maybe the snakes, came ashore too.”
“They could only do that if the steam yacht was completely wrecked so that the cages were broken open.”
“Well, those cages didn’t look very secure to me. Don’t forget how that snake and that tiger got loose.”
“We’ve got to get back to camp somehow and warn the others. But I must confess I don’t feel much like going through that jungle to where we left the little raft.”
“Nor do I. I’d rather try to climb over the rocks and get to the bay, somehow or other, that way.”
The boys made an investigation and presently found a place at the end of the narrow shelf where two or three rough steps led upward. Neither of them wished to trust himself in the jungle, and so they kept on for over half an hour, climbing one rocky height after another in their endeavor to reach the bay without taking to the heavy growth to the westward.