“You have saved my life, señor,” Pita said gravely. “It was a jaguar, and had you not fired it would have struck me down and crushed in my skull with a blow of its paw. I wonder I did not see it, but I was thinking at the time that we had best tie up for an hour or two so as to pass the next village, which is a large one, after dark.”
“It was almost hidden among those leaves,” Stephen said, “and had it not moved I should not have noticed it.”
“THE ANIMAL WAS ON THE POINT OF SPRINGING WHEN STEPHEN FIRED.”
“I think you blinded it, señor,” Hurka said. “I saw it rise [pg 307]to spring, and snatched at my rifle just as you fired. I think the charge struck it between the eyes, for I saw a sort of blur there just as it fell. I should have been too late; for though I might have hit it as it was in the air, it would assuredly have come down on Pita.
“It was not like you, Pita. This comes of thinking while you are paddling instead of keeping your eyes on everything.”
“I was wrong,” the Indian replied. “I should have known that an attack by a jaguar was always possible; but this is the first that we have seen since starting, and I had no thought of danger in my mind. I will be more careful in the future. It must have been well hidden, for you did not see it yourself, Hurka, until it moved for its spring.”
“That is true,” the little Indian replied. “The Englishman’s eyes must be quick indeed, and his nerve steady. It was seeing him catch up his gun that first called my attention to it. You have laid us both under a great obligation, señor, for Pita is my best friend, and were aught to befall him I should feel that I had lost part of myself. Perhaps before the journey comes to an end we may be able to show you how grateful we are.”
“It is nothing worth talking about,” Stephen said. “In a journey like this, comrades may well save each other’s lives more than once.”