“Listen!” said Bomba. “You talk like foolish men. Is Bomba dead? Yet Sobrinini’s look fell upon Bomba. She is a wise woman. Did she not say that I would come back to Snake Island? And is Bomba not going back? I do not like her snakes. But she has done no evil to Bomba, and she will do no hurt to Bomba’s friends. And Ashati and Neram are my friends.”
The boy’s words brought some reassurance to his companions, but not enough to banish their fears wholly, and it was with great trepidation that they viewed the dreaded island as the tree drew ever nearer.
As for Bomba himself, he was almost glad at the accident which had at the time seemed so disastrous. He would not of his own accord have taken the time just now to visit Sobrinini again, eager as he was to renew his questioning. She had been on the very point of telling him what he wanted to know when Nascanora and his braves had broken in upon them. Perhaps this time he would be more fortunate.
He was immersed in these thoughts when to their ears came a wailing cry, so weird, so uncanny, so long drawn out, that it chilled their blood.
It came from the direction of the island, but, strain their eyes as they might, they could detect no human figure from whom the cry might have issued.
The sound was the signal for another outbreak of fear on the part of the ex-slaves. They were brave enough when facing human or animal foes, as they had shown in their combat with the jaguars, but when brought in contact with what they regarded as supernatural, their hearts melted within them.
They whimpered and cowered and glanced at the water, as though they were almost willing to take their chances with the alligators rather than approach the island they deemed accursed.
But they had drawn nearer now and they could detect an agitated, tumultuous group of figures on the shore.
The wailing cry came again, so near this time that Ashati and Neram nearly lost their grip on the boughs.
Then from out the fringe of trees that lined the shore shot a small canoe, paddled with frantic energy by a withered old woman, her straggling locks streaming behind her head, her face convulsed with fear.