With a fearful howl the beast rolled over and over for a moment, then straightened out and lay still.
With scarcely a second glance at his dead adversary, Bomba leaped on the bank and started to run toward the cabin.
The hut consisted of two rooms, a larger one in the front and a much smaller one in the rear. A flimsy door with one rope hinge broken connected the two.
In the swift glance he sent inside as he reached the outer doorway, Bomba saw no trace of human occupants.
What he did see was a puma, larger than the one he had slain outside, clawing at the inner door between the two rooms and at times hurling its huge body against the door. It was a dilapidated door at the best, and would long since have yielded to the beast’s attack had it not been for some barriers placed against it on the other side.
Bomba took in the situation in an instant. Pipina had seen the beasts approaching and, taking Casson with her, had retreated to the inner room, shut the door, and piled against it whatever furniture she could gather in her frantic haste.
But that it was pitifully inadequate was apparent at a glance. Already there were breaks in the door that the puma was trying to enlarge with its claws so that it could push its body through. From the other side of the door came the frantic screams of Pipina, seeing death so near at hand.
In a flash Bomba fitted an arrow to his bow and let it go. It struck the puma in the shoulder, inflicting a serious wound but not enough to cripple it.
With a roar of rage the brute turned to meet its new enemy. With one spring it was at the door.
The movement had been so lightning fast that Bomba had no time to shoot again. His only salvation lay in flight.