“It is called Snake Island. But to go there is to die.”
The native shivered with a superstitious terror as he spoke the words.
Bomba glanced at Ashati and Neram, who had been listening with absorbed interest to the story of the native and on whose faces was reflected the same look of fright.
Bomba released his hold upon the prisoner and arose to his feet.
“There are two things I must know,” he said.
“Command, and you shall be obeyed,” returned the native humbly.
“Was there a white man among Nascanora’s captives?”
“I cannot say. He had many captives and he will return as I have said. That is all that the jungle has told me.”
“How do you go to this island where the witch woman, Sobrinini, lives with her snakes?” asked Bomba, feeling that the native had spoken the truth.
The native looked at him with curiosity dawning in his reddened eyes.