“Yes,” answered the boy proudly. “There is no one so wise on the island of the big cats as Abino, except Japazy himself.”
“Has Solani ever seen ghosts or demons?” asked Bomba. “It is said that there are many on the island.”
The boy looked about fearfully.
“There are many here,” he answered. “They keep Japazy from harm. But no one can see them except Japazy. His eyes see everything.”
“Bomba saw some lights on the river,” said the jungle boy, determined to draw Solani out, for he saw that he was in a responsive mood. “Bomba did not know but what the lights were the campfires of the ghosts.”
“The lights are burning brushwood,” explained Solani. “They are thrown out from the earth when Tamura, the mountain, is angry and his anger breaks great holes in the ground.”
“Is Tamura often angry?” asked Bomba.
“Many times he speaks in thunder and throws out rocks and rivers of fire that eat up whatever they touch,” replied Solani. “Tamura has killed many of our people. The old men say that he will not be silent until some stranger is offered up to him. Then he will be satisfied and make no more thunder.”
As Bomba, as far as he knew, was the only stranger at that time on the island, there was something decidedly uncomfortable in this information.
At this moment Abino entered, followed by several old men whom Bomba took to be the chief advisers of the tribe.