He glanced down the corridor and saw that it was blocked with debris. His only exit was the window. Luckily, it was not more than twelve feet from the ground, and Bomba dropped down safely.
He was not a moment too soon, for he had barely got out of reach before the rest of the building fell. The dwelling of Japazy, that had witnessed nobody knew how many grim tragedies, was now in ruins.
In the dim dawn that was coming up in the eastern sky, Bomba could see that most of the other houses in the town had shared the same fate. People were rushing about in fright, men, women and children, fleeing they knew not where, their only thought to get away from the fiery rivers of lava that were now pouring down rapidly toward the doomed town.
The earth was opening in great rents, which sometimes widened and at other times snapped shut, engulfing houses, trees and sometimes hapless human beings, whose screams of terror were dreadful to hear.
Apart from these more spectacular demonstrations of the unchained forces of nature, there was a sense of gradual sinking that was sickening and ominous in the extreme.
No one paid any attention to Bomba, so engrossed was every one in trying to find a path to safety.
The lad sniffed the air as a pointer does to get his sense of direction. Then, when he knew that he was headed for the north end of the island, he plunged into the woods and went as straight as an arrow to his goal.
There was terrible need for haste, as the rivers of lava were now pouring into the woods, blasting into ashes whatever they touched. If one of those rivers intercepted his path, it would be impossible to cross it.
The air was like that from a furnace, and Bomba was drenched with sweat as he made his way through the jungle. Showers of hot ashes were falling all about him. Great forest trees lay athwart his path, hurled to the ground as though they had been saplings.
Over and over came those deafening roars that seemed to split his eardrums, and ever the rivers of lava swelled in volume. The hot blasts that came from them scorched his throat and lungs and seared his eyes. He felt as though he were moving in a nightmare.