Now he was not alone. On every side the jungle was full of fleeing animals and reptiles. There were hundreds of them, the jaguars which had given the island its name, boa constrictors, dragging their huge lengths through the brush, jararacas, cooanaradis.
They brushed against Bomba, bumped into him, but not one of them gave him the slightest attention. Every hostile and venomous instinct was swallowed up in panic, in the terror to escape. They did not know where they were going. They did not care. All they thought of was to get away from that roaring mountain, from those terrible rivers of fire that threatened to overwhelm them.
Unexpectedly Bomba found himself on the edge of the river, the same surging, turbulent stream that had brought him to Jaguar Island. He was surprised at this, as he had calculated that he had at least a mile further to go before he reached its banks.
And then he knew!
The river was creeping inland. It had already covered the ground to the width of a mile. The island was sinking!
With frantic haste Bomba gathered together three logs, tore some creepers from the trees and lashed the logs together. Even in the brief time it took him to do this the water had deepened until it was up to his neck.
He pulled himself up on the rude and fragile raft and committed himself to the river. Soon the logs were in the grip of the current where they tossed about so violently that Bomba could not keep his feet. He threw himself flat and with his hands through interstices of the logs held on for his life.
He had little fear this time of the caymans. They themselves would be cowering with terror at this phenomenon that was shaking the bed of the stream as well as the dry land above its level. They would make no hostile move. Even the jaguars, whose heads now dotted the stream everywhere, could swim to the mainland without any danger from an attack by the alligators.
The current carried the raft toward the further side of the river, and before long it struck heavily against a jutting point of land. With one spring Bomba landed on the point, and a moment later stood safe on the fringe of the jungle.
As he looked toward the island there came a stupendous crash that dwarfed everything that had preceded. Once more Tamura belched forth a great torrent of flame. Then the whole island sank out of sight and where it had been were only miles of widely tossing waters.