At first he heard and saw nothing and was almost inclined to chide himself for his suspicions. Then a slight movement in the underbrush at his right caught his eye.
Now he saw what had before been hidden from him, a crouching, sinuous body, ears laid flat against a wicked head, eyes gleaming and greedy.
“A jaguar!” muttered Bomba, as he quickly fitted an arrow to his bow. “Already they lie in wait for me. Bomba must kill this one as a warning to the others to beware.”
But even as Bomba stretched his bow, the jaguar, giving a ferocious roar, sprang!
CHAPTER XII
A TERRIFIC BATTLE
But even while the beast was in mid-air, a great yellow body came hurtling over the underbrush and struck the jaguar almost at right angles.
The impact was terrible, and the two brutes went down in a heap. Snarling and spitting, they scrambled up and faced each other, and the next moment were engaged in a life and death grapple.
The thud of the collision had come just as Bomba’s bow twanged. The arrow would have found its mark unerringly if the body of the jaguar had not been thrown out of the line of its flight.
Astounded beyond expression, Bomba thought for a moment that two jaguars were doing battle for their prey. But the next moment he recognized in the newcomer Polulu, the great puma, Bomba’s chief friend and ally among the jungle folk.
“Polulu!” he gasped in delight. “Good Polulu! He saw that Bomba was in danger and has come to his help.”