Luck was with him, for he killed a tapir, and this time he cured enough of the meat to last him, by his calculations, until he could reach the island of Japazy. Now with his larder stocked, he could devote himself solely to the one end he had in view.
His conviction never faltered that once he came face to face with the half-breed he would be able to get from him the knowledge he craved, provided that Japazy had that knowledge. The possibility of a hostile reception occurred to him at times, but he dismissed it promptly. Why should such a natural and simple request arouse Japazy’s ire? Jojasta had told him something. Sobrinini had told him more. Why should not Japazy scatter the last shred of mystery that hung about the secret of his birth?
Musing thus, he was pushing his way through an unusually thick part of the jungle late on the third afternoon after he had left Polulu when he stopped abruptly.
A scream had halted him, a man’s scream, the scream of one in mortal agony!
CHAPTER XIII
IN THE BOA CONSTRICTOR’S FOLDS
Under other circumstances Bomba might have hesitated before he rushed to the spot from which that scream proceeded. He would have feared a decoy, a trap. But there was such genuine terror, such awful anguish in that blood-curdling shriek that he hurried with all the speed he could muster, unslinging his bow as he ran.
In a moment he had reached a little opening in the jungle, and his blood ran cold at the sight that met his eyes.
A man, by his color an Indian, was struggling in the coils of a giant boa constrictor. His features were distorted with agony. The coils of the great snake were wound about the man’s right arm and striving to crush it into pulp.
The victim was tearing wildly at the snake’s body with the free arm, but as the hand held no weapon it could make no impression. Another man was circling frantically about the reptile, trying to get in a blow with a knife. But he could not get near enough to slash, as the boa’s head, reared aloft, struck viciously at him whenever he came almost within reaching distance.
Had the snake retained a hold by its tail from the bough from which it had dropped upon its prey, the struggle would have long since been over. But the reptile had made two mistakes.