Bomba sprang to his feet, every sense on the alert.
Beneath the place where he had been lying the earthen floor was heaving like the waves.
Then it broke apart, and from the shattered opening rose a great head whose open jaws were armed with terrible rows of teeth.
Bomba looked into the fiery eyes of a monster alligator!
CHAPTER XV
THE RUSHING RIVER
For a moment the lad stood as though turned into stone, astounded and appalled. Then he realized what had happened.
The alligator, following a custom of its kind, had buried itself in the soft mud, on the same principle that a bear hibernates in winter. Probably a flood some time before had inundated the district and the alligator had come with it. When the flood receded the alligator had remained in its self-imposed burial place. The soft mud had caked and hardened, but still the alligator slept on.
The weight and warmth of the boy’s body had aroused it, and now it was issuing forth to renew once more its active life.
For a moment the great brute seemed as much surprised as the lad himself, and looked stupidly at the invader of its retreat.
But only for a moment. Then a hideous bellow issued from its open jaws, its fiery eyes snapped with malignity, and it made a lunge at the jungle boy.