In a minute they had torn the body into fragments and the water was red with blood. The monsters sank to the bottom to regale themselves.
The killing of the cayman helped Bomba in more ways than one. It not only reduced the number of his enemies, but it kept the others busy with the feast that its body provided. Moreover, it taught the brutes that the boy was not as helpless as they had supposed, and they were likely to be a trifle more wary and cautious in future.
While the caymans were disposing of their booty, the swift current had carried Bomba a long distance ahead. His eyes strained through the gathering darkness, but he could see nothing of his former pursuers. He hoped that he had shaken them off.
Vain hope! For in a little while he could see phosphorescent gleams in the water behind him that he knew marked the trails of the caymans.
They were coming again. Their appetite for blood had not been satiated. Rather it had been whetted.
They wanted Bomba! And they were determined to have him!
CHAPTER XVI
JAGUAR ISLAND
Despite his iron courage, Bomba could not repress a shudder.
To be sure, he still had his bow and arrows, and what he had done once he might do again.
But now he was handicapped by the darkness. It had come on swiftly. It would be almost half an hour before the moon would rise. And how could he shoot in the darkness at such a tiny target as the eye of the alligator?