And the caymans!
He looked behind him fearfully. But there were none of those phosphorescent streaks to betray the presence of the monsters. How long would it be, however, before there would be a break of the water and the emerging of the hideous head of one of the lords of the river!
Sitting astride the log, his legs were hanging in the water. One bite of the alligator’s jaws and a leg would be severed as though shorn by shears.
But he was nearing land. That was one comfort. Before him in the moonlight he could see a black mass rapidly taking shape. By its size and general contour, as given him by the ex-slaves, he conjectured that it must be the island of the big cats.
He drifted nearer and nearer to it. Now he was not more than a hundred feet away. Bomba braced himself for the jar that would come when the log struck the shore. Once more he looked behind.
That look almost made his heart stop beating.
He saw a phosphorescent streak!
CHAPTER XVII
THE HIDDEN LISTENER
Bomba knew all too well what that phosphorescent streak meant. An alligator was coming, and coming fast.
Bomba measured the distance between himself and the shore. The log could move no faster than the current. But Bomba could!