“It is,” was the laughing reply. “I keep forgetting that you don’t know our slang. I mean our name would have been mud—there I go again. What I mean to say is that we would have been killed if you had not been here.”
Bomba made up his mind that he would remember these new words so that he could talk like the white men. He already had a precious collection, “goat,” “mud,” “Dennis,” “shindig.” And there had been others, too, that he would try to recall. He would tell them to Casson and show him how much he had learned. But just now he was very sleepy.
“I’ll get you some blankets to lie on,” said Gillis.
“No,” said Bomba, “I will sleep this way.”
He threw himself down on the ground near the fire, and in a moment was fast asleep.
But there was no sleep just then for Gillis or Dorn. They were too wrought up by the dreadful experiences through which they had gone to close their eyes. So they sat with their rifles on their knees until the first faint tinge of dawn showed in the east. Then they knew that the danger was past, for that night at least, and after summoning a couple of natives and placing them on watch, they threw themselves wearily on their blankets in a sleep of utter exhaustion.
Bomba was the first to awake, and for a moment found it hard to realize where he was. He sat up, looked around, and caught sight of the bodies of the jaguars. Then all the events of the stirring night came back to him.
He had borne himself well in circumstances that might have made grown men quail. He had met death face to face, and it had been a matter of touch and go whether he would escape unscathed. But the fortune that favors the brave had been with him, and he had not a scratch. He had trapped the cooanaradi. He had slain one jaguar and foiled the others. It was natural that he should be filled with a feeling of exultation.
But far above the satisfaction at his own safety was that which came from the thought that he had saved the white men. Without him, they would surely have been doomed! He had established his right to be regarded as a brother. He had vindicated his white skin.
In twenty-four hours he had gone far. A new world had opened before him. He had crossed a chasm that separated him from his own race. He had realized some of the dreams, answered some of the questions, solved some of the mysteries that for a long time past had been tormenting him.