To discover that other exit, if there were one, several of the Indians crowded into the cave, and one of them picked up the torch to make a more thorough search.
He had scarcely done so before a terrific hubbub arose from his companions on the outside of the cave. Something had frightened them.
The men within rushed out, and there was a snapping and crashing as the whole party forced its way through the underbrush, evidently in panic flight.
What had happened? Bomba asked himself. Was one terror to be succeeded by another?
He listened with all his ears. There was no sound except that caused by the stampede of the Indians, now steadily growing fainter.
Minutes passed and still no sound. The strain became unendurable.
Slowly, very slowly, Bomba raised his head and peered over his barricade.
All he saw was a shadow.
But that was enough to chill his blood.
For the shadow that lay on the ground before the cave was that of a giant puma, one of the fiercest inhabitants of the Amazonian wilds!