But Bomba shouted to them reassuringly and again shot into the swarm of vultures.
Two of them fell with a great flapping of wings into the underbrush, while a third, one wing drooping, blundered off through the trees.
The attack was halted. Bewildered by the noise of the shots and the spurts of flame, as well as by the fall of some of their number, the great birds fluttered about uncertainly, beating the air with their wings and filling the air with raucous squawks.
The respite, however, was only temporary. The assailants swooped down again, with wicked claws outstretched and cruel curved beaks ready for action.
One of them darted forward and seized a baby monkey, tearing it from the mother’s arms. A long agonized howl came from the bereaved female. She sprang into the air and clutched wildly at the tiny helpless bundle in the claws of the vulture.
The great wide-spread wings of the attackers were so close that Bomba was fanned by them. He shielded his eyes instinctively with one arm against the rip of beak and claw. With the other hand he slowly raised the revolver, trained it upon the vulture with the baby monkey in its talons, tightened his finger on the trigger and fired.
The shot struck no vital part, because Bomba had feared to injure the little captive. But he succeeded in breaking the wing of the vulture. With a shrill squeak it dropped its prey, and with its uninjured wing flapping clumsily, disappeared above the trees.
The mother monkey leaped forward, seized her baby, hugged it to her breast and crouched low above it, interposing her body between it and danger.
The vultures returned to the attack with redoubled fury. The opposition they encountered served only to enrage them the more. They came in smothering masses, and there ensued a fight that Bomba never forgot.
The monkeys, brought to bay, fought viciously for their lives. But without the aid of Bomba the odds would have been too much for them. And even the boy, armed with his new death-dealing weapon, had need of all his strength and agility to withstand the attack of the predatory birds.