The three castaways exchanged looks of terrible meaning, without uttering a word.
Seldom indeed have such men been tried by such a temptation. Here was the vengeance for which they had just been longing, placed all at once within their very grasp. Here was the man whom they most hated in all the world, lying bruised and helpless, and wholly at their mercy; and even if they did not care to kill him themselves, all that was needed was simply to leave him to his fate. But then the boy—the boy—!
"Make haste—how slow you are!" cried Freddy imperiously. "Come and get him out—quick!"
And, as if his overwhelming excitement had really made him stronger, for the moment, than the two big, hardy men whom he was urging on, both made a step forward as he spoke, with the mechanical, unconscious movement of men walking in their sleep.
But hardly had they turned toward the high-road (close beside which lay the hollow wherein the colonel and his horse had fallen), when the whole forest shook with a terrific roar—the roar of a hungry tiger springing on its prey.[7]
"Oh, the tiger—the tiger!" screamed Freddy, "he'll get father!"
And he flew like an arrow in the direction of the sound.
If ever Bob and his comrades had run in their lives, they did so then. But ere they could reach the fatal spot, there came a second roar, louder and fiercer than the last—a wild, despairing cry—and then all was still.