For a few moments Bomba’s heart seemed to cease beating.
Down he went again behind his barrier, while he tried to collect his thoughts in the presence of this new peril.
The thought that this might be the den of a wild beast had occurred to him when he first saw the mouth of the cave, but it had been crowded out by his desperate need of escaping from his human enemies.
Now he realized that he was trapped. There was not one chance in a hundred that the beast would stay outside for long. Sooner or later it would enter the cave to rest in readiness for its nocturnal hunting. And when it did come in, discovery would be certain.
In Bomba’s crouching position the animal could not see him. But it would smell him and follow the scent to the crevice in the rock.
To be sure, it could not get at
