第38章

POISONED ARROWS

"Did you hear that, Tom?" asked Ned, in a hoarse whisper.

"Surely," was the cautious answer."Keep still, and I'll try for a shot." "Better be quick," advised Ned in a tense voice."The chap who didthat yelling seems to be in trouble!"

And as Ned's voice trailed off into a whisper, again came the cry, this time in frenzied pain.

"El tigre! El tigre!" Then there was a jumble of words.

"It's over this way!" and this time Ned shouted, seeing no need for low voices since the other was so loud.

Tom looked to where Ned had parted the bushes alongside a jungle path.Through the opening the young inventor saw, in a little glade, that which caused him to take a firmer grip on his electric rifle, and also a firmer grip on his nerves.

Directly in front of him and Ned, and not more than a hundred yards away, was a great tawny and spotted jaguar--the "tigre" or tiger of Central America.The beast, with lashing tail, stood over an Indian upon whom it seemed to have sprung from some lair, beating the unfortunate man to the ground.Nor had he fallen scatheless, for there was blood on the green leaves about him, and it was not the blood of the spotted beast.

"Oh, Tom, can you--can you----" and Ned faltered.The young inventor understood the unspoken question.

"I think I can make a shot of it without hitting the man," he answered, never turning his head."It's a question, though, if the beast won't claw him in the death struggle.It won't last long, however, if the electric bullet goes to the right place, and I've got to take the chance."Cautiously Tom brought his weapon to bear.Quiet as Ned and he had been after the discovery, the jaguar seemed to feel that something was wrong.Intent on his prey, for a time he had stood over it, gloating.Now the brute glanced uneasily from side to side, its tail nervously twitching, and it seemed trying to gain, by a sniffing of the air, some information as to the direction in which danger lay, for Tom and Ned hadstooped low, concealing themselves by a screen of leaves.

The Indian, after his first frenzied outburst of fear, now lay quiet, as though fearing to move, moaning in pain.

Suddenly the jaguar, attracted either by some slight movement on the part of Ned or Tom, or perhaps by having winded them, turned his head quickly and gazed with cruel eyes straight at the spot where the two young men stood behind the bushes.

"He's seen us," whispered Ned.

"Yes," assented Tom."And it's a perfect shot.Hope I don't miss!"It was not like Tom Swift to miss, nor did he on this occasion.There was a slight report from the electric rifle--a report not unlike the crackle of the wireless--and the powerful projectile sped true to its mark.

Straight through the throat and chest under the uplifted jaw of the jaguar it went--through heart and lungs.Then with a great coughing, sighing snarl the beast reared up, gave a convulsive leap forward toward its newly discovered enemies, and fell dead in a limp heap, just beyond the native over which it had been crouching before it delivered the death stroke, now never to fall.

"You did it, Tom! You did it!" cried Ned, springing up from where he had been kneeling to give his chum a better chance to shoot."You did it, and saved the man's life!" And Ned would have rushed out toward the still twitching body.

"Just a minute!" interposed Tom."Those beasts sometimes have as many lives as a cat.I'll give it one more for luck." Another electric projectile through the head of the jaguar produced no further effect than to move the body slightly, and this proved conclusively that there was no life left.It was safe to approach, which Tom and Ned did.

Their first thought, after a glance at the jaguar, was for the Indian.It needed but a brief examination to show that he was not badly hurt.The jaguar had leaped on him from a low tree as he passed under it, as the boys learned afterward, and had crushed the man to earth by the weight of the spotted body more than by a stroke of the paw.