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.
The American jaguar is not so formidable a
beast as the native name of tiger would cause
one to suppose, though they are sufficiently dan-
gerous, and this one had rather badly clawed the
Indian. Fortunately the scratches were on the
fleshy parts of the arms and shoulders, where,
though painful, they were not necessarily serious.
"But if you hadn't shot just when you did, Tom,
it would have been all up with him," commented
Ned.
"Oh, well, I guess you'd have hit him if I
hadn't," returned the young inventor. "But let's
see what we can do for this chap."
The man sat up wonderingly--hardly able to
believe that he had been saved from the dreaded
"tigre." His wounds were bleeding rather freely,
and as Tom and Ned carried with them a first-aid
kit they now brought it into use. The wounds
were bound up, the man was given water to
drink and then, as he was able to walk, Tom and
Ned offered to help him wherever he wanted to
go.
"Blessed if I can tell whether he's one of our
Indians or whether he belongs to the Beecher
crowd," remarked Tom.
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