Templemore, as it happened, had had a bad fright when a child from an adventure with a snake; and this--as is frequently the case--had left in his mind, all the rest of his life, a great horror of serpents. He found, therefore, the presence of these 'lords of the woods,' as their Indian name implies, a source of ever-present abhorrence.
Besides the 'bush-masters,' there were the 'labarri'--also a large venomous snake, but not aggressive like the other--and rattlesnakes. There were also, no doubt, boa-constrictors, or 'camoodis,' of the ordinary kind; but, thus far, only one had been seen, and that, though large, was nothing out of the way as regards size for that country.
Nor were serpents their only visible enemies; there were others of a kind new to the two young men. One day, while with the working party at the farthest part of the track, they heard the whole forest suddenly resound with a perfect babel of discordant noises. There were shrill cries and squeals, hoarse roars and growls, then a kind of trumpeting. The Indians retreated, throwing down their axes to pick up their rifles. As they hastily retired, four large animals sprang into their path, one after the other, with loud roars and growls. But Monella, who was behind Elwood, stepped forward and rolled two over with his repeating rifle, and Jack stopped another of the beasts with his. The fourth, apparently not liking the way things were going, leaped into the thicket and disappeared; though, judging from the sounds that came from the direction it had taken, there were many more of its fellows close at hand. Gradually their cries grew fainter, until they died away in the distance.
Meanwhile, further shots had given the _coup de grâce_ to the three that had been knocked over, and the victors went up to examine them. They seemed to be a kind of panther or leopard of a light grey colour, approaching white in places, with markings of a deeper colour.
Neither Templemore nor Elwood had ever previously seen any animal, or the skin of one, at all like these. They were, moreover, of different shape from either the jaguar or the tiger-cat; larger than the latter, and more thick-set than the former.
"These must be the 'white jaguars' that the Indians say help to guard Roraima," Jack observed, looking in perplexity at the strange creatures.