rd a strange cry from Mr. Damon.

"Tom! Ned!" shouted the eccentric man, "Here's a monster after me! Come
quick!"

"A tiger!" ejaculated Tom, as he began once more to change the charge
in his rifle to a larger one, running back, meanwhile, in the direction
of the sound of the voice.

There were really no tigers in Honduras, the jaguar being called a
tiger by the natives, while the cougar is called a lion. The presence
of these animals, often dangerous to man, had been indicated around
camp, and it was possible that one had been bold enough to attack Mr.
Damon, not through hunger, but because of being cornered.

"Come on, Ned!" cried Tom. "He's in some sort of trouble!"

But when, a moment later, the young inventor burst through a fringe of
bushes and saw Mr. Damon standing in a little clearing, with upraised
club, Tom could not repress a laugh.

"Kill it, Tom! Kill it!" begged the eccentric man. "Bless my insurance
policy, but it's a terrible beast!"

And so it was, at first glance. For it was a giant iguana, one of the
most repulsive-looking of the lizards. Not unlike an alligator in
shape, with spikes on its head and tail, with a warty, squatty
ridge-encrusted body, a big pouch beneath its chin, and long-toed
claws, it was enough to strike terror into the heart of almost any one.
Even the smaller ones look dangerous, and this one, which was about
five feet long, looked capable of attacking a man and injuring him. As
a matter of fact the iguanas are harmless, their shape and coloring
being designed to protect them.

"Don't be afraid, Mr. Damon," called Tom, still laughing. "It won't
hurt you!"

"I'm not so positive of that. It won't let me pass."

"Just take your club and poke it out of the way," the young inventor
advised. "It's only waiting to be shoved."

"Then you do it, Tom. Bless my looking glass, but I don't want to go
near it! If my wife could see me now she'd say it served me just right."

Mr. Damon was not a coward, but the giant iguana was not pleasant to
look at. Tom, with the butt of his rifle, gave it a gentle shove,
whereupon the creature scurried off through the brush as though glad to
make its escape unscathed.

"I thought it was a new kind of alligator," said Mr. Damon with a sigh
of relief.

"Where is it?" asked Professor Bumper, coming up at this juncture. "A
new species of alligator? Let me see it!"

"It's too horrible," said Mr. Damon. "I never want to see one agai