turned towards the baboons ; with wide-opened mouth 

 he snarled savagely at the advancing line, and with 

 right paw raised made threatening dabs in their 

 direction. His left paw pinned down the body of a 

 baboon. 



The voices from the mountain boomed louder and 

 nearer as, clattering and scrambling down the face, 

 came more and more baboons : there must have been 

 hundreds of them ; the semicircle grew thicker and 

 blacker, more and more threatening, foot by foot 

 closer. The tiger raised himself a little more and 

 took swift looks from side to side across the advancing 

 front, and then his nerve went, and with one spring 

 he shot from the rock into the bush. 



There was an instant forward rush of the half-moon, 

 and the rock was covered with roaring baboons, 

 swarming over their rescued comrade ; and a moment 

 later the crowd scrambled up the slope again, taking 

 the tiger's victim with them. In that seething rabble 

 I could pick out nothing, but all the kaffirs maintained 

 they could see the mauled one dragged along by its 

 arms by two others, much as a child might be helped 

 uphill. 



We were still looking excitedly about trying to 

 make out what the baboons were doing, watching the 

 others still coming down the Berg, and peering 

 anxiously for a sight of the tiger when once more 

 Jim's voice gave us a shock. 



" Where are the dogs ? " he asked ; and the ques- 

 tion turned us cold. If they had gone after the baboons 

 they were as good as dead already nothing could save 



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