106 My Friend the Elephant 



a diminutive flag which the absconding nurse had 

 evidently given him. He seemed as helpless as a 

 bird under the influence of the charmed eyes of the 

 serpent. It was a supreme moment. Slowly and 

 stealthily, the lion crept on. His crimson tongue, 

 escaping from behind the white teeth, licked his red 

 lips as if in anticipation of his dreadful feast. His 

 claws were unsheathed, and he appeared the embodi- 

 ment of all that is rapacious, cruel, horrible. 



I confess that I was as incapable of action as a 

 child. The situation had come so suddenly, so ter- 

 ribly, I could not collect my faculties ; and yet I 

 realized that in another instant a tragedy, too horrible 

 for description, would be enacted. But just at that 

 moment, something, I hardly realized what, shot out 

 above my head with marvellous quickness and force, 

 and the next instant the lion was rolling upon the 

 ground and roaring with rage and pain. In a second 

 more, I saw the same lithe weapon that had struck 

 the powerful blow wind, with the gentleness of a 

 woman's caress, about the body of the child, and in 

 another instant the little fellow was lifted swiftly, yet 

 carefully, and deposited safely upon the broad back 



