16 THE LION KILLER. 



from the path to the lioness, as though he wished her 

 to keep silence, and from the lioness to the path, as 

 though to say, " Let him come, the vagabond, he'll find his 

 match." 



In about an hour a large lion as black as a wild boar 

 stepped out of the forest and stood in the full moonlight on 

 the other side of the clearing. The lioness raised herself to 

 go to him, but the lion divining her intent, rushed before her 

 and marched right at his adversary. With measured step 

 and slow they approached to within a dozen paces of each 

 other. Their great heads high in air, their tails slowly 

 sweeping down the grass that grew around them. They 

 crouched to the earth — a moment's pause — and then they 

 bounded with a roar high in air and rolled on the ground, 

 locked in their last embrace. 



The battle was long and fearful to the involuntary witness 

 of this midnight duel. The bones of the two combatants 

 cracked under their powerful jaws, their talons strewed the 

 grass with entrails, and painted it red with blood, and their 

 roarings, now guttural, now sharp and loud, told their rage 

 and agony. 



At the beginning of the contest, the lioness crouched her- 

 self on her belly, with her eyes fixed upon the gladiators, and 

 all the while the battle raged, manifested by the slow cat- 

 like motion of her tail, the pleasure she felt at the spectacle. 

 When the scene closed, and all was quiet and silent in the 

 moonlight glade, she cautiously approached the battle-ground, 

 and snuffling the dead bodies of her two lovers, walked 

 leisurely away, without deigning to answer the gross, but 



