the tree! Something seems
to utter those words in his ear as he springs from the open window. The
jaguar has entered the room as Archie, with a strength he never knew he
possessed, catches a lower limb and hoists himself up into the tree. He
hears yell after yell; now first in the ruin, next at the tree foot, and
then in the tree itself. Archie creeps higher and higher up, till the
branches can no longer bear him, and after him creeps death in the most
awful form imaginable. Already the brute is so close that he sees his
glaring eye and hears his awful scenting and snuffling. Archie is
fascinated by that tiger's face so near him--on the same limb of the tree,
he himself far out towards the point. This must be fascination. He feels
like one in a strange dream, for as the time goes by and the tiger springs
not, he takes to speculating almost calmly on his fate, and wondering
where the beast will seize him first, and if it will be very painful; if
he will hear his own bones crash, and so faint and forget everything. What
fangs the tiger has! How broad the head, and terribly fierce the grin! But
how the blood trickles from the wound in the skull! He can hear it
pattering on the dead leaves far beneath.

Why doesn't the tiger spring and have it over? Why does--but look, look,
the brute has let go the branch and fallen down, down with a crash, and
Archie hears the dull thud of the body on the ground.

Dead--to all intents and purposes. The good mule's hoof had cloven the
skull.

'Archie! Archie! where on earth are you? Oh, Archie!'

It is Dugald's voice. The last words are almost a shriek.

Then away goes fear from Archie's heart, and joy unspeakable takes its
place.

'Up here, Dugald,' he shouts, 'safe and sound.'

I leave the reader to guess whether Dugald was glad or not to see his
cousin drop intact from the ombu-tree, or whether or not they enjoyed
their pie and _mate_ that evening after this terrible adventure.

'I wonder,' said Archie, later on, and just as they were preparing for
hammock, 'I wonder, Dugald, if that tiger has a wife. I hope she won't
come prowling round after her dead lord in the middle of the night.'

'Well, anyhow, Archie, we'll have our rifles ready, and Dash will give us
ample warning, you know. So good-night.'

'Good-night. Don't be astonished if you hear me scream in my sleep. I feel
sure I'll dream I'm up in that dark ombu-tree, and perhaps in the clutches
of that fearsome tiger.'