so amusingly eccentric, that, for
the first time since a very long period, he burst into a peal of hearty
laughter. Morok, pale with rage, rushed towards him with so menacing an
air, that Goliath was obliged to interpose.

"Come, come," said Jacques, "don't be angry; if it is serious, I will
not laugh any more."

Morok was appeased, and said to Sleepinbuff in a hoarse voice: "Do you
think me a coward?"

"No, by heaven!"

"Well! And yet this Englishman, with his grotesque face, frightens me
more than any tiger or my panther!"

"You say so, and I believe it," replied Jacques; "but I cannot
understand why the presence of this man should alarm you."

"But consider, you dull knave!" cried Morok, "that, obliged to watch
incessantly the least movement of the ferocious beast, whom I keep in
subjection by my action and my looks, there is something terrible in
knowing that two eyes are there--always there--fixed--waiting till
the least absence of mind shall expose me to be torn in pieces by the
animals."

"Now, I understand," said Jacques, shuddering in his turn. "It is
terrible."

"Yes; for once there, though I may not see this cursed Englishman, I
fancy I have his two round eyes, fixed and wide open, always before me.
My tiger Cain once nearly mutilated my arm, when my attention was drawn
away by this Englishman, whom the devil take! Blood and thunder!" cried
Morok: "this man will be fatal to me." And Morok paced the room in great
agitation.

"Besides, Death lays her ears close to her skull," said Goliath,
brutally. "If you persist--mind, I tell you--the Englishman will win his
wager this evening."

"Go away, you brute!--don't vex my head with your confounded
predictions," cried Morok: "go and prepare Death's collar."

"Well, every one to his taste; you wish the panther to taste you," said
the giant, stalking heavily away, after this joke.

"But if you feel these fears," said Jacques, "why do you not say that
the panther is ill?"

Morok shrugged his shoulders, and replied with a sort of feverish
ferocity, "Have you ever heard of the fierce pleasure of the gamester,
who stakes his honor, his life, upon a card? Well! I too--in these daily
exhibitions where my life is at stake--find a wild, fierce pleasure in
braving death, before a crowded assembly, shuddering and terrified at my
audacity. Yes, even in the fear with which this Englishman inspires me,
I find, in spite of myself, a terrible excitement, which I abh