rage as he now walked on and around the
edge of that granite slab. At length he came opposite to where I lay
crouching on the farther edge of my column. He passed on without so much
as turning his eyes in my direction. And yet I felt, I felt and knew, as
distinctly as if he could have talked and told me, that he was carefully
measuring the distance.

When the lion, in his stately round, came to the narrow pass by which he
had ascended he paused an instant, and half lowered his head.

Ah, how devoutly I did pray that he would be generous enough to descend
to the sands and gracefully present us with his absence.

But no! Lifting his huge head even higher in the air than before, he now
passed on hurriedly, came on around to where in his stately majesty he
stood with quivering flank and flashing eye almost within reach of me.
Yet he still disdained to even so much as look at me. His head was far
above me as I crouched there on the farther edge of my column; his
flashing eyes were lifted and looking far above me and beyond me. Maybe
he was on the lookout over the desert for the coming of his companion.

Soon, however, he set his huge paws on the very edge of the great slab
on which he stood, and then suddenly threw his right paw out toward me
and against the edge of my column with the force and velocity of a
catapult!

I heard the sharp, keen claws strike and scrape on the granite as if
they had been hooks of steel.

Then he threw himself on his breast, and hitching himself a little to
one side, he threw his right paw so far that it landed full in the
center of my column's top and tore a bit of my coat sleeve. Then he
hitched his huge body a little farther on over the edge and again threw
his huge paw right at my face. It fell short of its mark only a few
inches, as it seemed to me. But, having hastily gathered in my garments,
his claws did not find anything to fasten on and they drew back empty.

At this point three dusky etchings stood out against the golden east on
the yellow sands, and looked intently at us with their enormous heads
high in the air. And now the beast slowly arose and moved on. A lion's
head seems always disproportionately large, but when he is exercising
for an appetite to eat you it looks large indeed.

The monster who was occupying the platform with us surely saw his
followers; indeed, he must have seen them long before; but his unbending
dignity seemed to forbid that he should take any heed of