t, and in a moment
was down the stair and gone. I followed her to the bottom, and looked
all up and down the street. Not seeing her, I went back to my hard
couch.

There were, then, two evil creatures prowling about the city, one with,
and one without spots! I was not inclined to risk much for man or woman
in Bulika, but the life of a child might well be worth such a poor
one as mine, and I resolved to keep watch at that door the rest of the
night.

Presently I heard the latch move, slow, slow: I looked up, and seeing
the door half-open, rose and slid softly in. Behind it stood, not the
woman I had befriended, but the muffled woman of the desert. Without a
word she led me a few steps to an empty stone-paved chamber, and pointed
to a rug on the floor. I wrapped myself in it, and once more lay down.
She shut the door of the room, and I heard the outer door open and close
again. There was no light save what came from the moonlit air.

As I lay sleepless, I began to hear a stifled moaning. It went on for
a good while, and then came the cry of a child, followed by a terrible
shriek. I sprang up and darted into the passage: from another door in it
came the white leopardess with a new-born baby in her mouth, carrying
it like a cub of her own. I threw myself upon her, and compelled her to
drop the infant, which fell on the stone slabs with a piteous wail.

At the cry appeared the muffled woman. She stepped over us, the beast
and myself, where we lay struggling in the narrow passage, took up the
child, and carried it away. Returning, she lifted me off the animal,
opened the door, and pushed me gently out. At my heels followed the
leopardess.

"She too has failed me!" thought I; "--given me up to the beast to be
settled with at her leisure! But we shall have a tussle for it!"

I ran down the stair, fearing she would spring on my back, but she
followed me quietly. At the foot I turned to lay hold of her, but
she sprang over my head; and when again I turned to face her, she was
crouching at my feet! I stooped and stroked her lovely white skin;
she responded by licking my bare feet with her hard dry tongue. Then I
patted and fondled her, a well of tenderness overflowing in my heart:
she might be treacherous too, but if I turned from every show of love
lest it should be feigned, how was I ever to find the real love which
must be somewhere in every world?

I stood up; she rose, and stood beside me.

A bulky object fell with