e. Ten paces from
him, standing at the inner edge of that circle of astounded and
petrified men, was the Girl! At first he thought she was standing naked
there--naked under the staring eyes of the fiends about him. Her white
arms gleamed bare, her shoulders and breast were bare, her slim, satiny
body was naked to the waist, about which she had drawn tightly--as if in
a wild panic of haste--an old and ragged skirt! It was the Indian
woman's skirt. He caught the glitter of beads on it, and for a moment he
stared with the others, unable to move or cry out her name. And then a
breath of wind flung back her hair and he saw her face the colour of
marble. She was like a piece of glistening statuary, without a quiver of
life that his eyes could see, without a movement, without a breath. Only
her hair moved, stirred by the air, flooded by the sun, floating about
her shoulders and down her bare back in a lucent cloud of red and gold
fires--and out of this she was staring at the cage, stunned into that
lifeless and unbreathing posture of horror by what she saw. David did
not follow her eyes. He heard the growl and roar and clashing jaws of
the fighting beasts; they were down again; one of the 6-inch trees that
formed the bars of the cage snapped like a walking stick as their great
bodies lurched against it; the earth shook, the very air seemed to
tremble with the terrific force of the struggle--and only the Girl was
looking at that struggle. Every eye was on her now, and David sprang
suddenly forth from the circle of men, calling her name.

Ten paces separated them; half that distance lay between the Girl and
the cage. With the swiftness of an arrow sprung from the bow she had
leaped into life and crossed that space. In a tenth part of a second
David would have been at her side. He was that tenth of a second too
late. A gleaming shaft, she had passed between the bars and a tumult of
horrified voices rose above the roar of battle as the girl sprang at the
beasts with her naked hands.

Her voice came to David in a scream.

"Tara--Tara--Tara----"

His brain reeled when he saw her down--down!--with her little fists
pummelling at a great, shaggy head; and in him there was the sickening
weakness of a drunken man as he squeezed through that 18-inch aperture
and almost fell at her side. He did not know that he had drawn his
automatic; he scarcely realized that as fast as his fingers could press
the trigger he was firing shot after sho