torted Selim in a passion; for he was getting
desperate at the prospect of another lease of such cruel bondage as he
had experienced. "I am not a dog, but you are a dog."

"Eyah, eyah! hear him! A slave insults Ferodia the chief!" cried the
obsequious Tifum. "Fool, do you know what you say?"

"Silence, pariah!" thundered Selim, more passionately. "I defy you!--I
spit on you! You are dirt. Do your worst, great chief--the Arab boy
will not bend to you!"

As the boy uttered these words, showing more spirit, and such anger, and
bitter contempt as none of the Watutu ever had witnessed before, both
Ferodia and Tifum were struck speechless for a moment; but Ferodia broke
the silence at last with fiery accents, saying:

"Tifum, dost thou hear me? Lay that stubborn ass down on his face and
cut his back for me with thy whip. Beat, beat, and spare not."

But Selim waited to hear no more. Ferodia had but begun his cruel order
when the latent Bedouin spirit of resistance electrified him. His arm
felt surcharged with the impulse to strike, and his hand, weighted with
hate, was shot full in the face of Tifum, who reeled as if he had been
struck with a knob-stick. Then with a light bound he sprang from the
circle, sending a mocking laugh into Ferodia's ears as he flew towards
the King's house, which had been pointed out to him on his first
arrival, shouting "Kalulu! Simba, to me! To me, Simba! Kalulu!"

He had reached the threshold of the King's house when he felt an arm on
his shoulder. He turned around; it was Tifum! Rage had given the man a
quickened sense and speed to his feet, even superior to the fear which
hurried the feet of Selim away. The strong hand crushed the weakened
frame of the youth to the ground for the execution of the cruel sentence
of Ferodia, and his brain was fast whirling with the terror which
possessed him, when he heard a shout--a roar of rage--behind him, and at
the same time the force with which he was being compelled to the ground
relaxed. Simba was seen bearing down upon the party with irresistible
power. He saw for an instant how the gigantic form of his friend and
protector dilated, as he had seen it in the battle of Kwikuru; he saw
the powerful muscular arms, with their wealth of sinew and muscle, and
the eyes glowing with the ferocity of a beast of prey: only an instant,
for Simba was before Tifum, face to face with the monster who had
striped the son of Amer, and there was no t