rror, a crunching of bones and a
tearing of flesh; and, as her imagination conjured up before her
Michel fighting, in hideous agony, against the bites of the dogs, she
shuddered; she was afraid, and again a stifled cry burst forth from her
lips. A sort of insanity took possession of her. She tried to cry out
for mercy as if the animals could hear her; she sought the door of her
chamber, groping along the wall with her hands outspread before her,
in order to descend the staircase and rush out into the garden; but her
limbs gave way beneath her, and she sank an inert mass upon the carpet
in an agony of fear and horror.

"My God! My God! It is a man they are devouring;" and her voice died
away in a smothered call for help.

Then she suddenly raised her head, as if moved by an electric shock.

There was no more noise! Nothing! The black night had all at once
returned to its great, mysterious silence. Marsa experienced a sensation
of seeing a pall stretched over a dead body. And in the darkness there
seemed to float large spots of blood.

"Ah! the unhappy man!" she faltered.

Then, again, the voices of the dogs broke forth, rapid, angry, still
frightfully threatening. The animals appeared now to be running, and
their bayings became more and more distant.

What had happened?

One would have said that they were dragging away their prey, tearing it
with hideous crimson fangs.

CHAPTER XVII. MARSA'S GUARDIANS.

Was Michel Menko indeed dead? We left him just as he was turning the key
in the little gate in the wall. He walked in boldly, and followed a
path leading to an open space where was the pavilion he had spoken of
to Marsa. He looked to see whether the windows of the pavilion were
lighted, or whether there were a line of light under the door. No: the
delicate tracery of the pagoda-like structure showed dimly against the
sky; but there was no sign of life. Perhaps, however, Marsa was there in
the darkness.

He would glide under the window and call. Then, hearing him and
frightened at so much audacity, she would descend.

He advanced a few steps toward the pavilion; but, all at once, in the
part of the garden which seemed lightest, upon the broad gravel walk, he
perceived odd, creeping shadows, which the moon, emerging from a cloud,
showed to be dogs, enormous dogs, with their ears erect, which, with
abound and a low, deep growl, made a dash toward him with outspread
limbs--a dash terrible as the leap of a