above their heads and came down upon them, crushing the two
together. They had not time for outcry; but it was clear that some
sound caught the leader's ears, for he glanced back over his shoulder.
He was near enough now for the keen-eyed watchers in the tree to see
his face change with horror. He ran on without a pause, but now with
fresh speed, as if the sight had shocked him into new vigor. Seeing
that there was, after all, a good prospect of his reaching the tree in
time, Grom swung down to be ready to help him up. As he did so he saw
the two lions approach the hiding-place of the monster.

The vast, clawed hand still lay there on the two crushed bodies in the
middle of the trail. The lions saw it, and they checked themselves at
a safe distance. They knew that just behind the grass-screen lurked
another such shaggy and monstrous member, waiting to rend them as they
would rend an antelope. They shrank, and drew back, snarling angrily.
It is possible they feared lest the screen on either side of the trail
might conceal more than one of the monsters; for they sprang far aside
as if to make a wide circuit of the perilous spot.

"There's plenty of time!" muttered Grom, and dropped upon his feet in
the middle of the trail. The girl came in mad haste after him, but at
his sharp command "Stay there!" she contented herself with slipping
out upon the lowest branch, just over his head, and holding her spear
ready.

"Kill him!" she cried. But Grom seemed not to hear.

Staggering, and half blind with exhaustion Mawg was within twenty
paces before he noticed who was confronting him. Then his dull eyes
blazed. With a snarl of fury he hurled his club straight at Grom's
face, missing him only by a hand's-breadth. But the effort, and the
disappointment at finding himself thus balked, as he imagined, on the
very threshold of escape, seemed to finish him. He stumbled on with
groping hands outstretched, and fell just at Grom's feet.

Grom hesitated, wondering how he could get this inert weight up into
the tree. The girl did not understand his hesitation.

"Kill him!" she hissed, leaning down eagerly from her branch
overhead.

"No, he's a great warrior, and the tribe needs him," answered Grom,
stooping to shake the prostrate form.

Mawg stirred, beginning to recover. Grom shook him again.

"Up into the tree, quick!" he ordered in a loud, sharp voice. "The
lions are coming."

Mawg roused himself, sat up, and stared with a look