Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-01-02

and on the collar was a massive chain
which led T the wall, where it could be
played out or hauled in by means of a
windlass in one of the hidden galleries.
So that at ordinary moments the two
huge beasts could be tcthered, one
close to either end of the circus as the
litter of bones and other messes
showed, leaving free passageway be
tween the two sets of doors.
The windlass clanked, and the teth-
ering chains drew the great beasts
clear of the doorway; and "A valve Of
the farther door swung aiar. and
a pris was thrust struggling into
when ! saw that this was a woman,
but still, in view of the object had
in hand, l made no interruption.
1t was not that l had never seen
women sent to death before. A gen
eral, who has uone his fighting must
in his day have killed women equally
with men; yes, and seen them earn
their death-blow by lusty battling
Yet there seemed something so wan
ton in this cruel, helpless sacrifice of
a woman prisoner, that | had a strug-
gle with myself to avoid interference
Still il is ever the case that the in
dividual must be sacrificed to poll
cy, and SO, as | say, | watched on,
outwardly cold and impas sive.
| watched too q confess it freely
with u quickening heart. Here was
no sullen. submissive victim. She
may have been cowardly las some
women are), she may have been brave
las many women have shown them
selves); but, at any rate, it was clear
that she was going to make a strug
gle for her life, and to do vicious
damage, il might be, before she yield
ed it up. The watchers behind the
arrow-slts recognized this. Their
wagers, and the hum of their appre-
citation, swept loudly round the ring
of the circus.
They stripped their prisoners, be-
fore they thrust them out TO this
death, of all the clothes they might
carry, for clothes have a value; and
so the woman stood there bare
limbed in the moonlight.
She clapped her back to the great
stone door by which she had entered,
and faced fate with glowing eye
Gods. there have been times in early
years when l could have plucked out
sword and jumped down, and fought
for her there for the sheer delight
- |, :, d.
strained me. The individual might
want helping hand, but it was be-
coming more and more clear that
Atlantis wanted minis ter also: and
before these great needs, the lesser
ones perforce must perish. Still, be
It noted that, if / did not jump down,
90 other man there that night had
sufficient manhood remaining to VEN
ture the opportunity
My heart glowed as I watched her.
She picked a bone from the hitter on
the pavement and beat off its head
by blows against the wall. Then with
her teeth she fashioned the point to
still further sharpness. | could see
her teeth glisten white in.the moon
rays as she bit with them.
The huge cave-tigcrs, which stood
as high as her head as they walked,
came nearer to her in their prowlings,
yet obviously neglected her. This
was part of their accustomed scheme
of torment, and the woman knew it
well There was something intoler-
a1, hi, ,~,e
dings over the pavement. | could see
the prisoners breasts heave as she
watched them. A terror such as that
would have made many "A victim sick
md helpless.
But this one was bolder than had
thought. She did not wait for a
spring; she made the first attack
herself. When the she-tiger made its
stroll towards her, and was in the
act of turning, she flung herself into
sudden leap, striking viciously at
its eye with her sharpened bone. A
roar from the onlookers acknowl-
edged the stroke. The cave-tiger's
eye remained undarkened, but the
puny weapon had dealt ii smart
flesh wound. and with great bel
low of surprise and pain it scampered
away TO gain space for rush and
spring.
But the woman did not await its
charge. With shrill scream she
sped forward, running at the full Of
her speed across the moonlight d.
rectly towards that Swallowed part
of the encircling wall within whose
thickness ] had my gazing place; and
then, throwing every tendon of her
body into the spring, made the great
est leap that surely any human being
ever accomplished, even when spurred
on by the utmost of terror and des-
pcration. In an after day / meas
ured it, and though of certainty
she must have added much to the
tally by the sheer force of her run,
which drove her clinging up the
rough surface OF the wall, it is a sure
thing that in that splendid leap her
feet must have dangled man-height
and half above the pavement
] say it was prodigious, but then
the spur was more than the ordinary,
and the woman herself was far out
of the common both in thews and
intelligence; and the end Of the leap
left her with five fingers lodged in
the sill Of the arrow-slit from which
watched. Even then she must have