The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1902-01-28

. SuuU0H leap, SIrIklng VlclOuSIy at
its eye with her sharpeDed bone. A
roar from the onlookers acknowl-
edged the stroke. The cave-tiger's
eye remained undarkened, but the
puny weapon had dealt it a smart
flesh wound, and with a great bel
low of surprise and pain it scampered
away to gain space for a rush and a
spring.
But the woman did not await it's
I charge. With a shrill scream she
sped forward, running at the full of
her speed across the moonlight di-
rectly towards that Swallowed part
| of the encircling wall within whose
thickness L 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
ION by the utmost of terror and des-
| peration. In an after dag I meas
ured it, . dough of a certainty
she re- added much to the
tally force of her run,
VIII clinging up the
rou the wall, IL is a sure
thin2 at splendid leap her
feet n, -. dangled a man-height
and hal .0ove the pavement.
I 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
| loft hor Nth lnIcroI -,
the sill of the arrow-slit from which
1 watched. Even then she must have
slipped back if she had been left to
herself, for the sill sloped, and the
stone was finely smooth; but I shot
out my hand and gripped hers by the
wrist, and instantly she clambered
up with both knees on the sill and
her fingers twined round to grip my
wrist in her turn.
And now you will suppose she
gushed out prayers and promises,
thinking only of safety and enlarge
ment. There was nothing of this.
With savage painting wordlessness she
took fresh grip on the sharpened
bone with her spare hand, and lunged
with it desperately through the ar
row-slit. With the hand that clutched
mine she drew me towards her, so as
to give the blows the surer chance,
and so unprepared was / for such
an attack, and with such fierce sud
denness did she deliver it, that the
first blow was near giving me my
quietus. But I grappled with the
poor frantic creature as gently as
might be-the stone of the wall
separating us always-and stripped
her of her weapon, and held her firm
ly captive till she might calm herself.
"That was an ungrateful blow" 1
said. "But for my hand you'd have
slipped and be the sport of a tigers
paw this minute"
"Oh, 1 must kill some one," she
painted, before I am killed myself.
"There will be time enough tQ
think upon that some other day; but
for now you are far enough off meet
ing further harm"
'You are lying to me. You will
throw me to the beasts as soon as
loose my grip. 1 know your kind;
you will not be robbed of your
sport"
81 will go so far as to prove myself
to you," said I, and called out for the
warder who had tended the doors be-
low. IBID those tigers be tethered
on a shorter chain," 1 ordered, land
then go yourself outside into the
circus and help this lady delicately
to the ground"
The word was passed and these
things were done, and 1 too came
out into the circus and joined the
woman, who stood waiting under the
moonlight. But the others who had
seen these doings were by no means
suited at the change of plan. One
of the great stone valves of the far
ther door opened hurriedly and a
man STROBE out, armed and flushed.
'sBy all the gods!" he shouted. "Who
comes between me and my pastime %
1 stepped quietly to the advance.
81 fear, sir" 1 said, "that you must
launch your anger against me. By
accident gave that woman sanctu-
airy, and 1 had not heart to toss her
back to your beasts"
His fingers began to snap against
his hilt.
"You have come to the wrong mar
ket here with your qualms. am cap
tain here, and my word carries, sub
iect only to Phorenice's nod. Do you
hear that? Do you know too that
1 can have you tossed to those striped
Eate,keepers of mine for meddling in
here without an invitation?" He
looked at me sharp enough, but saw
plainly that 1 was a stranger. "But
perhaps you carry a name, my man,
\ which warrants your impertinence?''
"Deucalion is my poor NAME" l
said, "but 1 cannot expect you will
know It, am but newly landed here,
sir, and when 1 left Atlantis some
score of years back, a very different
man to you held guard over these
| gates" He had his forehead on my
feet by this time, Il had it from the
empress this night that she will to-
/ 81 HI