t repress a grim smile at the ludicrousness
of being attacked by an ordinary house-cat, even though it was
tiger-sized to him. Though his victory over the weasel, a far deadlier
fighter, made him confident he could dispatch it, there was another
aspect to the approaching struggle. It would have to be fought in
silence. Not four feet away, Hagendorff slept. There lay the
overwhelming danger.

Even as these things flashed through his brain, the cat steadily
inched nearer on its padded paws. Ghostly starlight framed it now;
Garth could see the eager, quivering muscles, the long tail, flat
behind, twitching slightly, the rigid, unstirring head and the slowly
contracting paws. The terrible suspense of its stalking scraped his
nerves. There would be a long pause, then an almost imperceptible
hunching forward, with the tail ever twitching; then the same thing
again, and over again. It became unbearable. Garth deliberately
invited the attack.

He pretended to turn and run, his back towards it. At once he sensed
its tensing body, its bunching muscles--then knew that it had sprung.

Whirling, he had a fleeting impression of a supple body in midair, of
bristling claws and bared, needlepoint fangs. But he was ready. The
weasel had taught him his best weapon, the great weight of his body.
He streaked in beneath the wide-spread paws, shot his hands into the
fur of the throat and threw himself against the shock of the animal's
suddenly arrested leap.

There was no standing his weight. Over the cat went, its back thudding
into the floor, its claws held powerless by the hundred and eighty
pounds of hard flesh that straddled it.

* * * * *

The fall had made little noise; but, as Garth tightened the grip of
his fingers and bored inward, a dull, steady thumping began to sound.
It was the cat's tail, pounding on the floor!

Desperately he tried to hook a leg over it, but could not reach far
enough. It beat like a tom-tom. From above, there came the sound of a
huge frame stirring, and the rumble of a sleepy grunt.

In a moment, the titan would be thoroughly awake.

By the drumming tail alone, Garth realized, his chance of regaining
full size was sent glimmering. There was nothing but retreat, now, and
a hasty one, if he valued life. Another noise came from the waking
Hagendorff. He was sitting up, staring around. Garth jumped to his
feet, threw the cat's twitching body beneath the table, and dodged