ly as possible, directly she was asleep, and seek another shelter
for the night.

The soldier waited with impatience the hour of his flight, and when
it had arrived he walked vigorously in the direction of the Nile; but
hardly had he made a quarter of a league in the sand when he heard the
panther bounding after him, crying with that saw-like cry more dreadful
even than the sound of her leaping.

"Ah!" he said, "then she's taken a fancy to me, she has never met anyone
before, and it is really quite flattering to have her first love." That
instant the man fell into one of those movable quicksands so terrible
to travelers and from which it is impossible to save oneself. Feeling
himself caught, he gave a shriek of alarm; the panther seized him with
her teeth by the collar, and, springing vigorously backwards, drew him
as if by magic out of the whirling sand.

"Ah, Mignonne!" cried the soldier, caressing her enthusiastically;
"we're bound together for life and death but no jokes, mind!" and he
retraced his steps.

From that time the desert seemed inhabited. It contained a being to
whom the man could talk, and whose ferocity was rendered gentle by him,
though he could not explain to himself the reason for their strange
friendship. Great as was the soldier's desire to stay upon guard, he
slept.

On awakening he could not find Mignonne; he mounted the hill, and in the
distance saw her springing toward him after the habit of these animals,
who cannot run on account of the extreme flexibility of the vertebral
column. Mignonne arrived, her jaws covered with blood; she received the
wonted caress of her companion, showing with much purring how happy it
made her. Her eyes, full of languor, turned still more gently than the
day before toward the Provencal, who talked to her as one would to a
tame animal.

"Ah! mademoiselle, you are a nice girl, aren't you? Just look at that!
So we like to be made much of, don't we? Aren't you ashamed of yourself?
So you have been eating some Arab or other, have you? That doesn't
matter. They're animals just the same as you are; but don't you take to
eating Frenchmen, or I shan't like you any longer."

She played like a dog with its master, letting herself be rolled over,
knocked about, and stroked, alternately; sometimes she herself would
provoke the soldier, putting up her paw with a soliciting gesture.

Some days passed in this manner. This companionship permitted the
Provencal to appreci