otionless
brilliancy the steadily sparkling gaze of the panther. Still crouching in
the shade, she felt already the fascination of that glance; two or three
times she dropped her eyelids, with a low, angry howl; then, reopening
her eyes, as if in spite of herself, she kept them fastened immovably on
those of the Prophet. And now her rounded ears clung to her skull, which
was flattened like a viper's; the skin of her forehead became
convulsively wrinkled; she drew in her bristling, but silky muzzle, and
twice silently opened her jaws, garnished with formidable fangs. From
that moment a kind of magnetic connection seemed to be established
between the man and the beast.

The Prophet extended his glowing bar towards the cage, and said, in a
sharp, imperious tone: "Death! come here."

The panther rose, but so dragged herself along that her belly and the
bend of her legs touched the ground. She was three feet high, and nearly
five in length; her elastic and fleshy spine, the sinews of her thighs as
well developed as those of a race-horse, her deep chest, her enormous
jutting shoulders, the nerve and muscle in her short, thick paws--all
announced that this terrible animal united vigor with suppleness, and
strength with agility.

Morok, with his iron wand still extended in the direction of the cage,
made a step towards the panther. The panther made a stride towards the
Prophet. Morok stopped; Death stopped also.

At this moment the tiger, Judas, to whom Morok's back was turned, bounded
violently in his cage, as if jealous of the attention, which his master
paid to the panther. He growled hoarsely, and, raising his head, showed
the under-part of his redoubtable triangular jaw, and his broad chest of
a dirty white, with which blended the copper color, streaked with black,
of his sides; his tail, like a huge red serpent, with rings of ebony, now
clung to his flanks, now lashed them with a slow and continuous movement:
his eyes, of a transparent, brilliant green, were fixed upon the Prophet.

Such was the influence of this man over his animals, that Judas almost
immediately ceased growling, as if frightened at his own temerity; but
his respiration continued loud and deep. Morok turned his face towards
him, and examined him very attentively during some seconds. The panther,
no longer subject to the influence of her master's look, slunk back to
crouch in the shade.

A sharp cracking, in sudden breaks, like that which great anim