glare of the flames, and she guessed from the quick,
nervous movements of the man that he was afraid.

The roaring of the lions rose in sudden fury until the earth trembled
to the hideous chorus. The horses shrilled their neighs of terror as
they lay back upon their halter ropes in their mad endeavors to break
loose. A trooper, braver than his fellows, leaped among the kicking,
plunging, fear-maddened beasts in a futile attempt to quiet them. A
lion, large, and fierce, and courageous, leaped almost to the boma,
full in the bright light from the fire. A sentry raised his piece and
fired, and the little leaden pellet unstoppered the vials of hell upon
the terror-stricken camp.

The shot ploughed a deep and painful furrow in the lion's side,
arousing all the bestial fury of the little brain; but abating not a
whit the power and vigor of the great body.

Unwounded, the boma and the flames might have turned him back; but now
the pain and the rage wiped caution from his mind, and with a loud, and
angry roar he topped the barrier with an easy leap and was among the
horses.

What had been pandemonium before became now an indescribable tumult of
hideous sound. The stricken horse upon which the lion leaped shrieked
out its terror and its agony. Several about it broke their tethers and
plunged madly about the camp. Men leaped from their blankets and with
guns ready ran toward the picket line, and then from the jungle beyond
the boma a dozen lions, emboldened by the example of their fellow
charged fearlessly upon the camp.

Singly and in twos and threes they leaped the boma, until the little
enclosure was filled with cursing men and screaming horses battling for
their lives with the green-eyed devils of the jungle.

With the charge of the first lion, Jane Clayton had scrambled to her
feet, and now she stood horror-struck at the scene of savage slaughter
that swirled and eddied about her. Once a bolting horse knocked her
down, and a moment later a lion, leaping in pursuit of another
terror-stricken animal, brushed her so closely that she was again
thrown from her feet.

Amidst the cracking of the rifles and the growls of the carnivora rose
the death screams of stricken men and horses as they were dragged down
by the blood-mad cats. The leaping carnivora and the plunging horses,
prevented any concerted action by the Abyssinians--it was every man for
himself--and in the melee, the defenseless woman was either forgotte