No, Senor; we can eat it when there is nothing else to be had, but it
is not good.'

'I am rather glad the other got away,' Hubert said. 'It seems cruel to
kill them merely for the sake of the feathers.'

'Yes, Hubert; but the feathers are really worth money,' Mr. Hardy said.
'I should be the last person to countenance the killing of anything
merely for the sake of killing; but one kills an ostrich as one would an
animal with valuable fur. But what is that?'

As he spoke the dogs halted in front of a patch of bush, barking
loudly. The retrievers and the native dogs kept at a prudent distance,
making the most furious uproar; but the mastiffs approached slowly, with
their coats bristling up, and evidently prepared for a contest with a
formidable antagonist. 'It must be a lion!' Lopez exclaimed. 'Get ready
your revolvers, or he may injure the dogs.'

The warning came too late. In another instant an animal leaped from the
thicket, alighting immediately in front of Prince and Flora. It was as
nearly as possible the same colour as the mastiffs, and perhaps hardly
stood so high; but he was a much heavier animal, and longer in the back.
The dogs sprang upon it. Prince, who was first, received a blow with its
paw, which struck him down; but Flora had caught hold. Prince in an
instant joined her, and the three were immediately rolling over and over
on the ground in a confused mass. Mr. Hardy and Lopez at once leapt from
their horses and rushed to the spot; and the former, seizing his
opportunity, placed his pistol close to the lion's ear, and terminated
the contest in an instant. The animal killed was a puma, called in South
America a lion; which animal, however, he resembles more in his colour
than in other respects. He has no mane, and is much inferior in power to
the African lion. They seldom attack men; but if assailed, are very
formidable antagonists. The present one was, Lopez asserted, a
remarkably large one.

Mr. Hardy's first care was to examine the dogs. Prince's shoulder was
laid open by the stroke of the claws, and both dogs had numerous
scratches. Flora had fortunately seized him by the neck, and he had thus
been unable to use his teeth.

Mr. Hardy determined to return home at once, in order to dress Prince's
shoulder; and leaving Lopez to skin the puma, the rest took their way
back. When they arrived the wounds of the dogs were carefully washed,
and a wet bandage was fastened with some difficulty upon Prince's