to camp in short order, and, quoting Jones,
"without turning a hair." We saw the Navajo's head protruding from a
tree. Emett yelled for him, and Jones and Jim "hahaed" derisively;
whereupon the black head vanished and did not reappear. Then they
unhooked one of the panniers and dumped out the lioness. Jones
fastened her chain to a small pine tree, and as she lay powerless he
pulled out the stick back of her canines. This allowed the wire muzzle
to fall off. She signalled this freedom with a roar that showed her
health to be still unimpaired. The last action in releasing her from
her painful bonds Jones performed with sleight-of-hand dexterity. He
slipped the loop fastening one paw, which loosened the rope, and in a
twinkling let her work all of her other paws free. Up she sprang, ears
flat, eyes ablaze, mouth wide, once more capable of defense, true to
her instinct and her name.

Before the men lowered Tom from Marc's back I stepped closer and put
my face within six inches of the lion's. He promptly spat on me. I had
to steel my nerve to keep so close. But I wanted to see a wild lion's
eyes at close range. They were exquisitely beautiful, their physical
properties as wonderful as their expression. Great half globes of
tawny amber, streaked with delicate wavy lines of black, surrounding
pupils of intense purple fire. Pictures shone and faded in the amber
light--the shaggy tipped plateau, the dark pines and smoky canyons,
the great dotted downward slopes, the yellow cliffs and crags. Deep in
those live pupils, changing, quickening with a thousand vibrations,
quivered the soul of this savage beast, the wildest of all wild
Nature, unquenchable love of life and freedom, flame of defiance and
hate.

Jones disposed of Tom in the same manner as he had the lioness,
chaining him to an adjoining small pine, where he leaped and wrestled.

Presently I saw Emett coming through the woods leading and dragging
the Indian. I felt sorry for the Navvy, for I felt that his fear was
not so much physical as spiritual. And it seemed no wonder to me that
the Navvy should hang back from this sacrilegious treatment of his
god. A natural wisdom, which I had in common with all human beings who
consider self preservation the first law of life, deterred me from
acquainting my august companions with my belief. At least I did not
want to break up the camp.

In the remorseless grasp of Emett, forced along, the Navajo dragged
his feet and held his