Betty's have beat the steady hearts of
martyrs.

When she saw Jim Kendric and Zoraida standing before her she stared
incredulously. She was in a daze. Her first wild thought, reflecting
itself unmistakably in her wide eyes, was that they had come to taunt
her, he and she side by side. Then her faltering gaze left Zoraida and
ignored her and went, full of earnest questioning, to Jim's face.
Suddenly, at what she saw there, the red blood of joyousness ran into
Betty's cheeks. At moments like this it is with few words or none at
all that perfect understanding comes. In a flash his look had told her
all that it would require many fumbling spoken words to repeat one-half
so eloquently.

The puma had sprung to its feet but stood its ground. The murderous
eyes were everywhere at once, on Betty, on Jim, on Zoraida, most of all
on Betty; the quivering nostrils widened and sniffed; the tawny throat
shook with a series of low growls. Jim's foot stirred; the cat's teeth
came together with a snap.

With little wish as Kendric had to create a disturbance just now, it
was beyond his power to withhold his hand as he saw Betty draw back
against the walls of her cage. In his pocket was Bruce's weapon.
Kendric jerked it out, and before Zoraida's cry could burst from her
lips and before her hand struck his arm, he drove a bullet into the
puma's skull between the hard evil eyes. The animal dropped in its
tracks, with never another whine.

As the puma went down, Zoraida winced as though in bodily pain, as
though it had been her flesh instead of her cat's that had known the
deep bite of hot lead. She looked from the twitching animal to Kendric
like one aghast, like one stupefied by what she had seen, who could not
altogether believe that an accomplished act had in reality taken place.
There was horror in her look; she recalled to him vividly though
fleetingly a South Sea island priest whom he had seen long ago when the
savage's idol had been overthrown and cast down into a mud puddle under
the palm trees. At that moment Zoraida might well have been sister to
the idolater of the South Seas or some ancient Egyptian priestess
stricken dumb at the sight of sacred cat violated.

But there was Betty. Jim jerked open the door of the cage. Betty
stumbled through and somehow found herself in his arms. They closed
tight about her. The two turned to Zoraida. She, white-faced and
silent, watched them with smoldering eyes. And into