e had been, one short day's time in the hot,
steaming jungle atmosphere sufficed to cause the flesh to decay. Suma
had ideas of her own about spending the days away from her proper
rendezvous; and as for carrion, she never failed to give it a wide
berth.

As to her hunting instincts, there were several reasons why a region
should be shunned after one of its denizens had been slain. A nightly
raid in the same place might cause the creatures living in it either to
become so wary that soon it would be impossible to secure any of them at
all; or, they would be exterminated which was even worse. No! Suma
obeyed well the impulse that guided her actions. By visiting a new
district on each quest of food the game was not too greatly disturbed
and its numbers or existence was not imperilled.

Nor was this instinct confined to the Jaguar alone. The other
flesh-eating animals also heeded it. And the wild tribes that inhabited
the wilderness knew from bitter experience that it was best to conserve
their food supply and that to waste today was to want tomorrow. It was
only when men who professed some degree of civilization appeared on the
scene that the wild things found existence impossible; and the more
advanced the men the greater the slaughter. They showed an insatiable
lust for killing--under one pretext or another; but always they killed,
with guns and rifles and--from a safe distance.

On her second food-hunt since the arrival of Warruk, the cub, Suma
essayed to visit the margin of the swollen, raging river where the fat
capybaras lived in the dense cane brakes. The great creatures, like
hundred-pound guinea pigs, were rancid eating, it is true, but this was
in a measure counterbalanced by the fact that to capture them required
no excessive effort. Both by day and by night they were very much in
evidence gnawing tirelessly at the tough canes and when the stems were
finally severed they squatted complacently and munched the broad,
ribbon-like leaves. One wondered when, if ever, they slept; and why, in
the midst of such an abundance of food their appetites seemed never
satisfied. Upon the first sign of danger they stopped eating only long
enough to give vent to their resentment of the disturbance in a few
guttural grunts; but once the spectre of disaster was swooping down upon
them they made hurriedly for the water and dived with a loud splash.
They were good swimmers, with only the head showing above the surface
sending out