her by
this avenue.

Little did John Clayton imagine when he fashioned that crude but mighty
portal that one day, twenty years later, it would shield a fair
American girl, then unborn, from the teeth and talons of a man-eater.

For fully twenty minutes the brute alternately sniffed and tore at the
door, occasionally giving voice to a wild, savage cry of baffled rage.
At length, however, she gave up the attempt, and Jane heard her
returning toward the window, beneath which she paused for an instant,
and then launched her great weight against the timeworn lattice.

The girl heard the wooden rods groan beneath the impact; but they held,
and the huge body dropped back to the ground below.

Again and again the lioness repeated these tactics, until finally the
horrified prisoner within saw a portion of the lattice give way, and in
an instant one great paw and the head of the animal were thrust within
the room.

Slowly the powerful neck and shoulders spread the bars apart, and the
lithe body protruded farther and farther into the room.

As in a trance, the girl rose, her hand upon her breast, wide eyes
staring horror-stricken into the snarling face of the beast scarce ten
feet from her. At her feet lay the prostrate form of the Negress. If
she could but arouse her, their combined efforts might possibly avail
to beat back the fierce and bloodthirsty intruder.

Jane stooped to grasp the black woman by the shoulder. Roughly she
shook her.

"Esmeralda! Esmeralda!" she cried. "Help me, or we are lost."

Esmeralda opened her eyes. The first object they encountered was the
dripping fangs of the hungry lioness.

With a horrified scream the poor woman rose to her hands and knees, and
in this position scurried across the room, shrieking: "O Gaberelle! O
Gaberelle!" at the top of her lungs.

Esmeralda weighed some two hundred and eighty pounds, and her extreme
haste, added to her extreme corpulency, produced a most amazing result
when Esmeralda elected to travel on all fours.

For a moment the lioness remained quiet with intense gaze directed upon
the flitting Esmeralda, whose goal appeared to be the cupboard, into
which she attempted to propel her huge bulk; but as the shelves were
but nine or ten inches apart, she only succeeded in getting her head
in; whereupon, with a final screech, which paled the jungle noises into
insignificance, she fainted once again.

With the subsidence of Esmeralda the lioness renewed h