dable feline cries
began to reach my ear distinctly. I could have sworn that all the
fiercest inhabitants of the forest had agreed to meet near me. Was this
conviction the effect of the terror which had taken possession of me or
was it a horrible fact?

Two burning orbs flashed through the night and an unearthly yell made my
poor body start once more, though stiffened as it was by horror.

A tiger was here, perhaps 50, perhaps 20 yards from me!

I feebly endeavoured again to hide my face; it would be preferable for
death to come upon me suddenly than to count the instants of its coming.

I backed myself closer under the rock, clinging to it with my left hand,
whose nerves, muscles and nails had turned into steel under the
supremacy of terror.

A few minutes of cruel, breathless suspense....

I felt dimly amazed at finding myself still alive: there were two tigers
and they were diabolically squalling out a love-duet. Who has not felt a
shiver run down his back when, snug in a warm bed, the mid-night
stillness has been broken by two amorous cats on the roof or in the
court that are putting their vocal powers and their hearer's patience to
the test? Imagine then to be frozen against a wet stone whilst a couple
of tigers express their sentiments of love in much the same language,
but in tones proportionate to their size!

In the fervour of their passion would they notice the dainty meal
prepared for them in my person?

Not far off the implacable _sladan_ was savagely bellowing. Was he too
bound for my place of martyrdom?

My slow torture, under the pale glimmer of the phosphorescent mushrooms
must have lasted for hours, but I no longer had the perception of time
or peril. Only the appalling fear of the flesh kept me grasping tightly
to the rock without making the slightest movement.

I did not know when the tigers went away or when the enormous multitude
of beasts of prey beat a retreat.

The first sensation I had of being alive was when the two heralds of the
morn, the _cep plot_ and the _cep rio_ announced with their musical
notes the dawn of another day.

Then I stirred. My limbs were benumbed by that long immobility, and with
the cold which was all the more intense from the rain first and the dew
afterwards, both of which had drenched me to the skin.

I was shaking with ague and, weak from my long fast and the frights I
had passed through, I scarcely knew how to get away from that spot where
I had endure