He had never seen a lion--his mother had gone to great pains to
prevent it. But he had devoured countless pictures of them, and now
he was ravenous to feast his eyes upon the king of beasts in the
flesh. As he trailed Akut he kept an eye cocked over one shoulder,
rearward, in the hope that Numa might rise from his kill and reveal
himself. Thus it happened that he dropped some little way behind
Akut, and the next he knew he was recalled suddenly to a contemplation
of other matters than the hidden Numa by a shrill scream of warning
from the Ape. Turning his eyes quickly in the direction of his
companion, the boy saw that, standing in the path directly before
him, which sent tremors of excitement racing along every nerve of
his body. With body half-merging from a clump of bushes in which
she must have lain hidden stood a sleek and beautiful lioness.
Her yellow-green eyes were round and staring, boring straight into
the eyes of the boy. Not ten paces separated them. Twenty paces
behind the lioness stood the great ape, bellowing instructions to
the boy and hurling taunts at the lioness in an evident effort to
attract her attention from the lad while he gained the shelter of
a near-by tree.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112