To her, then, Lieutenant Erich Obergatz
presented no different problem than did ja, the lion, other than
that she considered the former the more dangerous animal. And so
she determined that should he ignore her warning there would be
no temporizing upon the occasion of their next meeting--the same
swift spear that would meet ja's advances would meet his.
That night her snug little nest perched high in the great tree
seemed less the sanctuary that it had before. What might resist the
sanguinary intentions of a prowling panther would prove no great
barrier to man, and influenced by this thought she slept less well
than before. The slightest noise that broke the monotonous hum of the
nocturnal jungle startled her into alert wakefulness to lie with
straining ears in an attempt to classify the origin of the disturbance,
and once she was awakened thus by a sound that seemed to come from
something moving in her own tree. She listened intently--scarce
breathing. Yes, there it was again. A scuffing of something soft
against the hard bark of the tree. The woman reached out in the
darkness and grasped her spear. Now she felt a slight sagging of
one of the limbs that supported her shelter as though the thing,
whatever it was, was slowly raising its weight to the branch. It
came nearer. Now she thought that she could detect its breathing.
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