CHAPTER XXIV. THE WHITE LEOPARDESS

At the foot of the stair lay the moonlit street, and I could hear the

unwholesome, inhospitable wind blowing about below. But not a breath of

it entered my retreat, and I was composing myself to rest, when suddenly

my eyes opened, and there was the head of the shining creature I had

seen following the Shadow, just rising above the uppermost step! The

moment she caught sight of my eyes, she stopped and began to retire,

tail foremost. I sprang up; whereupon, having no room to turn, she threw

herself backward, head over tail, scrambled to her feet, and in a moment

was down the stair and gone. I followed her to the bottom, and looked

all up and down the street. Not seeing her, I went back to my hard

couch.

There were, then, two evil creatures prowling about the city, one with,

and one without spots! I was not inclined to risk much for man or woman

in Bulika, but the life of a child might well be worth such a poor

one as mine, and I resolved to keep watch at that door the rest of the

night.

Presently I heard the latch move, slow, slow: I looked up, and seeing

the door half-open, rose and slid softly in. Behind it stood, not the

woman I had befriended, but the muffled woman of the desert. Without a

word she led me a few steps to an empty stone-paved chamber, and pointed

to a rug on the floor. I wrapped myself in it, and once more lay down.

She shut the door of the room, and I heard the outer door open and close

again. There was no light save what came from the moonlit air.

As I lay sleepless, I began to hear a stifled moaning. It went on for

a good while, and then came the cry of a child, followed by a terrible

shriek. I sprang up and darted into the passage: from another door in it

came the white leopardess with a new-born baby in her mouth, carrying

it like a cub of her own. I threw myself upon her, and compelled her to

drop the infant, which fell on the stone slabs with a piteous wail.

At the cry appeared the muffled woman. She stepped over us, the beast

and myself, where we lay struggling in the narrow passage, took up the

child, and carried it away. Returning, she lifted me off the animal,

opened the door, and pushed me gently out. At my heels followed the

leopardess.

“She too has failed me!” thought I; “--given me up to the beast to be

settled with at her leisure! But we shall have a tussle for it!”

I ran down the stair, fearing she would spring on my back, but she

followed me quietly. At the foot I turned to lay hold of her, but

she sprang over my head; and when again I turned to face her, she was

crouching at my feet! I stooped and stroked her lovely white skin;

she responded by licking my bare feet with her hard dry tongue. Then I

patted and fondled her, a well of tenderness overflowing in my heart:

she might be treacherous too, but if I turned from every show of love

lest it should be feigned, how was I ever to find the real love which

must be somewhere in every world?

I stood up; she rose, and stood beside me.

A bulky object fell with a heavy squelch in the middle of the street, a

few yards from us. I ran to it, and found a pulpy mass, with just form

enough left to show it the body of a woman. It must have been thrown

from some neighbouring window! I looked around me: the Shadow was

walking along the other side of the way, with the white leopardess again

at his heel!

I followed and gained upon them, urging in my heart for the leopardess

that probably she was not a free agent. When I got near them, however,

she turned and flew at me with such a hideous snarl, that instinctively

I drew back: instantly she resumed her place behind the Shadow. Again

I drew near; again she flew at me, her eyes flaming like live emeralds.

Once more I made the experiment: she snapped at me like a dog, and

bit me. My heart gave way, and I uttered a cry; whereupon the creature

looked round with a glance that plainly meant--“Why WOULD you make me do

it?”

I turned away angry with myself: I had been losing my time ever since

I entered the place! night as it was I would go straight to the palace!

From the square I had seen it--high above the heart of the city,

compassed with many defences, more a fortress than a palace!

But I found its fortifications, like those of the city, much neglected,

and partly ruinous. For centuries, clearly, they had been of no account!

It had great and strong gates, with something like a drawbridge to them

over a rocky chasm; but they stood open, and it was hard to believe that

water had ever occupied the hollow before them. All was so still that

sleep seemed to interpenetrate the structure, causing the very moonlight

to look discordantly awake. I must either enter like a thief, or break a

silence that rendered frightful the mere thought of a sound!

Like an outcast dog I was walking about the walls, when I came to a

little recess with a stone bench: I took refuge in it from the wind, lay

down, and in spite of the cold fell fast asleep.

I was wakened by something leaping upon me, and licking my face with

the rough tongue of a feline animal. “It is the white leopardess!” I

thought. “She is come to suck my blood!--and why should she not have

it?--it would cost me more to defend than to yield it!” So I lay still,

expecting a shoot of pain. But the pang did not arrive; a pleasant

warmth instead began to diffuse itself through me. Stretched at my back,

she lay as close to me as she could lie, the heat of her body slowly

penetrating mine, and her breath, which had nothing of the wild beast in

it, swathing my head and face in a genial atmosphere. A full conviction

that her intention toward me was good, gained possession of me. I

turned like a sleepy boy, threw my arm over her, and sank into profound

unconsciousness.

When I began to come to myself, I fancied I lay warm and soft in my own

bed. “Is it possible I am at home?” I thought. The well-known scents of

the garden seemed to come crowding in. I rubbed my eyes, and looked out:

I lay on a bare stone, in the heart of a hateful city!

I sprang from the bench. Had I indeed had a leopardess for my bedfellow,

or had I but dreamed it? She had but just left me, for the warmth of her

body was with me yet!

I left the recess with a new hope, as strong as it was shapeless. One

thing only was clear to me: I must find the princess! Surely I had some

power with her, if not over her! Had I not saved her life, and had she

not prolonged it at the expense of my vitality? The reflection gave me

courage to encounter her, be she what she might.