"No, Brother of the Gods," replied Vama, "there is more."
"And what is it? Hasten, I cannot spend the whole evening in idle audience over a slave."
"With a single spear-cast he slew My Lord the Tiger," cried Vama.
"And you saw this?"
"Fou-tan saw it, and all of us saw the carcass of the tiger the following morning. O King, he drove his spear a full two feet into the breast of the tiger as the great beast charged. He is a marvellous warrior, and Vama is proud to have brought such a one to serve in the ranks of the army of Lodivarman."
For a while Lodivarman was silent, his dead eyes upon King, while he helped himself from time to time to the tender-cooked mushrooms with which the slave tempted him.
"With a single cast he slew My Lord the Tiger?" demanded Lodivarman of Fou-tan.
"It is even so, Great King," replied the girl.
"How came he to do it? Surely no sane man would tempt the great beast unless in dire predicament."
"He did it to save me, upon whom the tiger was preparing to spring."