“If the brute come here, I will lay hold of it,” I said, “and you must run.”
“Thank you!” she murmured.
“Have you ever seen it before?” I asked.
“Several times,” she answered, still trembling. “She is a pet of the princess’s. You are a stranger, or you would know her!”
“I am a stranger,” I answered. “But is she, then, allowed to run loose?”
“She is kept in a cage, her mouth muzzled, and her feet in gloves of crocodile leather. Chained she is too; but she gets out often, and sucks the blood of any child she can lay hold of. Happily there are not many mothers in Bulika!”
Here she burst into tears.
“I wish I were at home!” she sobbed. “The princess returned only last night, and there is the leopardess out already! How am I to get into the house? It is me she is after, I know! She will be lying at my own door, watching for me!—But I am a fool to talk to a stranger!”
“All strangers are not bad!” I said. “The beast shall not touch you till she has done with me, and by that time you will be in. You are happy to have a house to go to! What a terrible wind it is!”
“Take me home safe, and I will give you shelter from it,” she rejoined. “But we must wait a little!”