“Macaire was hanged like the scoundrel that he was.”
“That time, at least, might decided right,” Jules declared with much satisfaction. [[235]]
CHAPTER XXV
HYDROPHOBIA[1]
“Of all the ferocious animals that you know, at least by hearsay, which one would you most dread to meet?” asked Uncle Paul. Emile was the first to reply.
“For my part,” said he, “if I went nutting in the woods I shouldn’t at all like to meet a wolf, even if I had a stout stick with me.”
“If I should meet a wolf,” Jules declared, “I would just climb a tree and make fun of Mr. Wolf, for he doesn’t know how to climb. But I should be more afraid of a bear, for that can climb trees better than we, and it hugs a man till it stifles him.”
“As for me,” said Louis, “the animal I should fear most would be the tiger; they say it is so ferocious. With a bound it springs on a man as the cat pounces on a mouse.”
“The wolf is a coward,” Uncle Paul assured his hearers. “Just threaten it in a loud voice, throw a stone or two at it, or shake a stick, and you put it to flight. Nevertheless, if it were pressed with hunger, it would take courage and one might pass a very bad quarter of an hour in its company. The bear [[236]]is more dangerous. With it, retreat up a tree is of no avail, and precipitous flight has not much chance of success, for the bear is very nimble. What a terrible fate to find oneself held tight in a horrible embrace, and to feel the beast’s warm breath on one’s face! With the tiger it would be worse. Let its claws once get hold of a man, let its jaws once close on him, and he is torn to pieces. There is nothing so terrible as its sudden attack and its bloodthirsty ferocity.”