"There he is again."
This time the eyes looked out from a clump not over twelve feet away and Bob whispered:
"Now let him have it."
But he spoke too late. An angry snarl came from the beast and the huge cat seemed to literally rise in the air and sail toward them.
Bob's gun spoke while the cat was still in the air but he knew that he had missed.
"Duck," he shouted as he sprang to one side.
Jack endeavored to obey but, in stepping back, his heel caught on a root and he bent down on his back and the lion landed fairly on top of him. Bob's heart seemed to leap into his throat as he saw his brother go down, and, without an instant hesitation he sprang forward. Boy and beast were rolling over and over on the ground first one on top and then the other. He saw at first glance, that Jack had a hold on the cat's neck with both hands and was keeping its jaws away from his throat by main strength. So fast were; they moving that he did not dare to fire for fear of hitting Jack, but he knew that he must do something at once or the boy would be clawed to death even though he succeeded in escaping the jaws.
With Bob to think was to act and it was probably not more than ten seconds from the time the cat jumped before he had a hold of his tail and was pulling for all he was worth. At the first tug the big cat uttered an angry snarl and Bob shouted:
"Push him off."
But either Jack did not hear or he was afraid to let go his hold for the pull did not budge the animal in the least. But it did stop the rolling and the beast, as though wondering what had attacked him from the rear, wrenched its head away and turned its eyes on Bob who still was pulling on the tail. With another angry snarl it tore itself from Jack's body and turned to attack its new enemy. But Bob had a grip of death on that tail and as the cat turned he too spun around so that the cat's head was away from him. But he knew that is was only a question of seconds when the mighty cat would wrench the tail from his grasp in one of his lunges. If only he had his gun in one hand but he had slipped it into his pocket when he had grabbed hold of the tail and he did not dare reach for it. His fingers seemed to be getting numb so tightly did he have to cling and he felt that they were slipping in spite of his strongest efforts.