“Look!” she cried, and pointed to a clump of bushes at the side of the path and about twenty feet away.
Joe looked, and for a moment his heart stood still.
Crouching at the foot of the bushes with his tail moving slowly to and fro, was a large leopard, his yellow eyes glowing wickedly and every muscle stiffened as he prepared for a spring.
Joe had never carried a weapon, and even if he had had a revolver it is doubtful whether it would have stopped that huge body if it had come hurtling toward them. He looked wildly about him after he had thrust Mabel behind a bench.
At his feet was a jagged piece of rock weighing perhaps a pound. It was a forlorn chance but his only one.
Like a flash, he stooped, grasped it firmly, and hurled it with all his might at the leopard. The distance was so short that he could not miss, and the rock caught the brute in the neck just under the ear. There was a scream of pain and rage, the topaz glow faded from the eyes, and the beast collapsed in a crumpled heap.
Joe did not wait an instant. He was not sure whether the brute was killed or merely stunned. He took Mabel by the arm and half carrying her got her to one of the gates. He put her into a taxi standing at the curb and they were whirled downtown to the Marlborough. She was white and shaken at their narrow escape and Joe himself was by no means calm. If anything had happened to Mabel! He shuddered at the thought.
“Oh, Joe, you have saved my life!” she exclaimed, when she could speak coherently. “That horrible brute!” she shuddered.
Joe wanted to tell her why that life was so [[see Tr. Notes]] precious to him and to urge that since he had saved it, it fairly belonged to him. But this would have been taking her at a disadvantage just then and he contented himself with the warm pressure of the little hand that rested in his and showed no inclination to withdraw.