The great tawny beast, the tiger that she fondled, stood guard on one side; Zobo the Mighty, with drawn sword, had taken his stand on the other.
The same look of hostile jealousy leaped into the eyes of both man and brute, as I advanced; but Lah saw it, and with a word made peace between us. She was so lovely, so wondrously lovely, in that hour! All Queen and yet all woman.
And not ten paces off, and drawing ever nearer, came the ravening mob. Agno’s death had not turned them from their purpose, as I had hoped.
It was the beginning of the end; but I swore within me that it was life with Lah, or death for me. It is thus fate laughs at the oaths of men. In this hour I am whole and strong, while she—
But I must not let the bitterness of memory stay my hand. I have, I know it well, but little art in picturing out the past, and even now I could not if I would dwell on what followed next. The wound, for all these intervening years, is still too fresh.
She stood there thus, my Queen, the love light in her eyes, in the full radiance of her beauty.
With my oath freshly sworn, I stepped forward to take my part in her defence. That second a spear, flung from a distance, clove the air and buried its point in Lah’s fair breast. It needed no surgeon’s skill to know the hurt was mortal. With a roar like that of an angry beast Zobo sprang forward to avenge the murder.
The Queen swayed heavily forward, and I caught her in my arms. She clasped her small hands round the spear’s shaft and tried with a man’s courage to pull out the cruel steel, but I saw the useless agony it gave her, and gently begged her cease. The tears rolled down my face, and I cared not who should see them.
Lah’s beautiful head lay on my shoulder. She rested there as a tired child rests in its mother’s arms. The great brute, the tiger she had loved, now lapped the hand that fell in piteous helplessness by her side.
The roar of battle came nearer, but I heeded it not. For me the worst was over.