[!-- Chapter 15 --]XV
THE LAMENT OF TANIT-ZERGA
"Arraôu, arraôu."
I roused myself vaguely from the half sleep to which I had finally succumbed. I half opened my eyes. Immediately I flattened back.
"Arraôu."
Two feet from my face was the muzzle of King Hiram, yellow with a tracery of black. The leopard was helping me to wake up; otherwise he took little interest, for he yawned; his dark red jaws, beautiful gleaming white fangs, opened and closed lazily.
At the same moment I heard a burst of laughter.
It was little Tanit-Zerga. She was crouching on a cushion near the divan where I was stretched out, curiously watching my close interview with the leopard.
"King Hiram was bored," she felt obliged to explain to me. "I brought him."
"How nice," I growled. "Only tell me, could he not have gone somewhere else to be amused?"