Tiger sat on the girl’s other side, and Quashy was seated opposite, with Little Cub and several of the lesser cubs beside him. The pet jaguar crouched close to its stake, glaring at them. There was nothing unusual either in the attitude or the glare to cause anxiety, yet Lawrence did not like it, and while engaged in imparting the difficult lesson referred to, kept his eye on the brute.
Suddenly, without warning or roar, the dangerous pet sprang at Manuela! Why it selected her we cannot imagine, unless it was that, being a brute of good taste, it chose her as the tenderest of the party. The strong cord by which it was fastened snapped like a piece of thread, but Lawrence threw himself in front of the girl, caught the animal by the throat, and held him with both hands, as if in a vice. Instantly every claw of the four paws was buried in the flesh of his legs and arms, and he would certainly have been fearfully rent by his powerful antagonist if Tiger had not, with lightning stroke, buried his long keen knife in the animal’s heart.
So swiftly and effectually was the deed done, that the jaguar next moment hung limp and dead in our hero’s grasp. Dropping it on the ground, he turned up his sleeves to examine the wounds.
“Deep enough, but not lacerated, thank God,” he said. “They won’t give me much trouble. Come, Quash, into the bush, and help me to look at the other scratches and dress them. I must appoint you assistant-surgeon for the occasion!”
Manuela murmured her thanks in a deep, tremulous voice that said much for her power of gratitude, and, timidly taking the youth’s hand as he passed, humbly touched it with her lips.
The wounds were soon dressed, and, thanks to Tiger’s promptitude, they did not afterwards give much trouble.
That night, as they were about to retire to their several hammocks, Lawrence went up to the Indian girl, and, for the first time, held out his hand for a shake in the white man’s fashion.
“I’m glad, Manuela,” he said, as she frankly grasped it, “that it has pleased God to make me the instrument of—of—protecting you.”
“Twice,” replied the girl quickly, and then paused, with a confused look,—“how you say, twice—or two times?”
“Say which you like,” replied Lawrence, with a hearty laugh; “the words will sound equally well from your lips, but ‘twice’ is the right way.”