Patsey's artillery ...
Suddenly, above the sound of fighting, Baby Jane heard the wicked yell of the Leopard. At once the lesser assailants all drew off, and, peeping round the Lion, she saw the lord of the Black Mountain Band slouching across the now open space towards him. The Lion watched him steadily, but he kept his head sideways as if he did not know there was anything before him. In this way he came within a few yards of the Lion, and there paused to lick his shoulder. But then, with frightful suddenness, he turned and launched himself at his foe. The Leopard was fresh, and the Lion was tired and damaged; but the Leopard had nothing but his muscles and his horrid rage, the Lion had a great heart. For a few moments they grappled; then the Lion managed to shake himself free, caught the huge Leopard behind the neck, and, with a mighty effort, slung him forward high into the air. You might have counted four slowly before you heard him crash to the ground. Baby Jane did not hear that horrible sound—she pushed her fingers into her ears, and shut her eyes so that she might not see what happened when he fell.
Then the monotonous fights began again, and the Lion, in spite of his courage, was growing feeble. In a little while they would both be seized and eaten. The sky overhead was now growing a pearly grey, the first sign of a day they might never see, and their hearts were growing chilly, when suddenly from the cliffs overhead a clattering hail of cocoa-nuts rattled upon the skulls of the astonished foe, and a loud hurroo filled their two hearts with comfort—Patsey's artillery had come into action!
But wolves and rhinoceroses are not to be driven off with cocoa-nuts, and again the foe pressed forward. Again, in spite, of the friendly shouts and heavy fire of the field-monkeys overhead, Baby Jane's heart sank within her. Would it not be better to fall into the river, where you might swim, than into the inside of a rhinoceros, where you certainly could not? As she gazed at the stream it struck her that it had a strange, dark, streaky look. Then she gave a great start, for an eye had slowly risen above the water and solemnly winked at her. It was Miss Crocodile leading her regiment stealthily up the stream.
... had come into action.
The eye disappeared, and the next that was seen of Miss Crocodile was at a point where the river ran through the densest masses of the enemy. There, all in a line, as if worked by one machine, a hundred crocodile heads rose above the bank, seized, each of them, the nearest leg, and disappeared with their prey under the water. This manœuvre was repeated three times with beautiful precision before the dazed Black Mountaineers had the sense to rush from the river bank. At last the Lion, now broken in every breakable place, had rest, for Baby Jane was safe.
But only safe for the time being, for the enemy were still in great force and desperate with rage. Indeed, even now they were gathering at the foot of the great snow-slope for a last charge upon the Lion and the crocodiles. But none of them had looked up at the crowning ridge of that slope. There they would have seen a long dark line standing out against the paling sky—it was the entire brigade of lions and bears, under Sammy! They had missed the path that led into the plain, and now, having reached the very crest of the mountain, at last saw the foe beneath them. The Black Mountaineers were at that very instant preparing to charge the devoted band in the entrance of the pass. Not a second was to be lost.
'Sit!' shouted Sammy. 'Prepare to coast! Go!' And with that word the whole brigade went sliding down the snow-slope in a dense line.
'Sh—sh—sh—sh!' (But I cannot 'shish' loud enough to represent three thousand beasts coming down a snow-mountain on their tails!)