"All right."
"That he is quicker than a man's eye."
Skag waited.
"And that he is more deadly than the tiger."
"How is that?"
"Because he is more quick. Because he is equal in power, even when he is not equal in weight. Because he fights not only for food, not only for life, but for the love of killing. Of all living things, he is the creature of blood-lust. He is the name-of-fear, incarnate. It would not be a good thing for my master to hear, nor for his servant to tell—the cheetah's ways with a body from which life is gone out."
"You've made a strong argument for the cheetah as a fighter, Bhanah, but you don't seem to stand much for his character."
"Who faces the hunting cheetah, Sahib, faces death. If the cheetah falls upon him from above, or comes upon him from behind, he will know death; but he will never know the cheetah. A hunter's first shot must do its work; he will not often have time to fire again."
"I've got that. But I don't quite see what chance a dog has with him."
"Only four dogs in this my land, have any chance with him, Sahib."