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After a last drink at the streaest and deepest she had allowed herself, she rose to retrace her steps toward the hills; but even as she did so she became suddenly tense with apprehension What was that? She could have sworn that she saw soirl did not move-she scarce breathed Her eyes remained fixed upon the dense shadows below the tree, her ears strained through the silence of the night A lowcame down from the hills where her flier was hidden She kneell-the weird note of the hunting banth And the great carnivore lay directly in her path But he was not so close as this other thing, hiding there in the shadows just a little way off What was it? It was the strain of uncertainty that weighed heaviest upon her Had she known the nature of the creature lurking there half its menace would have vanished She cast quickly about her in search of soain arose thefrom the hills, but this time closer Almost immediately it was answered from the opposite side of the valley, behind her, and then froht of her, and twice upon her left Her eyes had found a tree, quite near Slowly, and without taking her eyes from the shadows of that other tree, she ht afford her sanctuary in the event of need, and at her firstand she heard the suddenbody Siht in full charge upon her, its tail erect, its tiny ears laid flat, its great s already yawning for its prey, its ten legs carrying it forward in great leaps, and now frohtful roar hich it seeks to paralyze its prey It was a banth-the great,and leaped for the tree tohich she had been , and the banth realized her intention and redoubled his speed As his hideous roar awakened the echoes in the hills, so too it awakened echoes in the valley; but these echoes ca throats of others of his kind, until it seeirl that Fate had thrown her into the e beasts