stood for a moment to feel the first gentle movement of the morning
breeze against her naked skin, and suddenly she had a strong sensation
that she was being watched. She, turned swiftly, half crouching, her
hands flying instinctively to cover her bosom and her groin.
The eyes that watched her were of a savage golden colour, and the
pupils were glistening black slits. The stare was steady and
unblinking.
The huge reddish-gold beast crouched on a level ledge of rock,
halfway up the far bank of the ravine. It lay with its forepaws drawn
up under its chin, and there was a sense of deadly stillness about it
that was chilling, although Vicky did not readily recognize what she
was seeing.
Then very slowly the dark ruff of the mane came erect, swelling out
around the head and exaggerating its already impressive bulk. Then the
tail twitched and began to slash back and forth with the steady beat of
a metronome.
Suddenly Vicky knew what it was. She heard again in her imagination
the echoes of that terrible sound in the night and she screamed.
Jake had just completed the adjustments he was making to the ignition
of his car and closed the engine cowling. He picked up the fluted
bottle of Scrubbs Cloudy Ammonia to dissolve the grease from his hands.
At that instant he heard the scream and he began to run without a
conscious thought.
The scream was so high and shrill, an expression of mortal terror,
that Jake's heart raced in sympathy and when the scream came again, if
anything shriller still, he leaped the bank and went sliding and
running down the steep slope of the ravine.
It was only seconds from when he heard the first scream until he came
skidding and sliding down on to the rocky floor of the ravine beside
the pool.
He saw the naked girl crouching at the edge of the pool, both hands
pressed to her mouth. Her body was pale and slim, with the small tight
round buttocks of a lad and long graceful legs.
'Vicky,' he shouted. 'What is it?' And she turned quickly to him,
her breasts swinging heavily at the movement, round and white with
large pink nipples standing out tightly with cold and shock. Even in
the extremity of the moment, he could not help but glance down at the
smooth velvety plain of her belly and the fluffy dusky triangle at its
base. Then she was running towards him on those long coltish legs, and
her face was deadly white, and the speckled green eyes huge and
swimming with rampant terror.
'Jake,' she cried. 'Oh God, Jake,' and then he saw movement beyond
her, halfway up the bank of the water course.
The wound had stiffened during the night, almost paralysing the lion's
hindquarters, and the torn entrails were leaking poison and infection
into the belly cavity. It had slowed the animal so drastically that
the natural reflexive anger which the sight of a human form had roused
was not strong enough to precipitate the charge.
However, the sound of the human voice immediately invoked memories of
