But Alexis just stood there trembling, his teeth chattering, and his knees knocking together.
'Alexis, snap out of it,' cried Jane. 'You've got to get that belt fastened around you before the lion discovers you. Don't you understand? It's a matter of life and death with you.'
'You poor sap,' yelled Brown. 'Get a move on.'
With trembling hands, Alexis reached for the belt, and at the same time he seemed to find his voice and commenced to scream lustily for help.
'Keep still,' warned Jane. 'The lion hears you; he is looking in your direction now.'
'Hurry up, you dumb cluck,' shouted Brown.
The lion was tearing through the underbrush, searching for the author of these new sounds. Jane threw another branch at him, but it did not distract his attention. He only growled and started cautiously into the brush.
With fumbling fingers, Alexis was tying the belt about his body.
'Hoist away, Brown,' cried Jane; 'the lion is coming!'
Brown and Tibbs pulled away lustily, and Alexis rose out of the underbrush.
The lion came steadily on. At last he was directly beneath the terrified man. Alexis, looking down straight into the cruel eyes of the carnivore, voiced a scream of horror.
Slowly, a few inches at a time, Brown and Tibbs were raising Alexis out of harm's way; but still he was perilously close to the great beast. Then the lion rared up to its full height and struck at him. A raking talon touched the heel of the man's shoe; and, with a final scream, Alexis fainted.
Brown and Tibbs redoubled their efforts. The lion dropped back to the ground, gathered himself and sprang. Again he missed, but only by inches; and before he could spring again, Alexis was safely out of his reach.
The two men hoisted the limp body of Sborov to the ship, and with considerable difficulty dragged him into the cabin.
At sight of him, the princess commenced to scream. 'He's dead! he's dead! Oh, my darling, and your Kitty was so cross to her Allie.'
'For Pete's sake, shut up,' snapped Brown. 'My nerves are about shot, and anyway the sap isn't dead; he's just scared stiff.'
'Brown, how dare you speak to me like that!' cried the princess. 'Oh, it's terrible; nobody knows what I'm suffering. I mean, no one understands me; everyone is against me.'
'Lord,' cried Brown, 'a little more of this and we'll all be nuts.'
'Excuse me, madam, but he seems to be coming to,' said Tibbs; 'I think he'll be all right in a minute, mam.'
'Do something, Annette,' cried the princess. 'What are you sitting there for—just like a bump on a log? I mean, where are the smelling salts? Get some water. Oh, isn't it terrible? Oh, darling, Allie, speak to your Kitty.'
Alexis opened his eyes and looked about him. Then he closed them and shuddered. 'I thought he had me,' he said, in a trembling whisper.
'No such luck,' said Brown.
'It was a very close call, sir, if I may make so bold as to say so, sir,' said Tibbs.
Jane stepped into the cabin doorway. 'All right?' she asked. 'From the noise you were making, Kitty, I thought something dreadful had happened.'
'The Lord only knows what would happen if something really should happen,' said Brown, disgustedly. 'I'm getting fed up on all this screaming and bellyaching. I never had no royalty in my hair before, but I sure got 'em now.'
Jane shook her head. 'Be patient, Brown,' she said. 'Remember this is all new to them, and naturally anyway their nerves are on edge after all that we have passed through.'
'Well, ain't the rest of us got nerves, Miss? Ain't we got a right to be upset, too? But you don't hear none of us bawling around like them. I suppose being royal gives 'em the right to be nuisances.'
'Never mind, now,' said Jane; 'you're getting as bad as the others, Brown. The thing that I am interested in just now is what we are going to do about that lion. He may hang around here for hours; and as long as he does, we're just blocked. He's in a nasty mood, and it won't be safe to go down there until we know that he has cleared out. The best thing for us to do is to kill him, as he may hang around this neighborhood waiting for a chance to get some of us. He's an old fellow; and because of that, he may be a man-eater. They get that way when they are too old to bag their regular prey.'
'A man-eater!' The Princess Sborov shuddered. 'How horrible. I mean, how terribly horrible.'
'I think we can get rid of him,' said Jane. 'You brought rifles, of course, Alexis?'
'Oh, yes, indeed, two of them—high-powered rifles—they'd stop an elephant.'
'Good,' said Jane, 'where are they?'
'They're in the baggage compartment, Miss; I'll get them,' said Brown.
'And bring some ammunition, too,' said Jane.
'Who's going down there to shoot the horrid thing?' demanded the princess.
'I, of course,' said Jane.
'But, my dear,' cried the princess, 'I mean, you just couldn't.'
Brown returned with a rifle. 'I couldn't find no ammunition, Miss,' he said. 'Where is it packed, Sborov?'
'Eh, what?' demanded the prince.
'The ammunition,' snapped Brown.
'Oh, ammunition?'
'Yes, ammunition, you—'
The prince cleared his throat. 'Well, you see, I—ah—'
'You mean you didn't bring any ammunition?' demanded Brown. 'Well, of all the—'
'Never mind,' said Jane. 'If there's no ammunition, there's no ammunition, and grousing about it isn't going to get us any.'
'If I may be permitted, I think I can be of assistance, Milady,' said Tibbs, not without some show of pride.
'How is that, Tibbs?' asked Jane.
'I have a firearm in my bag, Milady. I will kill the beast.'
'That's fine, Tibbs,' said Jane; 'please go and get it.'
As Tibbs was moving toward the doorway, he suddenly stopped. A flush slowly mantled his face; he appeared most uncomfortable.
'What's the matter, Tibbs?' asked Jane.
'I—I had forgotten, Milady,' he stammered, 'but my bag has already been lowered down there with the bloomin' lion.'
Jane could not repress a laugh. 'This is becoming a comedy of errors,' she cried, '—rifles without ammunition, and our only firearm in possession of the enemy.'
'Oh, my dear, what are we going to do?' demanded the princess.
'There's nothing to do until that brute goes away. It's almost too late now anyway to try to make camp; we'll simply have to make the best of it up here for the night.'
And so it was that a most unhappy and uncomfortable party shivered and grumbled through the long, dark night—a night made hideous by the roars of hunting lions and the shrill screams of stricken beasts. But at last day broke with that uncanny suddenness that is a phenomenon of equatorial regions.
The moment that it was light enough Jane was out recon-noitering. The lion was gone; and a survey of the surrounding country in the immediate vicinity of the ship, from the lower branches of the trees, revealed no sign of him or any other danger.
'I think we can go down now and start making camp,' she said, after she had returned to the ship. 'Is most of the baggage down, Brown?'
'All but a few pieces, Miss,' he replied.
'Well, get it down as rapidly as possible; and then we'll cut an opening to the trail; it is only a few yards.'
'All right, Miss,' said Brown. 'Come on, your majesty, we'll lower you down to unhook the stuff at the other
