CHAPTER XXIV
THE WHITE LEOPARDESS
At the foot of the stair lay the moonlit street, and I could hear
the unwholesome, inhospitable wind blowing about below. But not a
breath of it entered my retreat, and I was composing myself to rest,
when suddenly my eyes opened, and there was the head of the shining
creature I had seen following the Shadow, just rising above the
uppermost step! The moment she caught sight of my eyes, she stopped
and began to retire, tail foremost. I sprang up; whereupon, having
no room to turn, she threw herself backward, head over tail, scrambled
to her feet, and in a moment was down the stair and gone. I followed
her to the bottom, and looked all up and down the street. Not seeing
her, I went back to my hard couch.
There were, then, two evil creatures prowling about the city, one
with, and one without spots! I was not inclined to risk much for
man or woman in Bulika, but the life of a child might well be worth
such a poor one as mine, and I resolved to keep watch at that door
the rest of the night.
Presently I heard the latch move, slow, slow: I looked up, and
seeing the door half-open, rose and slid softly in. Behind it
stood, not the woman I had befriended, but the muffled woman of
the desert. Without a word she led me a few steps to an empty
stone-paved chamber, and pointed to a rug on the floor. I wrapped
myself in it, and once more lay down. She shut the door of the room,
and I heard the outer door open and close again. There was no light
save what came from the moonlit air.
As I lay sleepless, I began to hear a stifled moaning. It went on
for a good while, and then came the cry of a child, followed by a
terrible shriek. I sprang up and darted into the passage: from
another door in it came the white leopardess with a new-born baby
in her mouth, carrying it like a cub of her own. I threw myself
upon her, and compelled her to drop the infant, which fell on the
stone slabs with a piteous wail.
At the cry appeared the muffled woman. She stepped over us, the
beast and myself, where we lay struggling in the narrow passage,
took up the child, and carried it away. Returning, she lifted me
off the animal, opened the door, and pushed me gently out. At my
heels followed the leopardess.
"She too has failed me!" thought I; "--given me up to the beast to
be settled with at her leisure! But we shall have a tussle for it!"
I ran down the stair, fearing she would spring on my back, but she
followed me quietly. At the foot I turned to lay hold of her, but
she sprang over my head; and when again I turned to face her, she
was crouching at my feet! I stooped and stroked her lovely white
skin; she responded by licking my bare feet with her hard dry tongue.
Then I patted and fondled her, a well of tenderness overflowing in
my heart: she might be treacherous too, but if I turned from every
show of love lest it should be feigned, how was I ever to find the
real love which must be somewhere in every world?
I stood up; she rose, and stood beside me.
A bulky object fell with a heavy squelch in the middle of the street,
a few yards from us. I ran to it, and found a pulpy mass, with just
form enough left to show it the body of a woman. It must have been
thrown from some neighbouring window! I looked around me: the
Shadow was walking along the other side of the way, with the white
leopardess again at his heel!
I followed and gained upon them, urging in my heart for the leopardess
that probably she was not a free agent. When I got near them,
however, she turned and flew at me with such a hideous snarl, that
instinctively I drew back: instantly she resumed her place behind
the Shadow. Again I drew near; again she flew at me, her eyes
flaming like live emeralds. Once more I made the experiment: she
snapped at me like a dog, and bit me. My heart gave way, and I
uttered a cry; whereupon the creature looked round with a glance that
plainly meant--"Why WOULD you make me do it?"
I turned away angry with myself: I had been losing my time ever
since I entered the place! night as it was I would go straight to
the palace! From the square I had seen it--high above the heart
of the city, compassed with many defences, more a fortress than a
palace!
But I found its fortifications, like those of the city, much
neglected, and partly ruinous. For centuries, clearly, they had
been of no account! It had great and strong gates, with something
like a drawbridge to them over a rocky chasm; but they stood open,
and it was hard to believe that water had ever occupied the hollow
before them. All was so still that sleep seemed to interpenetrate
the structure, causing the very moonlight to look discordantly awake.
I must either enter like a thief, or break a silence that rendered
frightful the mere thought of a sound!
Like an outcast dog I was walking about the walls, when I came to
a little recess with a stone bench: I took refuge in it from the
wind, lay down, and in spite of the cold fell fast asleep.
I was wakened by something leaping upon me, and licking my face with
the rough tongue of a feline animal. "It is the white leopardess!"
I thought. "She is come to suck my blood!--and why should she not
have it?--it would cost me more to defend than to yield it!" So I
lay still, expecting a shoot of pain. But the pang did not arrive;
a pleasant warmth instead began to diffuse itself through me.
Stretched at my back, she lay as close to me as she could lie, the
heat of her body slowly penetrating mine, and her breath, which had
nothing of the wild beast in it, swathing my head and face in a
genial atmosphere. A full conviction that her intention toward me
was good, gained possession of me. I turned like a sleepy boy,
threw my arm over her, and sank into profound unconsciousness.
When I began to come to myself, I fancied I lay warm and soft in my
own bed. "Is it possible I am at home?" I thought. The well-known
scents of the garden seemed to come crowding in. I rubbed my eyes,
and looked out: I lay on a bare stone, in the heart of a hateful
city!
I sprang from the bench. Had I indeed had a leopardess for my
bedfellow, or had I but dreamed it? She had but just left me, for
the warmth of her body was with me yet!
I left the recess with a new hope, as strong as it was shapeless.
One thing only was clear to me: I must find the princess! Surely
I had some power with her, if not over her! Had I not saved her
life, and had she not prolonged it at the expense of my vitality?
The reflection gave me courage to encounter her, be she what she
might.
