No human succor could have availed
her even had it been there to offer itself. For a moment she tore
her gaze from the hypnotic fascination of that awful face and
breathed a last prayer to her God. She did not ask for aid, for she
felt that she was beyond even divine succor--she only asked that
the end might come quickly and with as little pain as possible.
No one can prophesy what a lion will do in any given emergency.
This one glared and growled at the girl for a moment and then fell
to feeding upon the dead horse. Fraulein Kircher wondered for an
instant and then attempted to draw her leg cautiously from beneath
the body of her mount; but she could not budge it. She increased
the force of her efforts and Numa looked up from his feeding to
growl again. The girl desisted. She hoped that he might satisfy
his hunger and then depart to lie up, but she could not believe
that he would leave her there alive. Doubtless he would drag the
remains of his kill into the bush for hiding and, as there could
be no doubt that he considered her part of his prey, he would
certainly come back for her, or possibly drag her in first and kill
her.
Again Numa fell to feeding. The girl's nerves were at the breaking
point. She wondered that she had not fainted under the strain
of terror and shock. She recalled that she often had wished she
might see a lion, close to, make a kill and feed upon it.
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