A blundering charge made Sheeta, for with the first crash of his
spotted body through the foliage verging the trail, Bara gave a
single startled backward glance and was gone.
The roar that was intended to paralyze the deer broke horribly from
the deep throat of the great cat--an angry roar of rage against
the meddling Sheeta who had robbed him of his kill, and the charge
that was intended for Bara was launched against the panther; but
here too Numa was doomed to disappointment, for with the first notes
of his fearsome roar Sheeta, considering well the better part of
valor, leaped into a near-by tree.
A half-hour later it was a thoroughly furious Numa who came
unexpectedly upon the scent of man. Heretofore the lord of the jungle
had disdained the unpalatable flesh of the despised man-thing. Such
meat was only for the old, the toothless, and the decrepit who no
longer could make their kills among the fleet-footed grass-eaters.
Bara, the deer, Horta, the boar, and, best and wariest, Pacco, the
zebra, were for the young, the strong, and the agile, but Numa was
hungry-hungrier than he ever had been in the five short years of
his life.
What if he was a young, powerful, cunning, and ferocious beast?
In the face of hunger, the great leveler, he was as the old, the
toothless, and the decrepit. His belly cried aloud in anguish and
his jowls slavered for flesh.
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