For a long minute Smith-Oldwick lay in utter peace and content
until gradually there was forced upon his sensibilities the fact
that the hand had become rough, and that it was no longer cool but
hot and moist; and suddenly he opened his eyes and looked up into
the face of a huge lion.
Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick was not only an English
gentleman and an officer in name, he was also what these implied--a
brave man; but when he realized that the sweet picture he had looked
upon was but the figment of a dream, and that in reality he still
lay where he had fallen at the foot of the grating with a lion
standing over him licking his face, the tears sprang to his eyes
and ran down his cheeks. Never, he thought, had an unkind fate
played so cruel a joke upon a human being.
For some time he lay feigning death while the lion, having ceased
to lick him, sniffed about his body. There are some things than which
death is to be preferred; and there came at last to the Englishman
the realization that it would be better to die swiftly than to
lie in this horrible predicament until his mind broke beneath the
strain and he went mad.
And so, deliberately and without haste, he rose, clinging to the
grating for support. At his first move the lion growled, but after
that he paid no further attention to the man, and when at last
Smith-Oldwick had regained his feet the lion moved indifferently
away.
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