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"
"
"
"
"
Can't he get in here?" she asked.
I think he can," said the man.
You are reassuring," she returned.
I don't feel so." He drew his pistol.
For heaven's sake," she cried, "don't shoot at him with that thing. You might hit
him."
"I don't intend to shoot at him but I might succeed in frightening him away if he
attempts to reach us here. Haven't you ever seen a trainer work with lions? He
carries a silly little pop-gun loaded with blank cartridges. With that and a kitchen
chair he subdues the most ferocious of beasts."
"But you haven't a kitchen chair," she reminded him.
"No," he said, "Government is always muddling things. I have always maintained
that airplanes should be equipped with kitchen chairs."
Bertha Kircher laughed as evenly and with as little hysteria as though she were
moved by the small talk of an afternoon tea.
Numa, the lion, came steadily toward them; his attitude seemed more that of
curiosity than of belligerency. Close to the side of the ship he stopped and stood
gazing up at them.
"Magnificent, isn't he?" exclaimed the man.
"
I never saw a more beautiful creature," she replied, "nor one with such a dark
coat. Why, he is almost black."
The sound of their voices seemed not to please the lord of the jungle, for he
suddenly wrinkled his great face into deep furrows as he bared his fangs beneath
snarling lips and gave vent to an angry growl. Almost simultaneously he crouched
for a spring and immediately Smith-Oldwick discharged his pistol into the ground
in front of the lion. The effect of the noise upon Numa seemed but to enrage him
further, and with a horrid roar he sprang for the author of the new and
disquieting sound that had outraged his ears.
Simultaneously Lieutenant Harold Percy Smith-Oldwick vaulted nimbly out of the
cockpit on the opposite side of his plane, calling to the girl to follow his example.
The girl, realizing the futility of leaping to the ground, chose the remaining
alternative and clambered to the top of the upper plane.
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