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from Delcarte until we should all be quite close enough to attack with the greatest

assurance of success.

I cried to Delcarte not to fire until we reached his side, for I was fearful lest our

small caliber, steel-jacketed bullets should, far from killing the beast, tend merely

to enrage it still further. But he misunderstood me, thinking that I had ordered

him to fire.

With the report of his rifle the tiger stopped short in apparent surprise, then

turned and bit savagely at its shoulder for an instant, after which it wheeled

again toward Delcarte, issuing the most terrific roars and screams, and launched

itself, with incredible speed, toward the brave fellow, who now stood his ground

pumping bullets from his automatic rifle as rapidly as the weapon would fire.

Taylor and I also opened up on the creature, and as it was broadside to us it

offered a splendid target, though for all the impression we appeared to make

upon the great cat we might as well have been launching soap bubbles at it.

Straight as a torpedo it rushed for Delcarte, and, as Taylor and I stumbled on

through the tall grass toward our unfortunate comrade, we saw the tiger rear

upon him and crush him to the earth.

Not a backward step had the noble Delcarte taken. Two hundred years of peace

had not sapped the red blood from his courageous line. He went down beneath

that avalanche of bestial savagery still working his gun and with his face toward

his antagonist. Even in the instant that I thought him dead I could not help but

feel a thrill of pride that he was one of my men, one of my class, a Pan-American

gentleman of birth. And that he had demonstrated one of the principal

contentions of the army-and-navy adherents--that military training was

necessary for the salvation of personal courage in the Pan-American race which

for generations had had to face no dangers more grave than those incident to

ordinary life in a highly civilized community, safeguarded by every means at the

disposal of a perfectly organized and all-powerful government utilizing the best

that advanced science could suggest.

As we ran toward Delcarte, both Taylor and I were struck by the fact that the

beast upon him appeared not to be mauling him, but lay quiet and motionless

upon its prey, and when we were quite close, and the muzzles of our guns were at

the animal's head, I saw the explanation of this sudden cessation of hostilities--

Felis tigris was dead.

One of our bullets, or one of the last that Delcarte fired, had penetrated the heart,

and the beast had died even as it sprawled forward crushing Delcarte to the

ground.

The Lost Continent