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It is there," she said, pointing up the river toward the west. "I have seen it from

a great distance, but I have never been there. We are much afraid of the lions, for

this is their country, and they are angry that man has come to live here.

"Far away there," and she pointed toward the south-west, "is the land of tigers,

which is even worse than this, the land of the lions, for the tigers are more

numerous than the lions and hungrier for human flesh. There were tigers here

long ago, but both the lions and the men set upon them and drove them off."

Where did these savage beasts come from?" I asked.

Oh," she replied, "they have been here always. It is their country."

Do they not kill and eat your people?" I asked.

Often, when we meet them by accident, and we are too few to slay them, or when

one goes too close to their camp. But seldom do they hunt us, for they find what

food they need among the deer and wild cattle, and, too, we make them gifts, for

are we not intruders in their country? Really we live upon good terms with them,

though I should not care to meet one were there not many spears in my party."

"I should like to visit this Camp of the Lions," I said.

"Oh, no, you must not!" cried the girl. "That would be terrible. They would eat

you." For a moment, then, she seemed lost in thought, but presently she turned

upon me with: "You must go now, for any minute Buckingham may come in

search of me. Long since should they have learned that I am gone from the

camp--they watch over me very closely--and they will set out after me. Go! I

shall wait here until they come in search of me."

"No," I told her. "I'll not leave you alone in a land infested by lions and other wild

beasts. If you won't let me go as far as your camp with you, then I'll wait here

until they come in search of you."

Please go!" she begged. "You have saved me, and I would save you, but nothing

will save you if Buckingham gets his hands on you. He is a bad man. He wishes

to have me for his woman so that he may be king. He would kill anyone who

befriended me, for fear that I might become another's."

"Didn't you say that Buckingham is already the king?" I asked.

"He is. He took my mother for his woman after he had killed Wettin. But my

mother will die soon--she is very old--and then the man to whom I belong will

become king."

The Lost Continent