He could now examine the panther at ease;its muzzle was smeared with blood.
"She's had a good dinner,he thought,without troubling himself as to whether her feast might have been on human flesh."She won't be hungry when she gets up."
It was a female.The fur on her belly and flanks was glistening white;many small marks like velvet formed beautiful bracelets round her feet;her sinuous tail was also white,ending with black rings;the overpart of her dress,yellow like burnished gold,very lissome and soft,had the characteristic blotches in the form of rosettes,which distinguish the panther from every other feline species.
This tranquil and formidable hostess snored in an attitude as graceful as that of a cat lying on a cushion.Her blood-stained paws,nervous and well armed,were stretched out before her face,which rested upon them,and from which radiated her straight slender whiskers,like threads of silver.
If she had been like that in a cage,the Provencal would doubtless have admired the grace of the animal,and the vigorous contrasts of vivid color which gave her robe an imperial splendor;but just then his sight was troubled by her sinister appearance.
The presence of the panther,even asleep,could not fail to produce the effect which the magnetic eyes of the serpent are said to have on the nightingale.
For a moment the courage of the soldier began to fail before this danger,though no doubt it would have risen at the mouth of a cannon charged with shell.Nevertheless,a bold thought brought daylight to his soul and sealed up the source of the cold sweat which sprang forth on his brow.Like men driven to bay,who defy death and offer their body to the smiter,so he,seeing in this merely a tragic episode,resolved to play his part with honor to the last.
"The day before yesterday the Arabs would have killed me,perhaps,he said;so considering himself as good as dead already,he waited bravely,with excited curiosity,the awakening of his enemy."
When the sun appeared,the panther suddenly opened her eyes;then she put out her paws with energy,as if to stretch them and get rid of cramp.At last she yawned,showing the formidable apparatus of her teeth and pointed tongue,rough as a file.
"A regular petite maitresse,"thought the Frenchman,seeing her roll herself about so softly and coquettishly.She licked off the blood which stained her paws and muzzle,and scratched her head with reiterated gestures full of prettiness."All right,make a little toilet,"the Frenchman said to himself,beginning to recover his gaiety with his courage;"we'll say good morning to each other presently;"and he seized the small,short dagger which he had taken from the Maugrabins.
At this moment the panther turned her head toward the man and looked at him fixedly without moving.The rigidity of her metallic eyes and their insupportable luster made him shudder,especially when the animal walked towards him.But he looked at her caressingly,staring into her eyes in order to magnetize her,and let her come quite close to him;then with a movement both gentle and amorous,as though he were caressing the most beautiful of women,he passed his hand over her whole body,from the head to the tail,scratching the flexible vertebrae which divided the panther's yellow back.The animal waved her tail voluptuously,and her eyes grew gentle;and when for the third time the Frenchman accomplished this interesting flattery,she gave forth one of those purrings by which cats express their pleasure;
but this murmur issued from a throat so powerful and so deep that it resounded through the cave like the last vibrations of an organ in a church.The man,understanding the importance of his caresses,redoubled them in such a way as to surprise and stupefy his imperious courtesan.When he felt sure of having extinguished the ferocity of his capricious companion,whose hunger had so fortunately been satisfied the day before,he got up to go out of the cave;the panther let him go out,but when he had reached the summit of the hill she sprang with the lightness of a sparrow hopping from twig to twig,and rubbed herself against his legs,putting up her back after the manner of all the race of cats.Then regarding her guest with eyes whose glare had softened a little,she gave vent to that wild cry which naturalists compare to the grating of a saw.
"She is exacting,"said the Frenchman,smilingly.
He was bold enough to play with her ears;he caressed her belly and scratched her head as hard as he could.When he saw that he was successful,he tickled her skull with the point of his dagger,watching for the right moment to kill her,but the hardness of her bones made him tremble for his success.
The sultana of the desert showed herself gracious to her slave;she lifted her head,stretched out her neck and manifested her delight by the tranquility of her attitude.It suddenly occurred to the soldier that to kill this savage princess with one blow he must poniard her in the throat.
He raised the blade,when the panther,satisfied no doubt,laid herself gracefully at his feet,and cast up at him glances in which,in spite of their natural fierceness,was mingled confusedly a kind of good will.The poor Provencal ate his dates,leaning against one of the palm trees,and casting his eyes alternately on the desert in quest of some liberator and on his terrible companion to watch her uncertain clemency.
The panther looked at the place where the date stones fell,and every time that he threw one down her eyes expressed an incredible mistrust.
She examined the man with an almost commercial prudence.However,this examination was favorable to him,for when he had finished his meager meal she licked his boots with her powerful rough tongue,brushing off with marvelous skill the dust gathered in the creases.