Page:The further side of silence (IA furthersideofsil00clifiala).pdf/184

 short days of her virginity. This place consisted of a platform of stout laths suspended from the roof in one corner of the house, and amidst the dusty lumber that filled it, Mat now cowered, sweating with terror.

A minute or two of silence and of sickening sus- pense followed the tiger's first unsuccessful charge. But presently the howl broke forth anew, quickened rapidly to the charge-roar, and again the house shook beneath the impact as the weight of the great animal was hurled at it. This time the leap of Him of the Hairy Face had been judged more surely; and a crash overhead, a shower of leaflets of thatch, and an omi- nous creaking of the beams apprised the cowering folk within the house that their enemy had secured a foothold on the roof.

The fragmentary, throaty sorak, which Che' Senian had urged his companions to raise, died away into a sobbing silence, disturbed only by the sound of breaths drawn thickly and by the hysterical weeping of the women. Then all were smitten with dumb- ness, as gazing upward in awful fascination, they saw the thatch torn violently apart by the great claws of the tiger. There were no firearms in the house, but. instinctively the men clutched their spears, and held them in readiness to resist the descent of their assail- ant; and thus for a moment all remained spellbound. with their eyes fastened upon the horror above them. A flood of moonlight, infinitely quiet and peaceful, poured in upon them through the yawning gap in the thatch, and against it the immense, square head of Him of the Hairy Face was darkly outlined, the