70 MARTIN RATTLER.

heard it ever and anon, gave them considerable un-
easiness.

“D’ye think there’s lions in them parts?” inquired
Barney, glancing with an expression of regret at his
empty pistol, and laying his hand on the hilt of his
cutlass.

“I think not,’ replied Martin, in a low tone of
voice. “I have read in my school geography that
there are tigers of some sort—jaguars or ounces, I
think they are called—but there are no—”

Martin’s speech was cut short by a terrific roar
which rang through the woods, and the next instant
a magnificent jaguar, or South American tiger,
bounded on to the track a few yards in advance,
and, wheeling round, glared fiercely at the travellers.
It seemed, in the uncertain light, as if his eyes were
two balls of living fire. Though not so large as the
royal Bengal tiger of India, this animal was never-
theless of immense size, and had a very ferocious
aspect. His roar was so sudden and awful, and his
appearance so unexpected, that the blood was sent
thrilling back into the hearts of the travellers, who
stood rooted to, the spot, absolutely unable to move.
This was the first large animal of the cat kind that
either of them had seen in all the terrible majesty of

its wild condition ; and, for the first time, Martin and