Karl And Tarpus

Karl knelt down and took steady aim. i Then camo a flash and a report, and al: most simultaneously with the rebound I of his iniineuse. rifle the htige, orouching j lioness, the black lioness, hurled herself upon him. He was borne down as if by j au avakuiche. He had missed. Why? For this rea son : As he aiined between her eyes out of them flashed a strange, strange light that quivered the core of his being ; a light that unnerved his hand and withered his desire to kill. And it smote him not with fear - for Karl had slain many lions, and hia nerves were as steel - tut it smote him with sudden, overwhelming remorse. Thus he, the niighty hunter, was shaken and made to send his bullet flying wide. And he lay in the grip of death. Though he feit that his end had come, he had that clearness and poise of mind which come in sujjreme moments. The noisome breath of the lioness bnrned his face as he lay crushed into the sand by her weight. He was waiting, with eyes closed, for the beginning of the end, that hideous beginning, but a calm was in his soul, a strange calm. He feit at rest, at peace. There was a pause. Suddenly the lion snarled, and Karl opened his eyes. Ah, again that weird, reproaching light I It streamed f rom the glaring, yellow eyes. Into their depths he gazed and gazed till his mind partly left him. No more he thought of death. And now the eyes became a piercing blaze of light, which grew and grew till Karl saw before hirn a broad, shining space. In the distance flashed a scène. And the soul of the hunter flew toward it. This was the scène : Humans fllled a vast amphitheater. They shook it shouting. Fearsome was this shouting, even as the howl of a myriad pack of wolves. On the faces was the look of glee - that glee indescribable - that comes when the passion for blood spilling filis the soul. This passion was upon. all - all, from emperor to slave. Man was transí ormed to a human wolf. The wish to kill or see killed linked, bouud alL The impulse of Caiu made all akin. It was a feast day to the gods in Rome, and a mighty, yelling multitude had gathered together to do them homage by seeing a man fight with and kill a man, by seeing a man wait for the signal that might bid him drive his gladius into the heart of a beloved comrade, by seeing a man fight with a beast. Their gods were honored by the flowing and flying of blood. Huge, huge sport to watch it ! And yonder Nero sat, swathed in purple. His eyes gleamed as he witnessed the glorious sport. Prolonged was the shouting, because Tarpus, a favorito gladiator, had just killed, in single combat, with the gladius, his third man. He was now about to fight yonder Numidian lioness. She was striving to burst the bars of her cage, for she had been without food for three days. A fine f ellow was Tarpus, with waving, yellow hair that hung afar down his back. Frank was his face, bold was the glance of his blue eye, and he was great of stature. And Karl was Tarpus. "Curse the Roman cowards!" th gladiator muttered as he waited, heedless and resentful of the ovation he was receiving, for the black lioness to be let forth into the arena. "Oh, to thinkthat I obeyed their cruel mándate that bade me slay my comrade, Davoro - Davoro, who risked his life for mine in the campaign ! But he sniiled in my face, as I bent over him, and said, 'Strike deep, my Tarpus, if thou lovest me!' and I drove the full of my blade through his beart. Oh, I, of all men - I, who loved him, thus to have slain him ! Oh, the fight - the fight - it is with me yet ! Davoro, who was bound to me by ties oft closer than the ties of blood, stands before me, his gladius in hand. We cross blades, but our eyes meet not, and lo I before I know aught, he is lying on the sand beneath me, while I stand o'er him with uplifted blade. Then I look up to yonder sea of coward faces, and see thumbs which point downward. Aye, around and around I look, but from all sides the vile gestures come, crowding, overwhelming my soul. They bid me to slay. And then Davoro's voice rings in my ear, as he lies prostrate, bidding me to" f alter not, but kill him swif tly. Oh !" And the face of Tarpus was sof tened and sad as he looked across the blood reddened sand of the arena to the place where his comrade lay in death. Grand was the face of Tarpus - like to the face of a Norse god. And he thought of his home far, far away - his home from which be was torn, long years ago, from a loved one and little oues, and carried to this great city to be made a slave; to be made to figbi oat his heart 's blood for the amusement of the brutal Romans ! Visions of outstretched hands and loving, sorrowful faces carne tö him from across far, wild seas. The arena, with its blood lust, its pitilessness, was forgotten in a flood of old, tender memories. Suddenly he looked up at the shouting Romans. Scorn was in his face. They looked upon him but as a human fighting beast, and he wished fiercely that he could kill them all with one thrust from his blade. His heart ened. He felt thut he was indeed alona His glance sank and feil upon the black lioness. He wiped the blood off the blade of his gladius and waited. No loug did he wait, for with a mighty, resonnding roar she tore from the cage into the center of the arena. The door had been suddenly flnng open. She paused, turning her head and sniffliig the air. Tarpus walked straight toward her. Snddenly she noticed hirn, and she bounded, roaring, almost to his side. She crouched for a final spring, and Tarpus, sinking on one knee, and with gladius ready, prepaxed to fight to the death. The vast crowd was hushed, awaiting breathlessly the instant when the brute and the man would meet in the death struggleBut here occurred a thing inexplicable. As theeyes of the lioness and the man met both paused suddenly and reniained as if transfixed, the man kneeliug, the lioness crouching. Whathad happened? Whydid she not obey the prompting of her instinct to rend hini asunder? Did some subtle, sudden power stay her? What spell was working? What was the bond that bound this man and beast? Oould it be that they were kindred souls, who were once together, andwhorecognizedeach other? Who could teil? Butwhatever the spell or bond it had a strange effect upon Tarpus, for he, with a look in his face indeseribable, stood upright, and laying his hand upon the lioness walked over with her to the place where Nero sat and insulted and reviled him. Then he became frenzied, and called loudly for the Komans to come and kill him - the lioness roaring the while. All were amazed and terrified. Surely a weird, nanjeless happening! Their hearts were cold with f ear. And archers were ordered out. They killed the gladiator and the lioness with their arrows. A party of French soldiers, who were stationed at a post in the interior of Algeria, carne across a man uninjurod, but lying senseloss in tbesand. An immense