And now, as the two stood frozen in terror, I saw the author of
that fearsome sound creeping stealthily into view. It was a huge
tiger--such as hunted the great Bos through the jungles primeval
when the world was young. In contour and markings it was not unlike
the noblest of the Bengals of our own world, but as its dimensions
were exaggerated to colossal proportions so too were its colorings
exaggerated. Its vivid yellows fairly screamed aloud; its whites
were as eider down; its blacks glossy as the finest anthracite
coal, and its coat long and shaggy as a mountain goat. That it
is a beautiful animal there is no gainsaying, but if its size and
colors are magnified here within Pellucidar, so is the ferocity of
its disposition. It is not the occasional member of its species
that is a man hunter--all are man hunters; but they do not confine
their foraging to man alone, for there is no flesh or fish within
Pellucidar that they will not eat with relish in the constant efforts
which they make to furnish their huge carcasses with sufficient
sustenance to maintain their mighty thews.

Upon one side of the doomed pair the thag bellowed and advanced,
and upon the other tarag, the frightful, crept toward them with
gaping mouth and dripping fangs.

The man seized the spears, handing one of them to the woman. At
the sound of the roaring of the tiger the bull's bellowing became
a veritable frenzy of rageful noise. Never in my life had I heard
such an infernal din as the two brutes made, and to think it was
all lost upon the hideous reptiles for whom the show was staged!

The thag was charging now from one side, and the tarag from the
other. The two puny things standing between them seemed already