might as well have been launching soap bubbles at it.

Straight as a torpedo it rushed for Delcarte, and, as Taylor
and I stumbled on through the tall grass toward our
unfortunate comrade, we saw the tiger rear upon him and
crush him to the earth.

Not a backward step had the noble Delcarte taken. Two
hundred years of peace had not sapped the red blood from his
courageous line. He went down beneath that avalanche of
bestial savagery still working his gun and with his face
toward his antagonist. Even in the instant that I thought
him dead I could not help but feel a thrill of pride that he
was one of my men, one of my class, a Pan-American gentleman
of birth. And that he had demonstrated one of the principal
contentions of the army-and-navy adherents--that military
training was necessary for the salvation of personal courage
in the Pan-American race which for generations had had to
face no dangers more grave than those incident to ordinary
life in a highly civilized community, safeguarded by every
means at the disposal of a perfectly organized and all-
powerful government utilizing the best that advanced science
could suggest.

As we ran toward Delcarte, both Taylor and I were struck by
the fact that the beast upon him appeared not to be mauling
him, but lay quiet and motionless upon its prey, and when we
were quite close, and the muzzles of our guns were at the
animal's head, I saw the explanation of this sudden
cessation of hostilities--Felis tigris was dead.