I did not fail myself! Like a rock I knelt; braced and with certain eye I aimed the spear between the huge forelegs and on the broad tawny breast, even in that fraction of a moment when the beast was in the air almost above me. Fairly in the breast the spear-head struck and, with a roar of beastly suffering, the lion, impaled, came down upon me. I was borne to earth and, even as he turned in his agony, a stroke from his mighty paw crushed my right arm at the elbow, the bones cracking sickeningly. Then his great jaws sought my throat to tear it. Never again should I gaze across our Northern Sea; never again should I look upon the face of the slender Red Leaf. CHAPTER IX THE KITCHEN-MIDDENITES Great rollers were coming in upon what must be a rugged beach, for their clamour was appalling. Such roaring, thunderous sound of water I did not remember to have heard before, and I wondered where I was. It was dark where I lay upon what seemed a mass of weed in a hut-like place, having at the side a low door reminding one of the entrance to a burrow of some animal. It was nearing morning now, for it began slowly to grow lighter and I could distinguish my surroundings better. There was little to consider, though upon one side of the strange place lay what I knew to be a stone axe such as I had carried once, and there were other things which might be weapons, but the use of some of which I could not then understand. I knew well that I could not be quite myself, else I would remember more. I was dazed as I had seen wild beasts sometimes become when great rocks had been rolled down from heights above and some had been struck upon the head and wandered about unknowingly and helplessly. Only I had no pain. I felt strong, and I was hungry.