Not an instant elapsed before he was in the enclosure, confronting the savage beasts. He realized at the first glance the full extent of his danger, and decided what to do. He discerned the trap-door at once and with drawn sword in his right hand rushed to it. At the same instant the beasts noticed him. The lithe, bloodthirsty monsters emerged from their lairs at once and advanced upon him in swift leaps. A large panther outstripped them all. He reached the Emperor from the left side in two bounds, followed closely by a huge lion from the right. Being still three paces away from the trap-door, a fearful struggle was unavoidable, for either of those terrible animals would have been a formidable foe for one man. [Illustration: _Redbeard and the Lion._] With the quickness of lightning the Emperor plunged his sword into the lion’s breast, at the same time tearing his cloak from his shoulders with his left hand and throwing it over the panther’s head. The hope of victory shone in the Emperor’s face; his most cruel enemy was harmless for the moment. Unopposed by him he advanced to the trap-door in the midst of numerous smaller but hardly less dangerous beasts seeking to pounce upon him, each in his own way. As the Emperor stooped to raise the trap-door, a leopard sprang over him and another was thrown back by the lifting of the trap-door, the panther still being enveloped in the cloak. All this took but an instant, but in that instant the Emperor sprang into a dark passage and the door closed down behind him. Our hero waited only long enough to make sure that he had securely fastened the door on the inside, for overhead there was a bedlam of roars and growls as if all the beasts of Asia and Africa were loose there. The shrieks and snarls of the smaller mingled with the heavy roars of the larger beasts. Sharp claws scratched on the door, and the animals tore at it and hurled themselves against it so furiously that it seemed as if they would burst it open, and the whole cruel pack fall upon the bold hero.