She could hear nothing, though she listened with all her might; those horrible, snarling cries no longer made the woods ring. Stupefied, she felt her arms and legs, as if to make sure they were whole, and then slowly and falteringly began to make her way back to the house with the instinct of a lost dog. “Dey got him dat time, sure!” she thought, stumbling through the hot, dark undergrowth, a ludicrous fat figure in stained white clothes, crowned with a frizzy mop of hair that would have humiliated her, could she have seen it. “I’ll go back to de big house; if dey ain’t gone I kin hide, and dey can’t lock me in so I can’t get out again. And I ain’t got nowhar else to go. Dese woods ain’t wholesome at night; black meat and white looking mighty like in de dark!” But as she came cautiously out on the hillside and could see the bay, she flung herself down behind some bushes and crept on all fours into thicker cover. The yacht was going. She could see it rounding the point. “Glory, glory!” said the woman soberly. “Dey’s gone. I kin go up to de house and get rested, and to-morrow I’ll tramp through de woods to dat place Mr. Heriot’s went to. I guess I kin take in washing wid de best of ’em, and dey ain’t no one going to know me, neither. ’Cause a man dat’s inside a jaguar ain’t goin’ to talk--and der ain’t no one else!” She walked on wearily to the great hall door, and was just closing it behind her when, from the hillside behind the house, the dreadful cry of a hunting jaguar brought her heart to her mouth. With frenzied haste she bolted the heavy door and the lower windows; but there came no sound of padded feet in the garden, no soft, heavy tread against window or door. Only that wailing cry rang out insistently, as if some beast called to its mate in vain. Salome, safe in her fortress, had time to listen; and knew in another instant that it was no beast that called. The imitation was good enough for Egerton, but not for Salome, who knew the real thing. “’Pears like de end o’ de world!” she said to herself; but, with the end of Egerton, her heart had an end of fear. “Dat crazy man’s on top dis time, but de Lawd be praised, I ain’t out on no sea dis day! Oh, my poor ladies, my poor ladies! But you’re free dis minute same as me. De master’s dead!” She said it with a shudder, for the beast that had passed her with long, noiseless bounds had not gone so quickly that she had not had time to see the dreadful teeth in its red, drooping jaw. From very force of habit, she turned and went round the house, inspecting each bolted door. She must sleep in here to-night, for she was too shaken to cross the courtyard with that snarling whine ringing in her ears. She was dizzy, too, with her long run in the heat, and she climbed up-stairs painfully. It would feel safer to sleep up there, but her trembling legs would scarcely carry her.