“Zouhr is not going to make a fire!” exclaimed the son of Urus reprovingly. “There is no wind; the ground of our refuge is bare; the bamboos are young,” said Zouhr striking the stone flint against the marcasite ... “Zouhr has only need of a little fire!” Aoun did not insist. He watched the sparks rise from the twigs, while his companion lighted the end of a turpentine stick. It soon threw out a bright light. Then, leaning towards one of the openings, the son of Earth flung the burning brand towards the tiger.... The flame described a parabola and fell among the dry grass. It was the most arid part of the moor, where the nocturnal vapours had not yet formed.... The tiger started up at sight of the glittering projectile, which disappeared among the tall grass stalks. Aoun laughed silently. Zouhr was carefully considering whether he should light another torch. Only a twinkling red glow remained among the vegetation. The tiger lay down again. After a moment’s hesitation Zouhr lit the second turpentine stick. The fire had just caught the point of it, when a livid jet appeared where the first had fallen, ran up the grass stalks, and made a line of light. The wild beast rose up with a roar, and was about to spring when Zouhr flung the second burning brand. It struck the brute on the chest. Maddened, it turned round and round and bounded from side to side in zigzags. The fire, with a dry crackling sound, seemed to gallop its way through the tall grass; then it disseminated itself in sheafs and enveloped the wild beast.... The carnivore gave a cry of fury, plunged through the flames and fled. “It will not come back,” Zouhr asserted. “No beast returns to the place where it has been burnt.” His companion’s cunning delighted Aoun. His laugh was no longer silent but rang out over the moor, like a joyous war-cry. “Zouhr is more cunning than Goun of the Dry Bones,” he said enthusiastically. He laid his muscular hand on the shoulder of the son of Earth. The tiger did not return. Aoun and Zouhr slept till day-break. A mist covered the moor and the jungle; silence and stillness lasted till the full dawn. Then the day animals began to stir. A loud clamour rose from the river and the trees of the forest. The son of Urus came out of the refuge and studied the landscape. No suspicious odour alarmed his nostrils and some axis passed by, which reassured him still more. He went back to Zouhr and said, “We will continue our journey; but we will first go in a westerly direction so as not to meet the tiger.”