Aoun had already got ready his spear, and Zouhr, fearing that flight might be followed by pursuit, also prepared himself to fight. It was he who first hurled his weapon. It whistled above the waters and hit the brute close to its right eye. With a terrible roar it made its spring, but blood impeded its sight; its bound had not that awful precision which condemned to death all within its reach. The long body fell into the torrent, turned round and round, and clung to the bank by its front paws. Aoun threw himself upon it, his spear struck its breast, missing the shoulder.... Maddened with rage the brute hoisted himself on to the bank and charged the men. It was lame, and it moved slowly; Zouhr pierced its side with a second spear, while the son of Urus wounded it on the neck.... Then, holding their clubs in readiness, they waited. Aoun faced the attack and brought down his weapon on the tiger’s head, while the Wah attacked it from behind and aimed at the vertebrae.... One of its claws tore the Oulhamr’s body, but by stepping aside he made it slip, and the club, crashed down on the tiger’s nostrils, momentarily arrested its course.... Before it could spring again, Aoun’s club came down for the third time with such force that the tiger remained motionless, as if it slept. Then, without pausing for a moment, the two companions belaboured its vertebrae and legs with blows. The enormous body sank down, with terrible convulsions, and the son of Urus having put out its left eye, the wild beast was at the men’s mercy. A spear thrust let out its heart’s blood. From _The Giant Cat_ by J. H. Rosny. By permission of the publishers, Robert M. McBride and Company. THE STORM PIERRE LOTI ... It had changed its aspect, also, and its colour, the sun of Iceland, and it opened this new day by a sinister morning. Completely rid of its veil, it gave out great rays which traversed the sky in jets, announcing impending storms. It had been too fine in the last few days and a change was due. The wind blew on this assembly of boats, as if it felt the need of scattering them, of ridding the sea of them; and they began to disperse, to flee like a routed army--simply before this menace written in the air, about which there could be no mistake. And it steadily increased in strength, until men and ships alike shivered at it. The waves, still small, began to chase one another, to group themselves. They had been marbled at first with a white foam which spread over them in slaver; but presently, with a sound of crackling, they gave out a smoke of spray; one would have said that the sea was boiling, that it was burning--and the shrill noise of it all augmented from minute to minute.