The Rajah's Fortress — page 195: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

184 THE RAJAH’S FORTRESS. panther still clinging to his back. Bolton and McGore ran fearlessly to head him off, while Mom- bagolo and two savages guarded the rear, thus shutting Goliah in between them. No trace could be seen of the tigers. They had plainly made good their escape in the confusion. As McGore poked the hissing, red iron into Goliah’s face the panther, with a ferocious snarl, leaped off and rushing past Mombagolo vanished in the darkness. In visible fear Goliah retreated backward, but was brought up short by a stinging tap from Mombagolo. A little clever maneuvering turned him toward his cage and then, by dint of many manipulations with the irons, the surly brute was made to enter the door, so strong was his aver- sion to fire. Bolton slid the fastenings in an instant, and then cried out: “Bring hot irons. Quick now. I would not lose that Java panther for a king’s ransom.” It was just at this juncture that Forbes woke up, as it were, to a keen sense of their peril. What madness for them all to be running about here un- armed, chasing a couple of brutes, when at their very gate lay an enemy ten times more cruel and relentless. Goliah had driven them from the court, but they were close at hand somewhere. Was it likely they would slink off like whipped curs leav- ing the dead and mangled bodies of their comrades to lie unavenged on the cold ground? Why at COLUM 1OOO SS co