And the she-lion lay watching them, her eyes like burning yellow coals, not moving a muscle that we could see.
Iron could not have withstood the blows; the thunder of them reached us in the tree! Steel ropes could not have endured the strain as claws went home, and the brutes wrenched, ripped, and yelled in titanic agony.

Their fury increased.

Wounds did not seem to enfeeble them.
Nothing checked the speed of the fighting an instant, until suddenly the lioness stood erect, gave a long loud call like a cat's, and turned and vanished.
She had seen.

She knew.

Like a spring loosed from its containing box one of the lions freed himself in mid-air and hurtled clear, landing on all-fours and hurrying away after the lioness with a bad limp.