He only said one word that I could hear, and I could not catch what the word was; but instantly the black brute slunk away to the corner of its cage farthest from the iron door, and at that the Mahatma opened the door without using any key that I detected.

The padlock may have been a trick one, but I know this;--it came away in his hands the moment he touched it.
Then at last he took notice of King and me again.

He stood aside, and smiled, and motioned to us with his hand to enter the cage ahead of him.
I have been several sorts of rash idiot in my time, and I daresay that King has too, for most of us have been young once; but I have also hunted panthers, and so has King, and to walk unarmed or even with weapons--into a black panther's cage is something that calls, I should say, for inexperience.

The more you know about panthers the less likely you are to do it.

It was almost pitch-dark; you could see the brute's yellow eyes gleaming, but no other part of him now, because he matched the shadows perfectly; but, being a cat, he could see us, and the odds against a man who should walk into that cage were, as a rough guess, ten trillion to one.
"Fear is the presence of death, and death is delusion.