Talking thus, we approached the cages. There, too, all was still. Tigers, lions, panthers, leopards, all were asleep in their various compartments. Mathias van Guitt wisely did not put them together until they were somewhat tamed by a few weeks of captivity. Otherwise, the brutes would most certainly have eaten each other up the very first day.
The three lions crouched motionless in a half circle like huge cats. Nothing of their heads could be seen, so buried were they in a thick muff of black fur, and they slept the sleep of the just.
Slumber was less profound in the tigers’ apartment. Their glowing eyes flamed through the dusk. Now and again a great paw would be stretched out, clawing at the iron bars. This was the sleep of fretful and impatient carnivora.
“They are having bad dreams,
