‘Hush!’ whispered the King, ’thou hast hit right upon my trouble.  I knew no one unto whom I might confide it; but thou seemest a faithful fellow, and I will tell thee.  Listen, then,’ continued his Majesty in an agitated whisper, ’there is some awful beast that was never seen before in this wood here; and we shall have to leave it, look you.  Did you hear by chance the inconceivable great roar he gave?  What a strong beast it must be to have such a voice!’

‘May it please your Majesty, I did hear the noise,’ said the Jackal, ’and there is doubtless cause for terrible apprehension therein; but take comfort, my Liege, he is no minister who bids thee prepare for either war or resignation.  All will go well, and your Majesty will learn by this difficulty which be your best servants,’

‘Good Jackal,’ said Tawny-hide, ‘I am horribly frightened about it.’

‘I can see that,’ thought Damanaka; but he only said, ’Fear nothing, my liege, while thy servant survives,’

‘What shall I do?’ asked the King.

’It is well to encourage those who can avert disaster.  If your Majesty condescended now to bestow some favor on Karataka and the other——­’

‘It shall be done,’ said the Rajah; and, summoning the other Jackals, he gave them and Damanaka a magnificent gift of flesh, and they left the presence, undertaking to meet the threatened danger.

‘But, brother,’ began Karataka,’haven’t we eaten the King’s dinner without knowing what the danger is which we are to meet, and whether we can obviate it?’

‘Hold thy peace,’ said Damanaka, laughing; ’I know very well what the danger is!  It was a bull, aha! that bellowed—­a bull, my brother—­whose beef you and I could pick, much more the King our master.’

‘And why not tell him so?’ asked Karataka.

’What! and quiet his Majesty’s fears!  And where would our splendid dinner have been then?  No, no, my friend—­

    ’Set not your lord at ease; for, doing that,
    Might starve you as it starved “Curd-ear” the Cat.’

‘Who was Curd-ear, the Cat?’ inquired Karataka.  Damanaka related:—­

THE STORY OF THE CAT WHO SERVED THE LION

“Far away in the North, on a mountain named ‘Thousand-Crags,’ there lived a lion called ‘Mighty-heart’; and he was much annoyed by a certain mouse, who made a custom of nibbling his mane while he lay asleep in his den.  The Lion would wake in a great rage at finding the ends of his magnificent mane made ragged, but the little mouse ran into his hole, and he could never catch it.  After much consideration he went down to a village, and got a Cat named Curd-ear to come to his cave with much persuasion.  He kept the Cat royally on all kinds of dainties, and slept comfortably without having his mane nibbled, as the mouse would now never venture out.  Whenever the Lion heard the mouse scratching about, that was always a signal for regaling the Cat in a most distinguished style.  But one day, the wretched mouse being nearly starved, he took courage to creep timidly from his hole, and was directly pounced upon by Curd-ear and killed.  After that the Lion heard no more of the mouse, and quite left off his regular entertainments of the Cat.  No!” concluded Damanaka, “we will keep our mouse alive for his Majesty.”