The main entrance was in the centre of the front--a low arch that seemed half an ellipse.

No one was visible, the doors stood wide open, and I went unchallenged into a large hall, in the form of a longish ellipse.

Toward one side stood a cage, in which couched, its head on its paws, a huge leopardess, chained by a steel collar, with its mouth muzzled and its paws muffled.

It was white with dark oval spots, and lay staring out of wide-open eyes, with canoe-shaped pupils, and great green irids.

It appeared to watch me, but not an eyeball, not a foot, not a whisker moved, and its tail stretched out behind it rigid as an iron bar.