It had lasted but an instant when I saw the leopardess out of the cage, walking quietly to the open door.

As I hastened after her I threw a glance behind me: there was the leopardess in the cage, couching motionless as when I saw her first.
The moon, half-way up the sky, was shining round and clear; the bodiless shadow I had seen the night before, was walking through the trees toward the gate; and after him went the leopardess, swinging her tail.
I followed, a little way off, as silently as they, and neither of them once looked round.

Through the open gate we went down to the city, lying quiet as the moonshine upon it.

The face of the moon was very still, and its stillness looked like that of expectation.
The Shadow took his way straight to the stair at the top of which I had lain the night before.

Without a pause he went up, and the leopardess followed.