But in Hal’s way of doing it, there was no beating, no prodding, nothing whatever to cause fear. There was only love - the mother cat’s love had made her follow her young
They drove home. On the way, Roger had some questions to ask.
This lion doesn’t look a bit like the ones we saw in Africa. Why is that?’
‘Lions differ according to the country they are in. Much of East Africa is six thousand feet above sea level. So it is quite cold all the year round. The Gir Forest is only about a hundred feet above sea level. It is very hot here most of the year. The African lions have heavy coats to keep out the cold. Lions in the hot country wear light coats. Nature is pretty clever. She tries to make animals comfortable no matter where they live.’
They’re different all over,’ Roger said. These lions are fatter. Their heads are longer. Their legs look different, and their tails.’
They have an easier life than the African lions.’
‘Do the lions and tigers fight each other?’
‘No, they get along beautifully together. They seem to regard each other as cousins, not enemies. They really are cousins, you know. Their hides are quite different, but if you undress the tiger and the lion by removing their hides, you find that their bodies are exactly alike - the same organs, exactly the same bone structure. Even an expert can’t tell which is the tiger and which is the lion. Only their skins are different - one plain, and the other striped.’
‘But in the Bronx Zoo in New York, I saw a lion with stripes.’
Hal laughed. ‘Yes, that could happen. If a young animal has a lion for a mother and a tiger for a father, the youngster will be a tiger-lion. Such a crossbreed is called tigon. ‘Tig’ for tiger and ‘on’ for lion. Or a liger, ‘H’ for lion and ‘ger’ for tiger.’
That must have been what I saw - a liger.’
Reaching home, they took the lioness and her cub out of the small cage and put them into the great cage already inhabited by the tiger.
‘Is it safe?’ Roger asked. They might kill each other.’
‘Look at them,’ Hal said. ‘Now the two big ones are sniffing at each other, nose to nose. They are friends already. I’m sure the tiger is glad to have company.’
Roger brought some meat and put it into the cage. The tiger looked at it and the lion looked at it. Each politely waited for the other to eat. Finally they settled down to dinner, the lion nibbling at one end of the meat, the tiger at the other.
Hal and Roger walked to their cabin. Near the cabin was the cage of Big Fella, the elephant. The cage was empty. The elephant was nowhere to be seen.
‘He’s walked out on us!’ exclaimed Roger. ‘He seemed to like me - I never dreamed he’d up and leave me.’
‘No,’ Hal said, ‘he wouldn’t do that. Besides, he couldn’t open that door even with the thing that looks like a finger at the end of his trunk.’
‘So what?’ Roger wondered.
‘Somebody opened that door. Somebody forced him to come out and took him away. But who?’
For the answer to that, we shall have to look at what happened while the boys were away.
The three crooks lived in a barn that was not a barn. It once was a place for hay and horses, but now it had been converted into a sort of cabin for visitors.
They’ve gone,’ said Vic. ‘Now’s our chance to get that thousand-dollar bundle. Perhaps five thousand in the Tokyo Zoo. Come on. Let’s get Big Fella.’
They walked to the cage and opened it. The elephant was not as quiet as a lion. He let out a high, shrill scream like the whistle of a fire-engine.
There now, don’t get excited. No use hollering. Your boy friend is too far away to hear you,’ Vic said.
He took hold of the end of the elephant’s trunk. Big Fella jerked his trunk away. Then he picked up this rascal and threw him into a thorn bush twenty feet off. This bush is famous for its three-inch thorns, each one as sharp as a needle, ft is called Wait-a-Bit because once you get into it you are held by the thorns and must wait quite a long bit before you can get free.
Now Jim took his turn with the elephant. He kept away from the trunk and went around behind the beast. He twisted the tail of the monster. He didn’t know an elephant could kick, but he found out when he was plastered against the back wall of the cage.
It was Harry’s turn. He gave the screaming beast a resounding whack with a stick he had picked up outside. A huge foot knocked him down and held him down on the floor. If the elephant had rested all the weight of his heavy body upon the foot, Harry would have become a pancake. But, after all, Big Fella was not a killer. He lifted his foot and Harry made for the door holding his stomach.
Now the three took hold of the trunk and pulled. An elephant’s trunk is sensitive and the pull hurt. Big Fella began to move. They walked him out of the cage and down the road to their barn-house.
‘What’ll we do with him now?’ inquired Jim. We’ve got to hide him somewhere. If we tie him to a tree he’ll be found. Or else he’ll pull the tree down and escape.’
Harry, still nursing his injuries, had no suggestion.
Vic said, There’s only one thing we can do. Take him into our house.’
‘An elephant - in the house? You can’t do that,’ Jim said.
‘We can, and we must.’
‘But we couldn’t get him through the door.’
‘Of course we could. It’s a barn door twelve feet high. He’s only nine feet.’
So they opened the door and took their guest with them into his new home.
Then they let go of his trunk and he immediately swung it to knock all three of them down on the floor. With a scream of rage he crashed into the wall which, since this was only a barn after all, was made of boards. The boards broke, the splinters flew, the angry beast plunged through, ambled down the road muttering deep in his throat, and Hal and Roger who had just arrived saw him return to his cage. Then he saw Roger and as the boy came to him, Big Fella put his trunk round him and whispered little grunts and wheezes that said he was glad to be home.
‘Now I know who,’ said Hal. Those three crooks. But why in the world did they want that elephant?’
Chapter 13
Lion Lost
Someone was pounding at the door of the barn-house.
Vic opened the door. He faced a very angry-looking Indian. He owned the place and had rented it to the boys.
‘1 noticed that you have a great big hole in the wall. How did you manage to make that?’
‘We didn’t make it,’ Vic said. The elephant belonging to the Hunts did it.’
Then the Hunts will have to pay for it.’
That’s right. You go and see the Hunts. They’re always causing trouble. You make them come and repair that hole. I hope it costs them a lot.’
There’s just one thing I don’t understand,’ said the landlord. ‘All the broken pieces and chips are on the outside. If the elephant broke in there all that stuff would be inside, not outside.’
‘It was inside,’ said Vic, ‘but we threw it all outside. We didn’t want that mess in our living-room.’
‘You did the right thing,’ said the landlord. ‘How did you get the elephant out?’
Through the door.’
‘I see his muddy footprints on the floor.’ The landlord examined the prints carefully. Then he looked suspiciously at the boys. ‘You can’t fool me. Those prints show that the elephant was not going from the hole to the door. Instead, he was going from the door to the hole. You must have brought that elephant in through the door. Into my house. For some reason you wanted to hide him.’ He wagged his head back and forth as he figured out what must have happened. ‘You stole him from the Hunts. You brought him in here so no one could see what you had done. The elephant didn’t break in, he broke out. So you are responsible. Repairs will cost you one thousand rupees. And since you tried to fool me, I’ll just tack another thousand on to that. I’ll thank you for two thousand rupees.’
Vic wished he had told t
he truth. It would have cost less. Lying can be quite expensive.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Don’t you worry - we’ll pay you. You’ll have to wait a little while. We have no money, but some will be coming in, if you will just be patient.’
The boys looked so unhappy that the landlord decided to go easy with them.
‘I don’t think you fellows are very clever. But perhaps you are clever enough to hammer a few boards over that hole. All you have to do is buy the boards - they won’t cost much. That would be better than waiting for you to pay me two thousand rupees - I don’t believe I’d ever get it. Fix it yourselves. If you don’t, perhaps the police can persuade you.’
The boys didn’t like that word, ‘police’. Besides, the cold wind blowing in through that elephant-size hole was not too comfortable. So they accepted the landlord’s kind suggestion.
‘Next week we’ll do it,’ Vic said. It would never have occurred to Vic to do what needed to be done this week, this day, instead of putting it off until a later time.
He blamed the Hunts. If they hadn’t acquired that elephant the three crooks would not have been able to steal ft. So the Hunts were to blame for the whole thing.
The three boys drove their Land-Rover down to the Hunt camp. Vic went into the cabin and got one of Hal’s lassos. He tied one end to the car. Then they went quietly, very cautiously, to the cage that housed the tiger, the lion and cub.
Luckily, die lion’s head was near the door. Opening the door just a little, Vic slipped the noose of the lasso over the Ben’s head.
Then they leaped into the car and started it. The lion was pulled out of the cage. She might have roared her displeasure, but she had learned not to roar. The little cub did the roaring but it was only a little squeak. The tiger thundered.
The car dragged the lion down the road. But all was not going to be roses for the three thieves. The powerful lion broke the rope and retreated into a cave.
The boys stopped the car and followed. Hanging from the roof of the cave were dozens of beehives. Jim thought they were old hives without any bees. He smashed one with his stick. At once a swarm of bees descended upon the intruders. From all the hives more came and bees covered the heads and faces and arms of the boys and wriggled down into their clothes. Sharp stings plunged into warm flesh.
These were not ordinary bees. They were killer bees like those which, according to the newspapers, had begun to come up into the United States from South America, causing great suffering and death. The stings were very painful. This particular kind of bee loses its sting in the victim and then promptly dies itself. But for every one that died there were hundreds to take its place.
The boys ran on, hoping to leave the bees behind. They came to a small pool of water. The lion was on the other side. They must wade through the pool. It was not deep -just up to their knees. But their legs from the knees down began to give them a great deal of pain. Why should a little water hurt them? When they came out on the other side they saw that their legs were covered with leeches.
There are many leeches in some parts of India. They are worms that vary in length from one inch to half a foot These were the large variety. Every leech had a big sucker at one end and a small sucker at the other. In the middle was a mouth with sharp teeth. The leech fastens itself to the skin by the two suckers, and then sinks its teeth into the flesh and drinks blood until it becomes twice its ordinary size. It does not need any more food for a month. And it takes about a month for the wounds it makes to heal.
A curious thing about the leech is that it swims backward. It likes to live in water but it is also at home on land. j The wound that it makes keeps on bleeding for days.
The boys forgot their lion and made tracks for home. By . this time, all those stings from the killer bees had given them a severe attack of ague and fever.
They undressed and began pulling off leeches from all parts of their bodies where the bloodthirsty worms had crawled under their clothes.
Again, of course, the Hunts were to blame.
Everything is so big here.’ moaned Vic. ‘Big bees, big leeches, toads a foot long, big lions, big tigers, spiders as big as soup plates on webs that stretch twenty feet, the j biggest panda, the biggest gaur bull, the biggest deer, the biggest forest, the world’s biggest mountains and the biggest pests - Hal and Roger Hunt.’
At this very moment, Hal and Roger were learning about 1 rhinos. They had met one member of this species and it was giving them much difficulty. It had one horn, instead of ‘ two as in Africa, but it made up for this with enormous teeth with which it ate wait-a-bit thorn bushes as if they were lettuce and could chew up a human whenever it got a chance. The boys wished that Dad had not wanted a rhino.
The one that they were trying to catch frightened them with its terrific rushes, but when it came within ten feet of them it would apologise, turn round, go back, and then make another rush.
The boys had made a pit six feet deep and covered it with grass and bushes, hoping that the rhino would not notice the cover and would fall into the pit. They stood so that the pit was directly between them and the rhino. If the beast came to attack them he would certainly fall into the pit - or would he?
Their rhino was not as intelligent as a lion and constantly made sounds that told everyone exactly where he was. The rhino is said to make no sound, but that was not true of this Indian giant. He grunted, roared, bellowed, snorted and whistled. It is said that both the tiger and the elephant are afraid of the rhino. He had poor eyesight, but this rhino could dimly see the boys and each time he charged they m would step out of the way at the last moment and let him run past them. That was dangerous too, for a rhino, though half blind, can turn on a penny and then you are not out of his way, but in it. Every time the animal rushed he almost fell into the pit, but not quite.
He lowered his head as if he were going to spear the boys with his horn. But, unlike the African rhino, he did not use his horn which after all is not really horn but a twist of hair hardened to a point. To attack, he depended upon his mighty jaws.
What looked like iron plates covered his sides. In ancient history Indian rhinos had been used as tanks are now used in warfare. Protected on both sides by armour, it was almost impossible for an arrow to penetrate a rhino’s body.
‘He’s going to go into the pit this time.’ Hal said. There was a crashing of branches and bushes and the rhino fell into the pit.
Then the animal went crazy, thrashing about, whistling, tearing at one side of the pit until he pulled down a great deal of dirt and nearly escaped before the boys could get a noose around him. The other end of the rope was attached to the truck.
Then the truck was started, the rhino was drawn up the slanting side of the pit and down the road behind the truck, still grunting and whistling, to his cage.
Once inside it he changed completely. He was quiet and seemed thoughtful. Perhaps things were not going to be so bad after all. He was fed immediately and that made him take a much happier view of life. If a rhino is well treated he becomes tame in a few days.
Turning from the cage, the boys saw their lion coming down the road. She calmly went into her cage and was welcomed with many squeaks by her little cub.
Those three crooks must have taken her out,’ Hal said. Then she escaped from them and came back. Let’s go right down and have a talk with those fellows.’
Instead of knocking, they opened the barn door and walked in.
They were amazed at what they saw. Three boys lay on their cots, twisting, squirming, whining, bleeding, and every one with high fever.
Hal had intended to scold. But this took all the scold out of him.
‘You poor sons o’ guns. Whatever happened?’
‘Bees,’ Vic said. ‘Leeches. Oh, mother of Moses. I wish we had kept out of that cave.’
‘Bees!’ exclaimed Hal. ‘You’re lucky you’re still alive. Roger, sprint down to the cabin and get that bottle of bee-salve.’
Roger was back in a hurry
and the two started sealing the wounds of the three culprits.
‘When will you boys ever learn?’ Hal said. ‘It’s troublemakers like you who get into trouble. You’d have a much better life if you didn’t try to be so smart.’
‘Guess you’re right,’ admitted Vic. But in his heart he still blamed Hal for everything that had happened. ‘We might have died,’ he said. ‘If you mean to take care of us why don’t you stay home instead of gallivanting all over the place while we suffer?’
Hal did not answer this silly argument but continued dressing wounds. He wondered what dirty trick these big hunters would think of tomorrow.
Chapter 14
Roger’s Tiger
‘No hunting today,’ said Hal.
‘Why not?’ Roger asked.
‘I’ve got to look after those three sick guys. They’ve had a terrific dose of bee-poison - not to mention their loss of blood to the leeches. They are covered with bee-bumps. ‘ They have a high fever and a bad case of ague.’
‘What’s ague?’
It’s a kind of malaria. Chills and fever. You saw yesterday what it did to them. With ague, you shiver and shake with the cold no matter how hot the weather is. Then, all of a sudden, you are boiling and sweating and gasping for air. And if the attack is too severe, you die.’
Roger thought for a moment that dying would be just the right thing for these three hoodlums. But he was ashamed of himself for thinking it, and said, ‘Can’t you get a doctor? Why do you have to bother about it?’
There’s probably no doctor within a hundred miles. No, it’s up to me. We’ve got some things in our medicine chest that may help them.’
‘Well, what will I do all day?’
‘Feed the animals. Take care of them. You don’t need to worry about those crooks taking one of our animals away. They’re too sick to try any tricks today.’
13 Tiger Adventure Page 6
