13 Tiger Adventure (8 page)

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.

‘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.’

Hal picked up his bag of remedies, and left.

Roger fed the animals - but that didn’t take long. He was a very active boy and wanted something to do. Why not take a little ride?

He climbed into the truck, and set out. He didn’t expect to meet any wild beasts on the road. He enjoyed the fresh air, and the sounds that came from the forest. There was the

chattering of a langur monkey. He heard a whistling sound. He guessed that it was the voice of the bird called the Whistling Schoolboy. Morning and evening, this bird pours out its song while in flight, whistling in a soft, sweet minor key a song that has no beginning and no end.

He heard a peacock give its piercing call from the topmost branch of a giant tree. And he heard other birds that he had come to know - the drongos, golden orioles, and rosy pastors which drank the nectar of the samal flowers. Kingfishers went skimming over the river. A horned owl had settled for the day on a branch of the pipal tree overhanging the stream.

The trees swarmed with fly-catchers, woodpeckers, bul-buls with red whiskers, and three kinds of sunbirds - red, purple, and green.

What a paradise the Gir Forest was for all sorts of wildlife.

He was a happy boy - but not so happy when his engine went dead halfway up a gentle slope.

Roger thought he saw something strange out of the corner of his eye. He turned his eyes full upon it. What he saw made him perspire. A magnificent tiger was lying on a rock at the side of the road. Here the boy was sitting in an open truck that wouldn’t go. The tiger could reach him in two leaps.

Roger shivered as if he had some of the ague that afflicted the three crooks. There was nothing to prevent the tiger from hopping into the truck and making a breakfast of the driver.

But the tiger looked very sleepy. He gazed at the boy and the truck with half-closed eyes. He was evidently full of food and had no desire to make a meal of this fine boy.

What had he eaten, and where was it? He had killed something, had eaten as much as he could hold, and left the rest for another meal later.

What he had killed and partly eaten could not be far away. Roger quietly slipped out of the truck, walked up the slope, and then into the forest.

He searched for two hours before he found it - the remains of a chital deer.

Roger knew what he must do. He went back to his truck. The tiger had disappeared. This time the engine came to life and Roger turned about and headed for home.

Hal was not there. He must be at the barn-house. Roger drove up there and walked in.

Hal was tending his patients as they squirmed and wriggled, freezing cold one moment and boiling hot the next.

‘Come away for a minute,’ Roger said. ‘I want to tell you something. I’m going to get a tiger.’

Hal laughed. ‘A hundred-and-thirty-pound boy is going to get a five-or six-hundred-pound tiger. That’s a good joke.’

‘No, I’m in earnest. I’ve seen the tiger and I’ve seen the ‘kill’ that he had been feeding on. It was a chital and there’s a lot of meat there still, Some time between now and morning the tiger will be coming back to eat more. I’m going to be there, and I’ll get him.’

‘If he doesn’t get you,’ Hal said,

‘He won’t get me. I’ll be on a machan up in a tree. I may have to stay there all night. I thought you ought to know, so you wouldn’t come hunting for me.’

Hal said, ‘Listen, kid brother. You’re too young to challenge the king of beasts.’

‘I’m going to try,’ Roger said. ‘If you have any advice to give me, spill it now.’

Hal saw that his brother was determined. ‘I wish I could go with you,’ he said, ‘but I’ve got to stick here with my patients. If you must go, here are a few tips. Build your tree platform, what they call a machan, about twenty feet up in the tree. Just remember that a tiger can make a leap straight up fifteen feet. If you build your platform at less than fifteen feet, he’ll get you. There are some boards near the cabin. You’re a good carpenter -I know you’ll make a good solid machan so if you go to sleep you won’t fall off. Take a sleep-gun with you. And be sure to dress warmly. With the wind coming down from the snows on the mountains, you need to have plenty on in order to keep warm. Take a torch so that you can see the animal plainly when you shoot.’

‘Is that all?’

That’s all I can tell you. After you put the tiger to sleep, how are you going to hoist him on to the truck? He’ll weigh about a quarter of a ton. I don’t know how you’re going to do it. I don’t believe you can, so why not just give up this crazy idea?’

‘No thanks,’ Roger replied. ‘I’ll figure out a way to get him up on to the truck.’

Take care of yourself. Your mother and father would never forgive me if anything happened to you.’

Roger drove back to the cabin to get what he needed - the boards, nails, a hammer, torch and sleep-gun - also a couple of extra sweaters to put on when the night became cold.

Then he drove back to the kill. He climbed a tree not far from the dead chital, and about twenty feet up he found two level branches that would make a good support for his machan. He got to work at once, but it was sunset before he finished his job.

Then he lay down and rested. But it was a restless rest. He was tormented by the problem that his brother had not been able to solve. Suppose the tiger came and ate, and was put to sleep - what then?

Roger wondered how he was going to get a beast four times his own weight up into the truck.

Suddenly it came to him. He climbed down the tree, went to the remains of the chital, picked them up one piece at a time, and put them into the back of the truck. Then he clambered back to his platform.

He was welcomed by a low growl. It was now quite dark but Roger recognised that growl. It was the same as the voice of the leopard who was already in a cage.

A leopard had found his platform and considered it a very convenient place to spend the night. Roger could not see the animal but the leopard had very keen eyes and was a night animal, quite able to see Roger. It slashed out at his head and came away with its claws full of hair. Roger had wanted a haircut but hadn’t expected to get it from a leopard.