13 Tiger Adventure by Willard Price Read Free Book Online Page B

‘How can we get him in?’ Roger wondered.
    ‘Go into the cage and stick the pole through the back of the cage, take hold of the pole, and pull. I’ll be there to help you.’
    Roger did as Hal had suggested. Then both boys went round behind the cage, took hold of the end of the pole, and hauled away on it with all their strength.
    The animal did not feel well. At first he resisted, then he moved forward an inch at a time and finally found himself in the cage. Roger ran back to close the door.
    ‘How do we get the noose off his neck?’ Roger asked.
    Hal said, ‘Just leave it there. If he starts to rampage around we can pull the noose tight so that he won’t succeed in breaking the cage.’
    Just for the moment the great wild ox had no idea 6f breaking anything. The pain in his neck had quietened him down.
    ‘What do we do about that cut in his neck?’ said Roger.
    ‘Let it be,’ Hal advised. The blood has stopped already. I can squirt some antiseptic on the cut without going into the cage. The tiger’s teeth may have been a little dirty. He’ll be all right in a few days,’

Chapter 10
The Crazy-Cat Who Eats Himself
    A strange animal came prowling around the Hunt camp. It had a tan-coloured skin.
    Roger saw it first. He called Hal. ‘What do you think of that? It’s striped just like a tiger. Do you think it’s a young tiger?’
    ‘No, it’s a hyena.’
    ‘You’re nuts. We saw lots of hyenas in Africa. They didn’t have stripes.’
    ‘I know,’ replied Hal. ‘But the Indian hyena is a little different. It wears stripes. Dad wanted one of these. Let’s grab it.’
    ‘It looks like a kind of cat,’ Roger said. ‘Here pussy, here pussy. No, it looks more like a dog.’ And Roger barked.
    ‘It’s a little of both,’ Hal said. ‘You might call it a cat-dog.’
    The hyena began to laugh. ‘Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!’ Then he sang a very different tune: ‘Garrar! Gurr-rr-aal Guddar! Guddar! Guddar! Goo-doo! Goo-doo!’
    Then the beast made a screaming noise, starting low and running up high, staying high until it almost split the ears of the listeners, then dropping to low.
    Roger looked around. He wasn’t sure that all these sounds had come from this beast. The animal had a curious ability to throw its voice this way and that so that no other animal could tell where the sound was coming from.
    ‘What a curious beast!’ Roger said. ‘It’s not just a cat-dog. It has a dog’s face, a lion’s ears, and the body of a bear. It has the teeth of a tiger. Why doesn’t it run? Isn’t it afraid of us?’
    ‘It may be afraid, but it smells the animals in the cages and would like to get at them.’
    ‘But I thought hyenas didn’t attack live animals. Those In Africa just ate dead bodies.’
    These are a little different,’ Hal said. They are bolder than the others. ‘Hie headman of that village we visited told me that a hyena sneaked into a house, snatched up a baby, and ran out. The baby was very much alive and yelled to high heaven. The squalling was so loud that it frightened the hyena. It dropped the child and the mother ran out and got her baby.’
    Hal went into the cabin and came out with the lasso. He forgot to close the door. Behind his back, the cat-dog-lion-bear-tiger slipped into the cabin. There was a great crackling, grinding sound and the boys looked in to see the hyena eating a clock. That clock would never go again. The hyena is famous for its terrific jaws. After the clock was ground up and swallowed, the tiger-striped beast saw Hal’s best hat on a peg. He stood on his hind legs, pulled down the hat, chewed it up and swallowed it.
    Roger laughed, but Hal was not so happy. He threw his lasso. Then he dragged the animal out screaming« and screeching like a maniac. The monkeys in the trees set up a wild chattering and the birds joined in. Vic came running over to see what it was all about. The hyena pulled off one of his boots and ate it. Hal and Roger together pulled the beast to a