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Tamba, The Tame Tiger; His Many Adventures

<h2 id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX TAMBA IN THE SUBWAY</h2> Tamba, the tame tiger, had really come to the city on a load of hay. I know it sounds very strange to say that, but it really happened. I have often seen dogs riding along on a load of hay that had started to ride in the country, at the farmhouse where they lived, and had come all the way to the city. So if a dog can ride on a load of hay I don’t see why a tiger can’t, especially when he is a tame tiger. Anyhow, that’s what Tamba did. He rode along on the load of hay until it reached the big, noisy city. But the funny part of it was that the man who drove the load of hay didn’t know he was giving a ride to a tiger. If he had known that I don’t believe he would have guided his horses along so easily, nor do I believe the horses themselves would have gone so quietly. But there Tamba was, snugly curled up in a little nest on top of the load of hay, where no one could see him. He could look out and down at the city streets through which he was passing, and he saw many strange sights. But he was[85] used to them, and he was not afraid of being in the city. For he remembered having seen a city like this many times before when he was in his cage and the circus parade had gone up and down the streets to show the animals, so that boys and girls would be all the more anxious to come to the performance. “Well, I wonder what will happen to me now,” thought Tamba, as the hay wagon rumbled along the city streets. “I can’t stay here much longer. Some one will be sure to see me, and perhaps the man who owns this hay is taking it to the very circus where I used to live. If that happens they’ll get me back in a cage again, and I don’t want that to happen. I must be very careful!” On and on went the load of hay, with Tamba hiding at the top, and, pretty soon, the man drove into a sort of big yard. There were trees, and grass, and some buildings. But what made Tamba sit up and sniff eagerly was the smell of wild animals. I dare say you have often noticed it yourself when you have gone to the circus. Even with your eyes shut you can tell as soon as you enter the wild animal tent. “Dear me, this is very strange!” thought the tame tiger. “Can the man, with his load of hay, have brought me back to the very circus from which I ran away? It smells so, but I don’t see[86] any of the big tents, nor yet the barn where I used to live in winter. Besides, this is summer, not winter. I wonder what it all means!” The more Tamba thought about it and the stronger the wild animal smell came to him, the more the tame tiger was puzzled. The load of hay, in which he was hidden, rumbled along, down a little hill, and then Tamba heard the man call: “Whoa!” That meant for the horses to stop. Tamba had often heard the circus men call that to their horses when they wanted them to stop pulling the big cage wagons, and so the tiger understood. “Now I wonder what will happen to me,” thought Tamba. He raised his head up from his snug nest in the hay and saw what he knew to be a barn, though it was not like the one near which he had met Squinty, the comical pig, nor like the one where he had frightened the boy Tom. “But it’s a barn all right,” thought Tamba. “And there must be some of my tiger, elephant and lion friends near it, else there wouldn’t be that wild animal smell. I wonder if Tum Tum, Nero and Dido are here. Maybe they brought them here after the train wreck.” Tamba did not know what to think, but what he wanted to do was to keep out of sight of any[87] men who might be around, until he could think of what to do. “For I’m not in my jungle, that’s sure,” said Tamba to himself. “And how to get there I don’t know. But I’m not going back to the circus if I can help it.” Tamba now felt some one pulling at the load of hay, as if about to unload it from the wagon. Then the tame tiger, giving a look over the side and seeing no one, slipped and slid down, and, noticing an open door in the barn, through it he ran and hid in a dark corner. “There! Now maybe they can’t find me!” thought the tiger. “I’ll stay here until it’s dark, and then run out. But where am I?” Tamba asked himself this question over and over again. Outside the barn he heard men talking and horses moving about, and with the wild animal smell came the sweet smell of new hay—the hay on which he had ridden to the city. “The man must be taking the hay off the wagon,” thought Tamba. “I can’t ride on it again. Well, perhaps I shall not need to. But I should like to know where I am, and what all this means.” For some time Tamba remained hidden in a dark corner of the barn, and then, suddenly, an animal came running in and Tamba knew at once what kind it was. For it was striped almost[88] the same as was the tiger himself—with yellow and black—and it was a zebra. “Oh, hello, my friend!” called Tamba, in animal talk, from the place where he was hidden. “Are you running away from the circus, too, Mr. Zebra?” “Circus? Why, no. I never was in a circus, though I’ve heard about such things,” the zebra answered. “But how did you get out of your cage? I didn’t know any of the tigers were loose.” “Oh, I got out some time ago, in a train wreck,” answered Tamba. “But what is the circus doing here, and have they had the parade yet?” “Look here!” exclaimed the zebra, as he chewed some wisps of hay he picked up from the barn floor. “I guess we don’t either of us know what the other is talking about. This isn’t a circus. This is a zoölogical park, in a big city, and I am one of the animals. Only, as I am very tame, they let me run about the yard where the barn is. We have some lions and tigers here, but they are kept in cages. Are you one of the zoo tigers?” “No,” answered Tamba. “I was a circus tiger. But I ran away, and I am going back to my jungle. So this is the zoo. Now I understand.” [89] What had happened was this. The farmer, on whose load of hay Tamba had hidden, gone to sleep, and been given a ride to the city, had brought the hay to the zoölogical park, to sell, as he often did. He had driven it right up to the barn to unload, and then it was that Tamba slipped off and hid before any one saw him. And the wild animal smell that Tamba noticed was the smell of the animals in the park. I suppose you have been to the zoölogical park near your own city, perhaps, and have noticed that smell. It is almost like a circus, so it is no wonder Tamba was puzzled. “So this is the zoo, is it?” he asked the zebra. “Well, I don’t want to stay here, any more than I want to stay in a circus. But how can I get away?” “Well, if you really belonged here, of course it wouldn’t be right for me to tell you how to get away,” said the zebra. “But as you are not one of the zoo animals, it will be all right for you to run off. You had better wait until it is dark, though, and then you can crawl out through the fence near the back of this barn. But you will be in the middle of a big city, and not in your jungle.” “I know,” said Tamba, sadly. “But I’m used to cities. I have been in parades in them often enough. I’ll find my way out somehow, and[90] then I’ll go to my jungle. But I wish I had something to eat. You haven’t a bone or a piece of meat, have you?” “I am sorry to say I have not,” replied the zebra. “All I eat is hay and grains. But I can show you where to get a drink of water.” “I shall like that,” said the tame tiger, “as I am very thirsty.” So the zebra showed the tiger where, in the barn, was a tub of water out of which the horses who worked in the zoölogical park got their drinks. There Tamba quenched his thirst and felt better. Then he crawled back into the dark corner to hide. The zebra had to go away, but he promised to come back and let Tamba know when it was dark enough for the tiger to run out and start afresh on his journey to the jungle. All that day Tamba remained hidden in the barn. He saw none of the other wild animals, and the zebra did not come back. Tamba was getting hungrier and hungrier, but he knew he dared not go out to look for anything to eat. If he had the park men would have seen him and chased after him, either catching him to put in one of their cages, or else sending him back to the circus. And Tamba did not want that. After a while it became darker. Tamba sneaked out and got another drink, and then in a[91] little while he heard the patter of the feet of his zebra friend on the floor of the barn. “Are you there, Tamba?” asked the zebra, in animal talk. “Yes,” answered the tiger. “Well, it’s dark enough now for you to set out,” went on the zebra. “Cut across the park over the big field you’ll see as soon as you leave this barn. That way will take you to a street where there are not so many cars and wagons as on the street nearest this side. It is quieter.” “That’s what I want—to be quiet,” said Tamba. “That’s why I want to go back to my jungle.” Tamba took another drink of water, for he did not know when he would get any more, and then, having said good-by to his friend, the striped zebra, the tame tiger went softly out of the barn into the night. He saw the big field and, on the other side, a row of lights. At first they looked like the lights around the circus tents when a night-show is being given, but when Tamba looked a second time he knew they were street lights. He was still in the big city. “Good-by!” called the zebra after him. “I hope you soon come to your jungle.” “Thank you! I hope so myself,” said Tamba. He ran across the big park field in the darkness.[92] No one saw him, for few persons are in the park at night. Tamba sniffed the air, and he smelled water. There was such a strong smell of water that Tamba knew it must come from a big river or a lake. “And it smells like salt water, too,” thought the tame tiger. “I remember that smell of salt water. I smelled it when they put me on a ship and brought me away from my jungle. Perhaps my jungle home is just across that salt water. I am going to see.” What Tamba smelled was the salt water of a big river that flowed through the city down to the ocean. And beyond the ocean lay the jungle. This much Tamba had guessed. “I am going toward that salt water,” said the tiger to himself. “This is the first time I have smelled it since I was on the ship. I believe, after all, I shall at last get to my jungle.” But there were quite a few adventures for Tamba to have before he reached his old home. On across the big field in the zoölogical park ran Tamba. He was coming nearer and nearer to the row of lights, nearer and nearer to the smell of salt water, and, also, nearer and nearer to a city street. It was this street that Tamba feared most. Once he was across that, he thought everything would be all right. [93] He came to a low, stone wall around the park. He looked and listened as well as he could. He did not see any one who he thought would try to catch him. With a leap and a bound Tamba cleared the low, stone wall and found himself on the sidewalk of a street. Just at this place, and at this time, there did not happen to be any wagons, street cars or automobiles. Tamba was beginning to think everything was coming along finely, and that he would easily get to the salt water when, all of a sudden, he heard a woman scream. Then a man, who was with her, cried: “What’s the matter? What is it?” “A tiger! A tiger! Look, there’s a tiger loose in the street!” “Why—why—so it is!” exclaimed the man, who, with the woman, had come walking along soon after Tamba leaped over the wall. “It’s a real, live tiger! It must have escaped from the zoo. I’ll drive it back!” “Oh, don’t! He might bite or claw you!” cried the woman. “Get a policeman!” “I will,” answered the man, and he began to call loudly. “This is no place for me!” quickly thought Tamba. “I must run and hide again.” Of course he did not know what the man and[94] woman were saying, but he knew that they would want to catch him, or call some one to do it, and so Tamba knew he must hide. He looked about for a good place to go. He did not want to jump back into the park. Up the street, a little way, he saw what he thought was the opening to a big cave. True, it was lighter than the entrance to the jungle cave where Tamba used to live, but perhaps it might do for a hiding place. “I’ll go in there!” decided Tamba. The tiger turned away from the man, who was still shouting for the police, and from the woman, who had covered her eyes with her hands, and then Tamba ran for what he thought was the doorway of a cave. At the entrance he could see that it stretched away out in a sort of dark tunnel. “This is the place for me!” said Tamba to himself, and the next moment he was running down some stone steps. As he went down he heard a loud rumbling and roaring. “Ha! There is going to be a thunder storm,” thought Tamba. “I came to this cave just in time!” And, back in the street, where they had first seen the jungle beast, the man and woman cried: “Oh, the tiger ran down into the subway! The tiger is in the subway!” <hr class="chap" /> [95] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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