CHAPTER XITAMBA ON THE SHIP
The sun was brightly shining when Tamba, the tame tiger, awakened in his bed at the dock. I call it a “bed” for he had snuggled down on a pile of bags between some boxes and bales, and this is as good a bed as ever a tiger asks for. Often they are glad enough to sleep on the bare boards of the circus cages, and even in their jungle caves they never have more than a pile of dried leaves or grass.
Tamba could look out through the cracks between the boxes and bales and see the yellow sunshine on the dock. The sunshine made yellow stripes, almost the color of Tamba’s tawny coat. He could feel the soft, warm wind blowing in on him, and he could also smell the salt water.
“I am in the right place at last,” thought Tamba. “But I must be careful. I do not want to be caught when I am so near my jungle.”
You see Tamba did not know just how far it was down the big salt river and across the big, salt ocean to his jungle home. All he knew wasthat the salt water here smelled just as the salt water had smelled when he was put on the ship, to be brought away from his home in India.
And there were ships at the dock. Tamba could see them, but he knew better than to run out now and get on board one. For, now that it was daylight, there were many men on the dock. They were driving their wagons and drays about, laden as they were with things to go on board the ships, and Tamba knew that if he ran out, in plain sight of these men, some of them would chase him, and, perhaps, catch him.
“So I’ll just stay hidden here until it gets dark again,” thought Tamba to himself. “Then I’ll go on one of those big floating houses, which Tum Tum says are called ships, and I’ll get back to my jungle. If I wait until night no one will see me, and then they can’t catch me to send me back to the circus.”
So Tamba curled up in his snug little nest among the boxes and barrels on the pier, and remained hidden. Of course if men had come to take away those particular boxes they would have found Tamba, but, as it happened, they did not, and so he was safe.
After a while, though, Tamba began to feel hungry. Milk for a tiger, even though it happened to be the full top of a can, is not enough. He must have meat, and meat was what Tambawanted just then. He sniffed and smelled around among the boxes and bales which formed his nest, but no meat smell came to his nose. If one of the boxes had happened to have meat in it, perhaps Tamba might have clawed it open and gotten a meal. But, as it was, there was nothing for him to eat.
“Never mind,” he thought to himself; “perhaps to-night, when I get on the ship, I can find something good to eat.”
But Tamba was to have something before then. About noon the dock on the edge of the salty river, where many ships were tied, became a very busy place. Though Tamba did not know it, the ships were being loaded with things to be taken across the sea and sold.
The dock was crowded with wagons, horses, automobiles and men, all being driven or hurrying to and fro, to get the big ships ready to sail. For there were two ships in this dock, one on either side of the pier, and Tamba was in a place called a warehouse, in between the two vessels.
So, as I say, the dock and warehouse was a very busy place at noon. And as men must eat, as well as tigers, when the twelve o’clock whistles blew some of the drivers tied their horses wherever they happened to be, put nose-bags of oats on the horses’ necks, and then the men went to get their own dinners.
Now, as it happened, a wagon, with a load of meat on it, was stopped by its driver near Tamba’s place. The end of the wagon, which was filled with big pieces of beef, pork, and mutton, was near the hole among the boxes where the tiger was hiding. And of course Tamba could easily smell this meat. In fact, the smell of it awakened him from a little sleep into which he had fallen.
“Ha! What’s that?” asked the tiger of himself, as he opened his eyes. He sniffed harder. The meat smell became plainer. Then he looked up. Right over his head was the end of a big wagon, where the man driving it had backed it to get it out of the way while he fed his horses and went to get his own dinner. And on the end of the wagon was some nice, juicy meat, just the kind Tamba had been fed in the circus. Only there was more meat than Tamba had ever seen at one time before.
The meat, as I suppose you have guessed, was to be put on board one of the ships to feed the passengers and crew on its journey over the salty sea. Of course Tamba did not know that. All he knew was that he felt very hungry, and that here was meat.
“Well, it was very kind of some one to bring me so much meat,” thought the tiger to himself. “I’m sure I’m much obliged to them. And theyleft me to myself to eat it, too. They didn’t stay to stare and watch me, as the folks do in the circus. This is very nice.”
So Tamba rose up on his hind legs, and, hidden as he was in his snug nest, where no one saw him, and with the end of the meat wagon so easily within reach, the tame tiger made a good meal. Of course he chewed the ends off several nice pieces of meat that were meant to go on board the ship, but it did not completely spoil them, and, after all, the tame tiger was very hungry.
“My, but this tastes good!” thought the tiger, as he took bite after bite of juicy beef. “This is even better than the circus. I can have as much as I want, and there are no bones to hurt my teeth. Of course I like to gnaw a bone now and then, but when I am as hungry as I am now I want just plain chunks of meat.”
And Tamba had all he wanted. He just stood there and ate and ate from the back of the wagon, and then, licking his jaws to make them clean, he curled up in his nest again, and went to sleep once more.
And when the man came back, after having had his lunch, to take the oat-bags from the heads of his horses, he was in such a hurry to get his wagon unloaded, was this man, that he never noticed where Tamba had chewed the meat.
And it was not until some days later, when the butcher on the ship was cutting up the meat, that it was noticed that some of the pieces were chewed as if by some animal.
“I guess the dock rats did it,” said the ship butcher. And he never knew it was Tamba, any more than the grocer knew it was a tiger that had tipped over his can of milk.
After his good meal Tamba had a fine sleep, and it was quite dark when he awoke again. He peered out from between the boxes, barrels and bales, and he saw that there were no men, horses or drays at the dock. It was deserted and quiet. But, over at one side, Tamba could still see the ships, or “floating houses,” as he called them.
“Now if I can get on one of those ships I’ll soon be back at my jungle,” thought Tamba to himself. “But I wonder which one to go on?”
Carefully and quietly he slunk out of his hiding place. He walked along until he came to where a sort of bridge, which is called a gangplank, led up to the deck of the ship. Here Tamba smelled a smell that he very well knew. It was a tiger smell—the smell of a wild beast.
“Ha! If there have been wild jungle animals here, this is the very ship I want to go on,” thought Tamba. “This must have come from jungle-land. At no other place can I smell the wild animal smell. This is the ship for me!I’ll get on, hide away, and have a nice ride back to my jungle.”
So, seeing no one about, Tamba walked softly up the plank, and stepped softly to the deck of the big ship. And he managed to crawl down into a hole without any one seeing him. Down in a hole, among some boxes and barrels, just like those on the dock, Tamba hid himself.
“Now for my jungle!” he said to himself as he curled up.