13 Tiger Adventure (14 page)

Pyjama-clad, they rushed out to find Vic setting fire to the cabin. Roger doused the flame with a pail of water while Hal grabbed Vic and tossed him into the river. Vic climbed out, soaking wet. He started for the barn-house, hurling back threats as to what he was going to do to the Hunts. ‘It’ll be worse next time.’ he promised them.

The boys went to thank Goldie. Without his warning their cabin would now be a pile of ashes. Roger put his fingers in through the wires of the cage. Goldie licked them, and an eternal friendship was sealed between the Hunts and the beautiful golden langur who had saved them from disaster.

‘Who’s he? I’ve never seen him around.’ Hal said.

The man they saw down the path ahead of them was certainly very strange. Although it was a hot day, he was dressed m a fur coat that came down to his feet. It even went up over his head like a hood. It covered his ears, his forehead, and his chin. Only his eyes and his long snout could be seen.

‘He must be a madman to cover himself so completely on such a hot day.’

He stood almost six feet tall. He must have had poor eyesight and poor hearing because he did not appear to notice the boys or to hear them. The Hunts concealed themselves behind some bushes and watched.

The man in the big black overcoat was doing something very strange. He stuck out his tongue, and what a tongue it was, at least a foot long. Beside him was a termite hill and he stuck his tongue deep into it, got it covered with the little creatures that looked like ants but were white, then brought his tongue back into his mouth and swallowed a breakfast of termites.

No man in his senses would eat live termites, and no man, whether in his senses or not, would have so long a tongue.

‘It’s not a man,’ Hal said. ‘It’s a sloth bear. What looks like a fur coat is its long black hair.’

‘But no bear could stand up so long on its hind feet,’ Roger said.

‘This bear can.’

‘Is it really a bear? It looks more like a bad dream.’

Hal said, ‘You’ve asked a good question - is it really a bear? The naturalists who name animals had a hard time naming this one. That long-tongue business makes it look more like an ant-eater. But it’s certainly no ant-eater, so they decided to call it a bear.’

‘But you said it was a sloth bear. Why the sloth?’

‘Because it is as slow as the sloth - but it can move at great speed if it is bent on killing a man or beast. It’s one of the most dangerous of animals. Of course the sloth is very different. You’ve seen them in the tropics hanging upside down from a branch and hardly moving all day. The sloth bear stands up on its hind feet when it pleases and is always ready to wrestle with anyone who comes within reach.’

‘Are there any sloths in the Gir Forest?’

‘Not a single one. They belong in the American tropics.’

‘But I never heard of such a thing as a sloth bear,’ Roger said, ‘till Dad wanted us to get one. How did he know about it? Does any zoo have a sloth bear?’

‘I’ve never seen one in a zoo. Hardly anybody knows about it. But your father is pretty clever, and somehow or other he knew that there were sloth bears in the Gir Forest. And now it’s up to us to get this one.’

Roger didn’t think that would be hard. ‘If it has only a tongue in its mouth it can’t be very dangerous.’

It doesn’t fight with its tongue,’ said Hal. ‘At this distance you can’t see its claws. They are terrible curved scimitars four inches long. They are as sharp as spears and could scratch the life out of you in two minutes.’

Then how can we take him? Did you bring your sleep-gun?’

Hal said, ‘No, but I have this.’ He drew out of his pocket a slingshot. Between the two prongs was a strip of rubber cut from an old tyre.

‘He’s coming this way,’ Roger exclaimed.

Hal picked up a stone and fitted it into the rubber strip. When the beast, still erect, came within twenty feet, Hal fired. The stone struck the animal’s head with such force that he would have staggered and fallen if Hal had not leaped out and held him up.

‘Quick!’ Hal said. ‘While he’s so dizzy that he doesn’t know what’s happening, well walk him home and put him in a cage.’

Luckily, home was near by and the woozy bear was in the cage before his brain got over the shock. Then the ant-eater.’ bear went wild. With his terrible claws he attacked the bars that held him in. He let out sharp, gargling cries. He was capable of many sound effects. He screamed, he woof-woofed, he made a buzzing sound like a swarm of bees. He inflated his chest like a bagpipe and made bagpipe noises. Finally his voice died down to a grumbling, rumbling and mumbling.

Hal threw into the cage some wild sugar-cane, also a quart bag of the purple grape-like berries of the jumlum tree that he had gathered for his own lunch.

These foods are so highly esteemed by sloth bears that this animal changed his mind at once about his cage. It was a fine residence for him, he thought, if he could get food like this without any effort.

They are said to be very intelligent,’ Hal said. They actually know when to go to certain trees for ripe fruit, for the boram berry in one month, the mango in another, the jumlum berries exactly when they are at their best, and other foods when they are in season. They become tame, and even affectionate. Very few zoos have discovered the sloth bear and any zoo would be happy to get this unique gentleman in his black overcoat’

‘l think it’s about time for us to close in on those Hunts,’ Vic said to Jim and Harry. ‘Don’t forget, you promised to back me up. Some day when they are off hunting animals we’ll get some men to help us and we’ll take all their animals that they have collected to New Delhi and sell them to zoos in India, Burma, Singapore and Japan for thousands and thousands of dollars. How does that sound to you?’

‘It sounds fine,’ said Jim, ‘if you can pull it off. You don’t seem too good at pulling anything off. You could have earned fifty dollars for every animal you brought in, but the only thing you caught was a weasel and you let it get away.’

‘Could I help that?’ said Vic. ‘It was slippery.’

‘You’re pretty slippery yourself. Your dad has given you up as a bad job. He’s cut off your allowance and we’ve had to support you. When are you going to get down to business and earn your own way?’

‘Right now,’ Vic said. ‘Give me some money and I’ll go to New Delhi and hire a couple of dozen trucks. Then some day we’ll hire some men from the villages to help us and we’ll pile everything, animals, cages and all, on the trucks, and roll away.’

Jim laughed. ‘Do you suppose the Hunts will let you do that?’

‘We’ll do it, some day while they are off hunting animals.’

Jim and Harry reluctantly agreed to Vic’s plan. They gave him the money he needed and he was off to New Delhi.

When he came back a few days later he reported success. ‘I hired the trucks and they will be here tomorrow. Now I’m going to take a walk down and look at our animals.’

They are not our animals yet,’ said Jim, ‘but at least we can all go down and take a look.’

They went to the Hunt camp. Nothing was there except the cabin and it was locked. There were no cages, no animals. No one was around except the headman of Bahru village. ‘What’s happened?’ Vic asked the headman. ‘Didn’t you know? They moved out two days ago. Sent everything to Bombay to be loaded on a freighter for New York.’ ‘So they are in Bombay V

‘No, they are going up the mountain to get a few more specimens. They mentioned a blue bear, a white tiger, a snow leopard and a yak.’

‘Why didn’t they keep their camp here until they got those extra animals?’ Vic asked.

‘Because they were afraid they would be stolen while they climbed the mountain. They said there are thieves about. I don’t know who they meant.’

‘But,’ objected Jim, ‘they have to have equipment for climbing a mountain - crampons, ice-axes, all sorts of things.’

‘Yes.’ said the headman, they will get them at the first village on the way up. The village of Aligar.’

‘Well,’ said Harry to Vic, ‘that knocks all your plans into a cocked hat.’

‘Not quite,’ said Vic. ‘I’m going to follow them. They can’t get away from me so easily. Perhaps I can help them have an accident.’ He was careful to whisper this so that the headman should not hear. Then I can help them out by taking charge of their animals - the white tiger, snow leopard, blue bear and all - they sound pretty good to me.’ The headman went off to his village, shaking his head. This talk about thieves. Who could the thieves be? That Vic Stone was a good fellow. He was going to help the Hunts. If they had an accident, he would take care of their animals. Very nice, to have a friend like that.

As for Jim and Harry, they had had enough. Their vision of great wealth had faded. They no longer aspired to be great hunters like Hemingway and Corbett. It wasn’t worth the trouble. They decided to go to Bombay and try to stow away on a ship bound for New York. Vic was sorry that they had come to this decision - sorry, because he could not depend upon them for more money. He could expect nothing more from his father. Perhaps if he could get the Hunts into trouble and walk off with those very valuable animals he might be able to sell them for, say, ten or twenty thousand dollars. That wasn’t as much as he had hoped for, but it was a tidy sum. In the meantime, Hal and Roger had driven their truck loaded with cages up to the village of Aligar at an altitude of ten thousand feet. Here they could buy supplies for the further climb up the mountain.

First they bought heavy woollen clothing since on the heights the temperature would be far below zero. They bought crampons - spikes to be strapped to the soles of their climbing boots that would give their feet a firm grip on snow or ice. They bought a rope ladder which could be hung from a steel spike and would make it possible to climb very steep rocks or glaciers. They bought pitons - metal spikes to be driven into rock or ice with a rope attached so that by climbing up the rope they could move straight up to a higher level. They bought dark goggles which would prevent ‘snow blindness’ due to the glare of the sun upon the snow. They rented a tent for themselves and another for the Sherpas, professional guides who would carry their supplies and lead them up the extremely dangerous slopes. And they bought a hundred feet of rope.

The shopkeeper told them. ‘Look out for the Yeti. They are very bad this year.’

‘What are the Yeti?’ Hal asked.

Tour people call them the Abominable Snowmen. Our own name for them is Yeti.’

That’s a better name for them.’ Hal said, ‘very short and easy to say. Yeti.’

Roger added, That was one thing Dad wanted us to do -investigate the Abominable Snowman.’

The shopkeeper said, ‘Many people who go up never come down again. They are killed by the Yeti. The Yeti eat them. We never find their bodies or their bones.’

‘What is a Yeti?’ Hal asked. ‘A man or a beast?’

‘No one knows. We don’t know what they are like. They are invisible. If you see a Yeti, you die. Some say they are ten feet tall. Others say a Yeti is a monster ninety feet tall and forty feet through.’

‘But do you have any proof that these monsters exist?’ Hal asked.

‘One was here last night,’ said the shopkeeper. ‘Come outside and I’ll show you his footprints.’

The footprints in the snow seemed to have been made by a monster with feet at least five feet long.

‘Come back into the store and I’ll show you further proof.’

He took down from a shelf a great woolly thing and laid it on the counter. That’s the scalp of a Yeti,’ he said.

Looking at it made Roger’s nerves creep. ‘What a giant this Yeti must have been.’

‘It’s the only Yeti scalp I have left,’ said the shopkeeper. ‘Perhaps you would like to buy it.’

‘How much?’ asked Hal.

Well, in your money - it would amount to a thousand dollars. Remember, it is unique. You will probably never see another like it.’

Hal thought he could get along without seeing another like it. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘we didn’t bring that much money with us. Someone else will have to be the lucky buyer.’

‘I’m sorry too,’ said the shopkeeper, ‘You’re losing the chance of a lifetime.’

At this moment Vic walked in. He was puffing hard after his climb, although the slope that he had climbed was nothing compared with what they would find later on.

The Hunts were not pleased. They thought they had put this crook behind them forever.

‘I came to help you out,’ said Vic. ‘I knew you couldn’t do this alone. It’s a dangerous business - mountain climbing.’

‘And I suppose you’ve had a great deal of experience in mountain climbing,’ Hal said.

‘I’ve climbed the hills around the town of Brecon, in Wales. And I’ve climbed the Catskills. By the way, that was a dirty trick you played on me.’

‘What was the dirty trick this time?’ said Hal.

‘Sending all those animals away without consulting us.’

‘What business was it of yours?’

‘Merely that I could have helped you.’

‘Yes.’ said Hal, ‘that was what we were afraid of.’

Vic pouted. ‘Now that was a mean thing to say. But I forgive you. Anyhow, here I am, ready to be of service.’

‘So good of you,’ Hal said. ‘But it’s really not safe for you. They say the Yeti are very bad this year.’

‘What are the Yeti?’

‘Oh, just monsters that chew you up and spit you out if they don’t like the taste of you.’

‘Are you kidding me?’

‘Ask anybody. They all know about the Yeti. Look at the footprints in the snow just outside the door. A Yeti was here last night. And if you don’t believe the footprints, look at this Yeti scalp. You can have it for a thousand dollars.’

That reminds me,’ said Vic. ‘I have no money. You’ll have to buy some gear for me. Of course I’ll pay you back when my cheque comes.’

‘You’re quite aware that no cheque will come,’ said Hal.

He couldn’t help feeling sorry for this dunce. Somebody had to look after him. He could get nothing from his father. Hal resigned himself to the job of keeping an eye on this helpless fool.