Why, I could go on for months, and never complain."
"Who was that whining over his grammar, awhile ago?" asked his sister.
"That"s a very different matter," stammered Jack angrily. "What kind of sense is there in _amaba--bis--bus_! That"s stuff! If I had a chance with my gun now, at a lion, say--
"If you cannot conquer nouns and verbs, Jack," said Mrs. Leigh, "I am not afraid for the wild beasts."
"As for Bess, she needn"t laugh," growled Jack. "What does a girl know, with her curls, and paniers, and folderols? She never even read Du Chaillu;" and he stamped into the dining-room and began to kick off his boots.
"You should not tease your brother, Bessy."
Bessy laughed. She was a fat, pretty, good-tempered girl, very fond of Jack and just as fond of squabbling with him.
"He is such a fellow to brag, mamma. Now I know he"ll be at it again.
There he comes."
Jack came in and leaned with his elbows on the table, watching his mother and thinking.
"Now Du Chaillu and those fellows," he broke out, "had a way of skulking behind trees and shooting at animals from ambush. I don"t approve of that. I would not do that. The way to meet a wild beast is to fix your eye on him boldly. Look him straight in the eye. What are you laughing at, Bess? I tell you scientific men say there"s nothing like the power of the human eye. Then when I had him fixed, I"d take aim deliberately and fire. I"d have him at an advantage, you see. Mother, there"s a fire! I hear the bells!"
"Yes."
"Can I go? Just to see where it is? Only to the corner? I won"t go a step beyond the corner, I promise you."
"Very well, Jack, I trust you."
Jack"s word, when he gave it, was as good as his oath, and although the street was quite dark, yet as they lived in a quiet part of the city his mother saw him go without fear.
There was a good deal of noise and confusion outside. An engine ran past and men shouting; but in half an hour Mrs. Leigh and Bessy heard Jack coming leisurely up the steps, whistling and talking.
"Here, sir! Wheet! wheet! This way. In with you. Gracious, mother, how dark this hall is! Why don"t Ann? Wheet--wheet! There!" opening the back door, "stay there till morning." He shut and locked the door again and came into the parlor.
""Twasn"t much of a fire--near two miles off--somewhere about the Northern mills."
"There was great confusion," said Mrs. Leigh.
"There always is. Now if I was the captain of a fire company, I"d manage differently. I"d say to this man, go here, and to that man, go there, and they should not dare to utter a word. Then the fires would be put out."
"Who was that in the hall, Jack?" inquired Bessy.
"A big dog; a most tremendous fellow. He came running alongside of me on the street, and turned up the steps as I did. Somebody"s lost him, I suppose. I put him in the yard till daylight, and then I can see him and look up his owner."
"Was he a pretty dog?" said Bess eagerly.
"How could I tell? I told you I didn"t see him. As he brushed by me, I felt that he was a strapping fellow. The hall"s as dark as pitch."
"You didn"t fix him with your eye, then?"
Jack said nothing, but lighted his candle and went to bed.
The next morning he was awakened by a thumping at the door, and in rushed Bessy, wild with excitement, the morning newspaper in her hand.
"O, Jack, listen to this!" jumping on the bed and beginning to read breathlessly:
"ESCAPE OF WILD ANIMALS.--The fire of last night communicated with the stables where the animals connected with Drivers" Menagerie were stored for the winter, and several of them escaped. They were promptly pursued and captured, with the exception of the Bengal tiger, that was last seen making its way toward the southern part of the city. At the hour of our going to press no traces have been found of the animal."
Bessy laid down the paper. Her eyes were set deeper in her head than usual, and they burned like coals. "Jack!" she gasped, "what do you think?"
Jack"s face, and neck, and very ears were scarlet. He stammered, and did not seem nearly so tumultuous as usual.
"I think it"s in our back yard," he said, at last. "I wish you"d get out of this, Bessy. I"ll--I"ll get up and call a policeman."
"A policeman! What on earth can he do with a tiger?" cried Bessy, in discomfiture. "Why, I thought for sure, Jack, you"d fix him with your eye; or wing him. Sha"n"t I bring you your gun to wing him?"
"Perhaps I will," said Jack loftily. "But I must be dressed first."
Bessy went out, but stood just outside of the door, trembling and quaking, her hand on the k.n.o.b. Her mother had gone out early. Usually she had very little dependence on Jack, or his bravery, but anything in the shape of man or boy is a comfort to a frightened woman, and all of Jack"s boasting came back soothingly now to Bessy. In half a minute Jack had scrambled into his clothes and was out.
"Have you seen it? Where is it?"
"It"s in the coal-shed; in the darkest end. Ann"s got the back doors tight locked and bolted, and she"s up in bed with the pillow over her head. There"s your gun, Jack."
Jack took the gun, and still in his stocking feet, went on tiptoe to reconnoiter. From the second-story window he saw that the yard was quite clear. Just by the house stood the coal-shed, dingy and dirty enough at ordinary times, but now covered with the mystery and horror of an African jungle.
"You think it"s in there, do you?" he said, under his breath.
"Oh, Ann heard it! Such a horrible roar! Up in the very back part.
How will you get at it to shoot it?"
"I"ll call in the police as soon as I"m sure it"s the tiger. If it was in the jungle I"d face it. But such animals are always doubly furious for being confined."
"There"s a knot hole in the shed. You can peep, Jack. He won"t see you."
But Jack was growing unaccountably pale, and his teeth were chattering.
"I"d--I"d rather not open the door--on your account, Bess. He might run in."
"Fire your gun and he"ll dash out into the yard!" cried Bess, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, in her excitement. "Good gracious!
what will the girls say at school when they hear we"ve had a real tiger in our shed. If you"d only shoot him, and we"d have him stuffed."
"I mean to shoot when he comes out."
But Jack"s fingers shook so as he adjusted the trigger that one would have thought he had the palsy.
"I"ll tell you what to do!" shouted Bessy, clapping her hands. "I"ll go down to the kitchen window, and throw a bone out in front of the shed-door, and when he rushes out for it, you look if it"s the tiger or not."
"Very well."