"Too bad!"
Suddenly Pant appeared to remember something.
"Johnny," he whispered in a tense whisper, "Johnny, get that black cat!"
Catching his breath, Johnny sprang from the car.
"Wait," whispered Pant. From his pocket he had drawn a tiny vial.
"That," he whispered, "may help you. It"s what they call cat-lick in India. An old Hindu gave it to me after I had captured the big black cat.
He said it was like catnip to the cat. When a tiger or leopard smelled it, if he could get near the spot where a drop had been spilled he forgot his savageness, and laid down to roll in it. I"m not sure. It sounds queer. Try it if you must."
"You got some?"
"Sure."
"I"ll go up track; you go down."
"Right! And Johnny," Pant repeated, "get the black cat!"
Johnny had scarcely turned from the car when he almost ran into somebody.
"Gwen!" he exclaimed in surprise. "What you doing out here? Don"t you know half the beasts are loose? Listen to that?"
The long drawn out roar of a lion sounded above the wail of darkies, the neighing of ponies, and the trumpeting of bull elephants.
"I know, Johnny, but Johnny, nothing half so terrible could ever have been dreamed of!"
"The wreck? I know. Some people are almost sure to have been killed."
"But the twins?"
"Where are they?"
"I don"t know. They were in the car with me when the shock came. They were telling me about--all about you. They got away while I was freeing myself from the seats. Went to find you and their ponies. Oh, Johnny, we must find them quick!"
"Yes," Johnny answered, "but watch out for the black cat, the leopard.
He"s a man-eater from the jungle."
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "And I saw him not a minute ago. He"s loose from his cage. He was crouching in the corner of the wreck. I caught the gleam of his eyes."
"Where?"
"Back there."
Johnny started forward.
"Johnny, you won"t go?"
"I must."
"You"ll be killed."
"I"ve got to get him first." He drew an automatic from his pocket. Then he walked steadily forward, his keen eyes studying every dark corner of the wreck.
Down the train lengths lights were flashing. The keepers were searching out the cages, striving to retain those animals which had not yet escaped, and to locate those that were free. The wooden cars of an ancient design which carried the animals had been torn and crushed, piled upon one another, until the wreck at this point resembled a kindling pile. Here one heard the splintering of boards, as some beast attempted to free himself, and here the crash of torn-up planks told that some loyal elephant strove to free his mate. The whole scene was one of wild confusion. Wildest, most terrifying of all, came the occasional challenge of a great cat of the jungle, now free to do the bidding of his own wild will.
Hardly had Gwen turned, after Johnny had hurried away, than she uttered a cry of dismay. Creeping toward her, his wild eyes gleaming, was a gaunt, yellow tiger. For a second she was paralyzed with fear. And in that second the cat made progress--now he was ten yards away, now eight, now five.
What should she do? To turn, to attempt to flee seemed futile. A tiger could run much faster than she. He might leap as she turned. Her heart stood still. Cold perspiration came out upon her brow.
Just when hope seemed gone a strange thing happened; a thing which had happened once before under very different circ.u.mstances; a crimson flash leaped out from the darkness and played upon the tawny coat of the tiger.
Blinded, terrified, the beast shrank back, yet the light still played full upon him. Leaping and flaring like the light of a fire, it held the animal at bay until the keepers came with chains and led him away.
When the twins jumped out of the car window to go in search of Johnny Thompson and their ponies, they stumbled down the embankment to climb laboriously up again, and make their way tripping and falling around wrecked cars, from which came weird, wild sounds of animals fighting for freedom.
Suddenly from beneath Marjory"s feet there sounded a queer chatter. Then something clawed at her legs. With a wild scream, she shook it from her.
It was a monkey that had escaped from his broken cage. Others could be heard chattering to the right of them. Leaping forward they were startled by a great bulk that loomed unexpectedly before them in the dark.
"An elephant!" screamed Margaret.
For a minute they hesitated; the next, they leaped to one side and, having pa.s.sed the elephant, continued on down the track. Always to the left of them there loomed the overturned cars. All at once, from beneath the wheels of one of these there came a piercing scream. At the same instant they caught the gleam of two red b.a.l.l.s of fire glaring at them out of the blackness. Some fierce, wild creature was lurking there. And he moved. Stealthily he made his way toward them. Now he was away from the cars. A black spot, he glided forward, his glaring eyes seeming to grow larger and larger as he advanced.
Seized with a sudden paralysis of fear, the twins stood rooted in their tracks.
With a little gasp Gwen sank upon the ground. She looked in vain for the crimson flash. It was gone. And now, for the first time she realized that she did not know the direction whence it had come.
After leaving Gwen, Johnny Thompson made his way cautiously along the uneven embankment. Now his eye caught a gleam that appeared to come from the great cat"s eyes. It proved but the reflection of some polished object. Again he heard a rattle among splintered boards, only to find a colored roustabout climbing from the pile of broken lumber under which he had been buried. Johnny was just beginning to believe that he had missed both the black beast and the twins when something leaped at him out of the darkness.
It took him but a second to realize that this was not a wild beast, but a man; the king of the counterfeiters.
Taken by surprise, he went down with the man upon his back. At the same instant he caught the gleam of a knife in the outlaw"s hand. There could be not one shadow of doubt that he meant murder.
A terrible struggle followed. The man, fully fifty pounds heavier than Johnny, was at the same time agile and strong. Now the knife was poised in air, only to be dashed to the ground. Now Johnny secured a half-nelson. Now his hold was broken. And now Johnny was thrown to earth with such force as to render him half unconscious. Struggling against a terrible dizziness, he fought but feebly. The end seemed to have come.
But, at that moment, there came a shrill voice:
"I"m here, Johnny Thompson! I"m here!"
One moment the knife poised above his chest; the next a diminutive figure attached itself to the arm that held the knife and sent it whirling to one side.
"Tom Stick, the midget clown!" gasped Johnny, renewing his struggle for freedom.