13 Tiger Adventure Read Online Free PDF Page B

‘He’ll be killed.’
    But the greatest of cats was not in a killing mood. He let Pan climb up on his back. He didn’t mind when Pan playfully pulled his ears.
    The clown took a walk along the tiger’s back from one end to the other. The tiger seemed delighted to have company.
    But the clown had other business. He jumped down and went to the door. Hal let him out.
    The clown at once introduced himself to an old headman with long whiskers who was wearing a hat. Pan grabbed the hat and put it on his own head.
    Then he hopped over on to a woman’s head, tore off the wig she was wearing and put it on top of his hat.
    It was the raccoon in him that made him do such things. The raccoon is as mischievous as a monkey, and as clever as a fox. And Pan had these same qualities.
    He cavorted around much as a clown does in a circus. He was having a remarkably good time.
    Hal brought out a bowl of soup and a spoon. He showed Pan how to use the spoon. Then he passed it to the animal. The clown was a little bewildered. Pandas don’t take soup and they don’t use spoons.
    But Pan was not easily defeated. He took the spoon, dipped it into the soup, then took it out upside down and tried to get it into his mouth.
    The result was that he did not get much soup but, he did get a lot of laughter from the crowd.
    ‘Now I’ll give him what he really likes.’ Hal said.
    He crumbled some bamboo into small bits and offered them to Pan.
    The clown showed Hal just how a panda eats bamboo, his favourite food. He lay on his back and scooped the bamboo bits on to his chest. Then he took up each bit in his front paws that looked so much like hands and he began chewing the hard chunks of bamboo. The crowd looked with astonishment at an animal eating wood. But thanks to sharp incisors and powerful molars Pan made short work of chewing and swallowing the bamboo. Then he rolled up and went to sleep.
    Hal saw to it that the old headman got his hat and the woman her wig.
    ‘Great show,’ they said.
    ‘Don’t thank me,’ said Hal. ‘It’s Roger who got the panda.’
    So Roger was thanked by everyone and the guests, still laughing at the performance of the raccoon-bear, went home much pleased with themselves, Roger, and the panda.

Chapter 7
Runaway Elephant
    Vic thought he was a fine-looking fellow and wanted Hal to take his picture half a dozen times a day.
    ‘I want a picture of me on an elephant,’ he said. The three boys were in a timber-yard of the Abu Singh Teak Company. They had been watching an elephant pick up a log as long as a telegraph pole, rest it on his tusks, hold it in place with his trunk, carry it across the yard and place it carefully on a pile of logs.
    There it would stay until some shipbuilder wanted to build a vessel’s hull out of wood that would last a lifetime without decay.
    Teak was not very well known in Western countries but it grew well in India up to altitudes of three thousand feet. The trunks made logs that were floated several miles downstream to the timber-yard. The wood was regarded by the Indians as the finest in the world, even better than mahogany.
    When the elephant had done his job Vic said, ‘Make him lie down. Then I can get on his back.’
    ‘But he’s not a riding elephant,’ the mahout objected. ‘He knows what to do with logs but he’s never had a stranger on his back.’
    ‘Okay,’ said Vic ‘then this will be the first time. I’ll teach him.’
    The mahout brought the animal to earth. Vic climbed up on to the broad back.
    ‘Shall I take the picture now?’ Hal asked.
    ‘Of course not. I’m not going to have my picture taken on a lying-down elephant. Make him stand up.’
    When the elephant stood the picture was taken.
    The click of the camera and the strange feeling of something heavy on his back was more than the elephant could stand. He whirled about, shot out of the timber-yard and raced down the street.
    An elephant in motion puts down two feet on one side, then the two feet on