“What is the trouble, Snuggers?” questioned Captain Putnam, who chanced to come up and saw how disturbed his hired man was.
“It’s about thet tagger as was at the circus, sir,” said Snuggers. “Somehow or other, he broke loose last night—knocked some o’ the bars out o’ his cage. An’ they ain’t found him yet.”
“A tiger broke loose?” queried the captain, and now he was intensely interested. “Who told you of this?”
“Mr. Chase, sir—an’ some circus folks. Cedarville is wild with excitement, an’ none o’ the folks dare to go outdoors. They say he’s a powerful tagger an’ mighty ugly.”
“He certainly was a big tiger,” said Jack, who was in the crowd. “I shouldn’t want to fall in with him.”
“Maybe he is coming this way,” suggested one of the smaller students, looking around nervously.
“Excuse me from meeting a tiger,” said Mumps, and without another word he walked into the Hall and to his classroom.
The news spread with the rapidity of lightning, and to be on the safe side, Captain Putnam ordered all of the boys into the school and had all the lower windows and doors closed.
“This is certainly exciting enough,” said Joe Nelson. “Supposing the tiger takes it into his head to camp out around here? None of us will want to go out any more.”
“Oh, they are bound to either catch him or shoot him, sooner or later,” answered Jack. “But just the same, I don’t want to run afoul of that beast. He looked strong enough to kill half a dozen of us.”