“Let us move the bed against the door,” suggested Andy.
The bed was a large affair, of solid mahogany, and would prove an excellent barrier, but before it could be rolled into position there came a crash, and the tiger’s head appeared through a portion of one of the door panels.
Crack! crack! went the pistol in Jack’s hand, and as quickly as he had appeared the tiger disappeared, with a wound in the jaw and another along the left ear.
“Guess that will teach him to keep his distance,” said the young major.
“He is going to the front of the house,” cried Andy.
“The upper veranda! He is going out on the upper veranda!” cried Mrs. Ford.
“He’ll come through the windows!” burst from Flossie’s lips. “Let us go to another room, mamma!” And the girls and their mother did so. Andy and Pepper looked inquiringly at Jack.
“A few more shots ought to make him tired of living,” said the young major.
“Let me try the pistol on him,” came from Pepper, and having secured the weapon, he peeped out into the hallway. The tiger stood at the front end, gazing at the upper veranda and beyond.
Pepper was not an extra shot, but the bullet took the tiger in the left hind knee, and made him utter a fierce snarl. He leaped out on the veranda, and then made another leap into the branches of a nearby tree.