"What is a 'fau?'" Dick asked, for he had never heard the word before.
"It is a small animal about the size of a cat," Captain Gidley explained; "the natives declare it is always the forerunner of a tiger, but I'm sure I don't know about that."
"You forget, Richard," his wife said seriously. "Don't you remember?"
"Remember what, my dear?"
"That before the advent of that tiger—the man-eater you shot before Dick was born—the natives said they heard a 'fau' some nights previously?"
"Did they say so? Why, how stupid of me! I had actually forgotten!"
"Oh, father, do tell me all about the man-eater!" Dick cried, with sparkling eyes.
"You have heard all about it so many times, my son!"
"But I want to hear it again! Do tell it," Dick pleaded in his most coaxing tone, for, like most children, he was never tired of listening to the repetition of a fascinating tale.
The captain shook his head, and declared he was too lazy, whereupon Dick appealed to his mother, and begged her to relate the story.