“But now that he’s left you for a time, why don’t you make an attempt to trap or kill him?” inquired Mr. Collins, and there was a little contempt in his tone.
“What, us? Never in a hundred years,” replied the man, in a scared voice. It was evident that the crew was completely unnerved, and Mr. Collins and his crew realized that if anything was to be done they must do it unaided.
“Well, here goes,” said he. “We might as well get on that deck first as last. We’ll never get anywhere by sitting here and talking.” Accordingly, they clambered up on deck, one by one, led by the first mate. In a short time they were all safely on deck, and looked around, their hearts beating wildly, for any sign of the ferocious animal. As far as any evidences of his presence went, however, the nearest tiger might have been in Africa. There was a deathlike hush over the ship, broken at times by the muffled chattering of the monkeys confined in cages below decks.
All the men were armed with the best weapons they were able to obtain, consisting chiefly of heavy iron bars requisitioned from the engine-room. Mr. Curtis, of course, had a pair of heavy revolvers, and both Bert and Dick had each a serviceable .45-calibre Colt. These were likely to prove of little avail against such an opponent, however, and more than one of the crew wished he were safely back on the deck of his own ship.
Not so Bert and Dick, however, and their eyes danced and sparkled from excitement. “Say,” whispered Dick in Bert’s ear, “talk about the adventures of that fellow you and I were reading about a day or two ago. This promises to outdo anything that I ever heard of.”
“It sure does,” said Bert, in the same suppressed voice. “I wonder where that beast can be hiding himself. This suspense is getting on my nerves.”
All the rescuing party felt the same way, but the tiger obstinately refused to put in an appearance. The men started on an exploring expedition, beginning at the bow and working toward the stern. At every step they took, the probability of their presently stumbling on the animal became more imminent, and their nerves were keyed to the breaking point.
In this manner they traversed almost two-thirds of the deck, and were about to round the end of the long row of staterooms when suddenly, without a moment’s warning, the tiger stood before them, not thirty feet away.
At first he seemed to be surprised, but as the men watched him, fascinated, they could see his cruel yellow eyes gradually change to black, and hear a low rumble issue from his throat. For a few seconds not one of them seemed able to move a hand, but then Mr. Curtis yelled, “Now’s your time, boys. Empty your revolvers into him, Wilson and Crawford,” and suiting the action to the word, he opened fire on the great cat.
Bert and Dick did likewise, but in their excitement most of their shots went wild, and only wounded the now thoroughly infuriated animal.