“Ha! I had better look out,” thought Tamba. “Maybe those are the circus men after me.”
The tame tiger was partly right and partly wrong. The voices he heard were those of the circus men, and the chains clanking were those on the legs of elephants. The men were trying to clear away what was left of the circus wreck. Tamba had taken the wrong path, and had walked right back to where he had started from.
“This won’t do!” he said to himself. “I must get farther away and hide!”
He peered between the tall grasses and dimly saw where the circus men were working along the railroad tracks, lifting up some of the overturned cars and cages. The elephants were helping, for they were very strong.
“I’ll notice which way the sun is shining, and then I’ll know which way to go to keep away from the circus men,” thought Tamba. Then he turned straight about and ran off the other way.
On and on, over the big stretch of meadows and lonely land near the railroad went the tiger until he had placed many miles between himself and the scene of the wreck. In all this time Tamba did not see any men, or any living creatures except some muskrats, many of which lived in the swamp along the railroad. The muskrats were not glad to see Tamba, for the tiger caught a number of them for food, but it could not be helped.
No one saw Tamba sneaking along through the grass. If any one had seen him they would have hurried to tell the circus men, for a general alarm had been sent out, telling that some of the wild animals, including a big, striped tiger, had got loose after the wreck.
But no one saw Tamba, and he saw no one, at least for a while. On and on he went until night came again. Then he found another snug place in among the dried grass where he curled up to sleep.
“My jungle is farther away than I thought it was,” said Tamba to himself, as he awoke on the second morning of his freedom. “I must run along faster to get there more quickly.”
After he had eaten and taken some water, he started off once again, and then began a series of very strange adventures for the tame tiger.