Toward the close of the afternoon of the second day of his freedom Tamba stepped out of a little patch of woods, into which he had gone from the meadow, and there, in the light of the setting sun, the tiger saw a red, wooden building which he seemed to know.
“Why, there’s a barn!” said Tamba to himself. “There’s a barn. I’ll go in there and stay for the night. I wonder if there are any other animals in it.”
The reason Tamba knew this was a barn was because, when he had first joined the circus, he had been taken to a barn, and there was taught some tricks. The circus folk and the animals lived in a big barn instead of tents during the winter. So when Tamba saw this building he knew, at once, that it was a barn.
Now it happened that this was a barn belonging to a farmer, who also owned a house near by, but which Tamba could not see on account of the trees. So, making sure that no one was about, Tamba walked toward the barn, and, one of the doors being open, in walked the tiger.
He looked all around, as best he could, for it was not very light, and he sniffed and smelled the smell of animals.
“Maybe some of my friends are here,” thought Tamba. “I’ll slink around and see.”
So he walked softly and slinkingly to the middle of the barn floor, and peered about, and, right after that, a very strange thing happened.