“I am sorry to say I have not,” replied the zebra. “All I eat is hay and grains. But I can show you where to get a drink of water.”
“I shall like that,” said the tame tiger, “as I am very thirsty.”
So the zebra showed the tiger where, in the barn, was a tub of water out of which the horses who worked in the zoölogical park got their drinks. There Tamba quenched his thirst and felt better. Then he crawled back into the dark corner to hide. The zebra had to go away, but he promised to come back and let Tamba know when it was dark enough for the tiger to run out and start afresh on his journey to the jungle.
All that day Tamba remained hidden in the barn. He saw none of the other wild animals, and the zebra did not come back. Tamba was getting hungrier and hungrier, but he knew he dared not go out to look for anything to eat. If he had the park men would have seen him and chased after him, either catching him to put in one of their cages, or else sending him back to the circus. And Tamba did not want that.
After a while it became darker. Tamba sneaked out and got another drink, and then in a little while he heard the patter of the feet of his zebra friend on the floor of the barn.
“Are you there, Tamba?” asked the zebra, in animal talk.
“Yes,” answered the tiger.
“Well, it’s dark enough now for you to set out,” went on the zebra. “Cut across the park over the big field you’ll see as soon as you leave this barn. That way will take you to a street where there are not so many cars and wagons as on the street nearest this side. It is quieter.”
“That’s what I want—to be quiet,” said Tamba. “That’s why I want to go back to my jungle.”
Tamba took another drink of water, for he did not know when he would get any more, and then, having said good-by to his friend, the striped zebra, the tame tiger went softly out of the barn into the night. He saw the big field and, on the other side, a row of lights. At first they looked like the lights around the circus tents when a night-show is being given, but when Tamba looked a second time he knew they were street lights. He was still in the big city.