“Good-by!” called the zebra after him. “I hope you soon come to your jungle.”
“Thank you! I hope so myself,” said Tamba.
He ran across the big park field in the darkness. No one saw him, for few persons are in the park at night. Tamba sniffed the air, and he smelled water. There was such a strong smell of water that Tamba knew it must come from a big river or a lake.
“And it smells like salt water, too,” thought the tame tiger. “I remember that smell of salt water. I smelled it when they put me on a ship and brought me away from my jungle. Perhaps my jungle home is just across that salt water. I am going to see.”
What Tamba smelled was the salt water of a big river that flowed through the city down to the ocean. And beyond the ocean lay the jungle. This much Tamba had guessed.
“I am going toward that salt water,” said the tiger to himself. “This is the first time I have smelled it since I was on the ship. I believe, after all, I shall at last get to my jungle.”
But there were quite a few adventures for Tamba to have before he reached his old home.
On across the big field in the zoölogical park ran Tamba. He was coming nearer and nearer to the row of lights, nearer and nearer to the smell of salt water, and, also, nearer and nearer to a city street. It was this street that Tamba feared most. Once he was across that, he thought everything would be all right.
He came to a low, stone wall around the park. He looked and listened as well as he could. He did not see any one who he thought would try to catch him.