“Probably not. Might have.”
“If he didn’t?”
“He’s gone. Nothing could save him. No one could climb back upon that breakwater once he was washed off. May God rest his soul.”
For a full ten minutes they stood there watching the surface of the water, then turning silently about, started back toward the scene of the fire.
CHAPTER IX
A MYSTERIOUS ISLAND
Many of the expected thrills and terrors of life never materialize. It was so with Mazie and the tiger. If the tiger had been roaring in a manner fit to curdle the blood of a pirate, it was because he was afraid. The instant he was free from his cage, acting for all the world like a cat that has suddenly been drenched with cold water, he went slinking away down the long rooms of the zoo.
It was a simple enough matter to drive him into a portable cage, and there the affair ended.
An hour later, Mazie came upon the Chief, who told her of Johnny’s experience but could not inform her of his whereabouts. Failing to find him, she decided to go home.
After taking Jerry back to his master, she returned to the tree where she had placed the rescued canary. Wrapping her cape about the cage to shield the bird from the chill night air, she hailed a taxi and sped along home, content to call it a night.
Johnny was not at all convinced that the Chief was right in saying that the stooped man with the hook nose and a limp had fallen into the lake and been drowned.