Tiger Trouble

by Justin D'Ath

  In less than thirty seconds, Kasime and I were the only people left in the carriage.

  ‘Are you okay, Kasime?’ I asked, slowly getting up.

  He didn’t answer. Just clutched the squirming sack that held Raju and stared past me towards the rear of our carriage. The expression on his face reminded me of how the other passengers had looked when they’d first heard about the tigers. Holding Rani against my shirt front, I twisted around to see what Kasime was staring at.

  Holy guacamole!

  We weren’t the only ones in the carriage. Stepping through the door at the far end was a man in fancy dress. He wore a shiny white cloak with elephants, tigers and deer embroidered on it in glittering gold thread, and a wide yellow sash across his chest that sparkled with red jewels. On his head was a dark blue turban secured with an enormous gold brooch in the shape of a peacock. His snowy white beard was tied neatly under his chin in a kind of bow, and he had the biggest moustache I had ever seen.

  ‘PUT THE TIGER DOWN!’ he roared, striding towards me.

  In his raised hand he brandished a sword.

  17

  BIG CHEESE

  Normally I wouldn’t argue with a man holding a sword. But I wasn’t sure why he wanted Rani.

  ‘She’s just a baby,’ I said.

  ‘I can see that, you nincompoop!’ Fancy Dress Man stopped two metres away and pointed the sword at my face. Its gleaming silver point was so close I nearly went cross-eyed. ‘Put her down and step back.’

  I didn’t know who he was but it was hard to take him seriously when he was dressed like that.

  ‘I’m not putting her down,’ I said, backing away from him towards the door. ‘Come on, Kasime, let’s get out of here.’

  ‘But he will cut you,’ Kasime whispered behind me.

  I reversed into Kasime and started nudging him backwards. ‘He’s not going to cut anyone,’ I said.

  ‘I WILL DEFINITELY CUT YOU!’ roared FDM, following me with the sword. ‘PUT DOWN THE TIGER CUB, YOUNG MAN!’

  He sounded like someone who was used to getting his own way. But he wasn’t getting it today – not even with the help of his sword. He might have looked ridiculous, but he didn’t look like a murderer.

  I hoped I was right.

  We reached the carriage door just ahead of FDM. Kasime scrambled down backwards, with Raju’s sack swinging from his skinny shoulders. I jumped down after him, cradling Rani against my chest so I wouldn’t drop her when I hit the ground.

  A thousand terrified people waited outside. The whole train must have emptied when they heard about the tigers. Everyone stood in a long line, keeping well back from the abandoned carriages. Keeping well back from Kasime and me, and from what we were carrying. Everyone could see Rani now. It was obvious she wasn’t dangerous. But she was still a tiger. Nobody wanted a tiger of any size on their train. And they must have guessed that there was another one in Kasime’s sack, from the way it was bulging and wiggling. That made us doubly unwelcome.

  ‘Challo!’ I said, leading the way.

  The crowd split in the middle, making a wide gap for us to walk through. There was a wall of forest behind them. I didn’t particularly want to go in there, but when I looked over my shoulder I saw FDM climbing down from the train with his sword. I also saw the woman who had lent me her mobile phone. ‘Thanks,’ I said, tossing it to her.

  ‘I AM ORDERING YOU TO STOP!’ bellowed FDM, coming after us.

  A weird thing happened. When FDM came barging through the gap in the crowd, everyone pressed their hands together and bowed like he was a king or something.

  Whoever he was, FDM wasn’t a fast runner. Kasime and I hot-footed it into the forest well ahead of him. He stopped when he reached the trees. Next time I looked back, no one was behind us.

  ‘Who was that guy, Kasime?’ I whispered.

  ‘I am thinking he is a maharaja.’

  That explained it. A maharaja is like an Indian prince.

  It explained the fancy outfit, too. And why FDM was used to getting his own way. He was the Big Cheese. His word was law.

  Uh-oh! I thought. I’d broken the law about twenty times by not doing what FDM told me. That probably made me a criminal.

  I didn’t care. We hadn’t let him get Rani. It was obvious to me now why he wanted her. For a pet. But turning wild tigers into pets was illegal. Not even a maharaja’s word could change that law.

  So who was the real criminal – FDM or me?

  18

  BIG GAME HUNTER

  A loud H000000T came echoing through the trees. The train was ready to go. Which suited me just fine. As soon as it left, Kasime and I could come out of the forest. I’d just noticed a flock of huge grey-and-black birds circling above the treetops about 200 metres ahead. Vultures. Something was dead.

  Here’s what I knew from watching wildlife documentaries on TV: Vultures will only circle above a dead thing if they’re too scared to land. If whatever killed it is still there.

  A tiger, for example.

  And this looked scarily like tiger country – tall trees and lots of undergrowth, ideal habitat for a big cat.

  A warm breeze puffed in my face. It came from the direction where the vultures were circling. I sniffed the air. Nothing. But tigers’ noses are better than human noses. Rani’s small black nostrils quivered. She drew back her lips in a silent snarl and her claws came out. Raju could smell it, too. He bumped and struggled in his sack. I looked at Kasime. He was a city boy like me. But both of us could sense the danger.

  The train hooted again.

  ‘Let’s see what’s going on,’ I whispered, glad for an excuse to turn around.

  We sneaked back to the forest’s edge and crawled behind a fallen tree. We had a good view of the train through a gap in the branches. FDM and everyone else were back on board. Faces crowded in the open windows but I was pretty sure nobody would see us in our hiding place. I was more worried about being seen from behind.

  Here’s another thing I’d learned from wildlife documentaries: Tigers always attack from behind. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I looked over my shoulder. Rani was looking back, too. And wriggling to be let go. It was hard to hold her. I wished I hadn’t left her sack in the carriage. Wished all of us were back there, safe on the train. Only the train wasn’t safe any longer. Not for us. FDM was there with his sword. And about a thousand passengers, all scared out of their wits by a couple of baby tigers.

  But it was adult tigers that were worrying me, now.

  H000000T! went the train. Its big diesel engine rumbled. But still it didn’t move.

  Hurry up and go! I thought. Then Kasime and I could get out of the creepy forest and walk back along the railway line to the town where we’d jumped on board. I wasn’t sure how far it was, but it had to be closer than the town where my parents were meeting me. That town was still two hours away by train, if only we were allowed back on board.

  We might be allowed back on the train if we didn’t have Rani and Raju, I thought. And if we kept out of FDM’s way.

  Kasime must have been having the same thoughts as me. ‘We can let go the tigers’, he whispered.

  It made sense. Rani and Raju would be back in the wild where they belonged. Back in tiger country. But I’d watched enough wildlife documentaries to know what would happen if we released them. They’d die.

  ‘They’re too young to look after themselves,’ I said.

  Which brought up another problem. What would happen to the tiger cubs when (and if) we finally got them back to Delhi? Would they end up in a zoo? That hardly seemed better than becoming someone’s pets.

  But it was better than starving to death in the forest.

  Or being killed by an adult tiger. Which seemed likely to happen to all of us if the train didn’t leave soon and allow us to get out of the forest. I watched the line of stationary carriages.

  What are they waiting for? I wondered.

  A moment later I got my answer. Someone was gettin
g off.

  The very last carriage was the small, brightly coloured one with the Taj Mahal dome on top. It must have been the maharaja’s personal carriage. A door swung open at the back and FDM stepped down a folding stairway. Except he was no longer Fancy Dress Man. He wore the same blue turban with the peacock brooch, but the rest of his outfit was different. He’d changed into a brown safari suit and tall brown boots, and he carried a rifle.

  He looked like a big game hunter.

  Two other men emerged from the maharaja’s carriage. Both wore black trousers, white shirts and red bow ties. They looked like restaurant waiters. One carried a folding chair and a sun umbrella. The other carried a folding table and a picnic basket.

  When all three men were safely off the carriage, a train conductor with a silver whistle appeared in the doorway above them. He bowed to the maharaja, then blew his whistle – tweeeep! – and the train drew slowly away.

  Kasime and I lay in our hiding place about seventy metres from the railway tracks, spying on the three men left behind. I had one arm around Rani to stop her running away. Raju was in his sack on the other side of Kasime. The waiters set up the folding chair and table next to the railway tracks and the maharaja sat down. One waiter held the sun umbrella over him, while the other poured tea from a thermos flask into a white china cup on a matching saucer and set them on the table in front of the maharaja. Then the waiter set down a plate of little cakes.

  ‘It is tiffin,’ whispered Kasime.

  ‘What’s tiffin?’ I asked.

  ‘Like afternoon tea.’

  I almost laughed. It was such a ridiculous sight to see the maharaja daintily sipping tea from a china cup in the middle of nowhere. But two things stopped it from being funny: the rifle propped against the table next to the maharaja’s elbow; and knowing that there might be an adult tiger lurking in the forest behind us.

  I glanced over my shoulder again. Just in time to see the last of the vultures spiral down into the trees and disappear.

  Uh-oh. Whatever had been scaring the vultures had left its kill.

  And was probably coming in our direction.

  ‘We should go,’ I whispered.

  kasime nodded. ‘If the marharaja is seeing us, he is shooting us dead.’

  I didn’t really think the maharaja would shoot us, but I wasn’t going to hang around and find out. In his hunting clothes, he looked like he meant business. Though why he had sat down to have ‘tiffin’ before he came searching for us was a mystery, because it gave us time to get away.

  ‘Here’s what we’ll do, Kasime,’ I said, stroking Rani between the ears. ‘We’ll go a little way into the trees – just far enough to keep out of sight – then make our way along the edge of the forest towards the last town. By the time the maharaja comes looking for us, we’ll be long gone.’

  Kasime didn’t seem to be listening. Propped on his elbow next to me, he was fussing about with something on the other side of him.

  ‘Raju kahan hai?’ he whispered in a worried voice.

  ‘Kasime, what’s the matter?’

  He twisted around to face me. His eyes were big. ‘It is Raju,’ he whispered, holding up the sack. There was a large ragged hole in the bottom. And no tiger cub inside.

  ‘Raju has runned away.’

  19

  TIGER COUNTRY!

  While Kasime and I were spying on the maharaja, Raju had gnawed his way out of the sack.

  ‘Which way do you think he went?’ I asked, keeping a firm hold on Rani as we looked in all directions for her missing brother.

  ‘I am not seeing him anywhere,’ whispered Kasime.

  Triiiing! Triiiing!

  The maharaja pulled a gold mobile phone from his safari jacket and put it to his ear. He spoke for a few seconds, nodded a couple of times, then replaced the phone in his pocket. Calling to one of the waiters, he held up his cup for more tea. As if he had all the time in the world.

  But Kasime and I were running out of time. I could sense it. We had to find Raju and get away before someone – or something – came looking for us.

  Wiggling backwards along the ground, Kasime and I stealthily left our hiding place at the forest’s edge. When we were far enough into the trees not to be seen by the maharaja or his waiters, we stood up and started searching.

  ‘Raju! Raju!’ Kasime called softly.

  I didn’t bother calling. I looked at the ground instead. And soon found what I was searching for – a small paw print in a patch of wet ground between two large yellow leaves. Raju’s toes pointed further into the forest. Just as I’d feared.

  ‘Follow me,’ I said to Kasime. ‘And keep your eyes peeled.’

  The forest floor became increasingly damp and muddy as we made our way in. Soon it was quite easy to see Raju’s tracks. His little paw prints went in a straight line, only deviating to go around trees or dense thickets. He was on a mission, following an airborne scent that was too faint for human nostrils to detect. But not too faint for Rani. The further we went into the forest, the more excited she became. She wriggled and squirmed in my arms like the wild animal she was. I had to grip her by the scruff of her neck to stop her from biting. But teeth aren’t a tiger’s only weapons. Rani’s claws came out. Twisting her fat little body like a corkscrew, she raked both back paws down the front of my shirt, ripping off buttons, shredding fabric, shredding me.

  ‘Yeow!’ I cried softly, releasing my grip on the out-of-control cub.

  Rani hit the ground running. She shot off through the undergrowth like a big yellow-and-black kitten. I took off after her. On open ground I might have had a chance of catching her, but Rani was a tiger and the forest was her natural domain. Within twenty seconds, I’d lost sight of her completely.

  I’d lost sight of Kasime, too. I stopped and looked around. There was no sign of him anywhere. All I could see in any direction was forest. Tiger country! said the little voice in my head. My spine tingled.

  ‘Kasime?’ I said softly.

  There was no answer.

  I turned a full circle. There was a burning sensation all down my front where Rani had scratched me, but I wasn’t worried about that right now. Where was Kasime? I couldn’t call out because the maharaja might hear. And Kasime couldn’t call for the same reason. So the best thing to do was keep following Raju’s trail. I hoped Kasime would figure that out, too. If we both found Raju, we’d find each other. And if we were lucky, Rani would be there, too.

  So I walked slowly in the direction I thought we’d been heading, searching the ground for tiger paw prints.

  It didn’t take long to find some. But they weren’t the ones I expected. These prints were huge – five or six times the size of Raju’s and Rani’s. They were the pug marks of an adult tiger. And they looked fresh.

  I got that tingling feeling in my spine again. The feeling that something was behind me. I jerked upright and spun around.

  Shishkebab!

  20

  BIG AND DANGEROUS

  The king cobra is the world’s largest venomous snake. They can grow to five metres. This one looked even bigger. Most of it lay flat on the ground. But the front part stood upright like a tall scaly fence post. Its hood was the size of a frying pan. Its evil grey head was exactly level with my eyes.

  It was close enough to strike me if I made one wrong move.

  Slowly I backed away.

  ‘Stay calm, snake,’ I said in a shaky voice

  It couldn’t hear me – snakes don’t have ears. But they’re not blind. Its beady little eyes watched me retreating. Its forked tongue flicked up and down, testing the air for my scent. I must have looked and smelled scared. No threat to a giant king cobra. When I’d gone three metres, the snake folded its hood and sank slowly to the ground. Making a quick U-turn, it went slithering off into the forest. I crept off in the other direction, feeling lucky to be alive.

  There were noises in the forest ahead of me. Screeching and hissing. It sounded like big savage birds squabbling over s
omething. Then I heard a loud whup whup whup of giant wings. A cloud of vultures rose, flapping into the sky. Something had scared them off the kill. I got that prickly feeling between my shoulder blades again, and slowed down. Moving carefully from tree to tree, I sneaked towards the spot marked by the circling vultures.

  Kasime was already there. He stood with his back to me at the far side of a small clearing. At his feet lay the remains of a deer. There wasn’t much left. Its antlers lay like two dead branches at one end. There was part of a leg and a couple of hooves at the other end. Between them, the deer’s ribs formed a gruesome white cage. The bones had been picked clean on the outside. But there was still stuff inside. Red and pink stuff. It was moving! I nearly threw up. Then I saw what it was – a small furry animal completely covered in blood.

  ‘It is Rani,’ Kasime whispered when I reached his side.

  I didn’t know how he knew which one it was. The cub inside the deer carcass was covered from head to tail in blood. And it was still eating.

  ‘I guess she was hungry,’ I said. Now I knew why Rani had clawed me to get away when she first smelled the dead animal – she wanted food. ‘Where’s Raju?’

  Kasime’s eyes seemed wet. ‘I am not seeing him,’ he whispered.

  I had a very bad feeling. About Raju and the adult tiger whose tracks I’d seen back in the forest. Tigers aren’t like lions, they don’t live in groups. And they don’t like other tigers invading their territory. They chase them away. Sometimes they kill them.

  I told Kasime about the big tiger. He wanted to stay and look for Raju, but I shook my head.