n in a tiger's cage?" he
asked suddenly.

"I'm telling you not, so you'll excuse my apprehensions about our
lodging--in case Herself appears. The fact is, there isn't room--"

"She won't come near, if we keep up the voices--"

"It becomes instantly a bore to talk," Cadman answered.

Sometime passed before they spoke again. The tiger didn't seem to
settle any; from time to time, they heard the tense concussion, the
hissing escape of his snarl. The kid had either escaped or strangled
to death.

"Will he stand for it until morning?" Cadman asked abruptly.

"He may move a little to rest his legs."

"And won't he try for the top?"

"I think not. He has already measured that. He sees in the dark. He
knows there's no good in making a jump."

"Nothing to jump at--with us here?"

"We have put it over on him. You have helped greatly."

"How's all that?"

"You don't smell afraid--"

"Ah, thanks."

Long afterward Cadman's hand came over to Skag's brow and touched it
lightly.

"I was just wondering, son, if you sweat hot or cold."

There was a pause, before he added:

"You see, I want to get you, young man. You really like this sort of
night?"

"It is India," said Skag.

Every little while through the dragging hours, Cadman would laugh
softly; and if there had been silence for long, the warning snarl would
come back. The breath of it shook the air and the thresh of the tail
kept the dust astir in the pit.

"There is only one more thing I can think of," Cadman said at last.

The waning moon was now in meridian and blent with daylight. The beast
was still crouched against the wall.

"Yes?" said Skag.

"That you should walk over and stroke his head."

"Oh, no, he is cornered. He would fight."

"There's really a kind of law about all this--?"

"Very much a law."

After an interval Cadman breathed: "I like it. Oh, yes," he added
wearily, "I like it all."

It was soon after that they heard the voices of natives and a face,
looking grey in the dawn, peered down. Cadman spoke in a language the
native understood:

"Look in the tea-pot and toss down my cigarettes--"

At this instant the tiger protested a second time. The native vanished
with the squeak of a fat puppy that falls off a chair on its back. For
moments afterward, they heard him calling and telling others the tale
of all his born days. Three quarters of an hour elapsed before the
long pole, thick as a man's arm, was carefu