CHAPTER XIII PANT'S STORY OF THE BLACK CAT
"Life's like this," Pant gripped Johnny's arm, as the two red balls inthe back of the dark cage shifted from side to side; "life's just likethis: When once you've done a thing, you want to do it again. That's whywe have to watch our habits, if we want our lives to count for something.Lots of fellows don't watch them. I told you about killing the old tigerand his mate, and bringing in the cubs to the doctor, so he could sellthem to the traders and buy supplies for his hospital. Well, once I haddone that, I wanted to do it again. I guess there was something of my olddesire to study cats in me yet, for I was overjoyed when I heard wildstories about a giant black leopard that haunted the trail far up theriver. You see, the mountain streams were drying up, and the big catswere being driven out of the mountain forests to the river jungles.
"The stories they told about that big black cat made a fellow's blood runcold. He was big as a tiger. He was a fierce man-eater. His fangs weretwice the size of a tiger's, and each one like a knife blade. He had beenseen to seize a full grown man, and before the man's companions couldfire upon him, to leap to the bough of a tree, ten feet from the ground,the man in his jaws, too. The others had fled in terror. They never knewwhat terrible fate had overtaken their companion until a few days later asecond party passing that way had found his bones strewn beneath thattree.
"Of course I laughed at their stories. A black cat do a thing like that?Why, the one in the zoo back home was not three times the size of a housecat, and he, the keeper had told me, was eight years old.
"I did not believe their stories, but the natives believed them, andwould not stir up the river road; and none would come down it, either; sothose who were sick could not come to the hospital I had helped to makebetter. This made me angry.
"'I will go and kill that black cat,' I said to the doctor. 'I will havehis skin for a foot mat!'
"He smiled in a friendly way, and bade me not be rash. The black leopard,he told me, was much more to be feared than the tiger. Unlike the tiger,he killed for the fun of killing. He climbed trees, and there on the darktrunk, seeming but a part of the tree itself, he waited for his prey. Inthe gloom of the forest, he dropped without a sound, and his attack wasmost terrible. He was truly large, too, six feet in length from tip ofnose to base of tail.
"I did not believe the doctor. Had I not seen a full grown black leopardin the zoo? Was he not an insignificant fellow? And yet, I was a littleafraid, for I remembered that the black cat in the zoo had not beenafraid, when all the other great cats cringed in dark corners of theircages. I was a little afraid, but I would not admit it.
"'Just because you have told me he is terrible,' I said, 'I will takealong a strong cage. I will bring him to you alive. We will sell him tothe traders, and buy more beds for our hospital.'
"Then the doctor begged me not to be foolhardy. But I would not listen.With four natives to carry the cage, with a rifle in my hand, and a bigknife at my belt, I went--went far up the river trail. When the nativeswould go no farther, I called them dirty cowards, and putting my rifleinside the cage, dragged the cage after me until I had come to a placewhere, in a deep forest, at the bend of the river, the black cat was saidto make his stand.
"I was frightened a little, Johnny, when I saw the bleached bones of aman lying beneath a great tree where mosses and vines hung thick, but Ireassured myself by saying the man had died there alone, and the jackalshad picked his bones.
"'That's the origin of the wild story,' I told myself. 'Like as not thereis no black cat at all, and I shall go home disappointed.'
"But I didn't, Johnny, I didn't."
Johnny could feel Pant's hand grip his arm hard, as the black creature inthe cage stirred and gave forth a sort of hissing yawn.
"You were never in the jungle at night?" Pant's tense, vibrant whispertold more plainly than words that he was living over again those hours inthe jungle alone.
"No," breathed Johnny.
"It's wonderful, and terrible. The sun sinks from sight. Darkness comesand then out shines the moon. And the moonlight! Nowhere else is it likeit is in the jungle. It creeps down among the masses of leaves,transforming swinging, swaying limbs into gigantic, twisting serpents,ready at any moment to swing down upon you. It turns every shadow-dottedtree trunk into a beast ready to leap at your throat. It's weird,fascinating, terrible. Down at the river some beast plunges into thewater. You hear the splash, then the swish, swish of his strokes. He iscoming to your bank, you are sure. You are afraid. Who would not be?
"But me, I sat by my cage, with the rifle over one knee and watched. Onehour, two hours, three hours I watched, until at last all the twistingbranches, the spotted tree trunks were familiar to me.
"And then, then he came; the black beast, the great black cat, he came."
Pant paused. There came a hiss from the cage, as if the black cat, too,was living those hours over again.
"I saw him, Johnny, I saw him. I caught the wicked gleam of his two redeyes." Pant gripped Johnny's arm until it hurt. "He was not thirty feetfrom me. Flattened against a broad tree trunk, he was glaring at me outof the dark. How he came so close without my seeing him, I cannot tell.He was a devil. Perhaps he had been there all that time. Who knows?
"Anyway, there he was. I cast my charm upon him. And I had him, Johnny, Ihad him. With my rifle I could have shot him on the instant. But he hadme, too. He was so wonderful. I have told you about the wonder of thetiger's coat. It is nothing to the coat of a black leopard in the jungle.You have seen him. You know how immense he is; seven feet from tip ofnose to base of tail. You have seen him in his cage, but will never seehim as I saw him that night, a free beast in his own wilderness, and I astranger, an intruder.
"But I thought I had him. I wanted to study him: to learn his secrets. Iplanned how I would follow him day after day, and learn all his secrets.I was mad, stark mad."
Pant paused again as if for breath. The black beast moved nearer on hisshelf within the cage. The thrashing of his tail was like the dull beatof a drum.
"Just when I was thinking all this," Pant rose upon his knees in hisexcitement, "just when I thought I had him, he gave one piercing screamand leaped. My man, what a leap! He struck me all unprepared; struck mewith fangs and claws tearing at my flesh. Yet my right hand was free. Itwas a tense, agonizing second. In some way I got out my knife and slashedaway with it. The next instant I lost consciousness."
Pant paused again. Once more the leopard moved his length along the cage.
"But, Johnny, here's the strangest part of all. I cannot explain it; onlyknow it's true. They say that sometimes, in moments of great shock, menlose their personality and become another person; that when they comeback to themselves they have done things they know nothing of, yet othershave seen them do. It may have been like that with me. And then, a greatteacher in the heart of India once told me that there was a great spiritof the forest who looked after brave hunters, and did things for them intime of great danger which they could not do for themselves. It may havebeen that, too. Whatever way it may have been, it was strange; so strangethat you would not believe me were I not your friend who always told youthe truth.
"Listen, Johnny! When I came to myself I was weak, terribly weak fromloss of blood; but the cat, the big black cat, he was raging in the cage,and the door was fastened tight."
Pant paused. The animal tent was still. Suddenly a crimson flash gleamed.For an instant it turned the black cat blood red. The next moment, with awild snarl, the beast flattened himself against the bars of his cage.
A keeper sprang out of the darkness.
"What's that?" he demanded.
"What's what?" drawled Pant.
"I thought I saw a flash."
"He evidently thought something of the sort," Pant replied, poking histhumb at the black cat.
"Well, you guys better move on. This ain't no place for spinnin' yarns."
"That's all right," drawled Pant, "bu
t let me tell you, friend; ifanything ever happens to this circus, a fire, a cyclone, a train wreck,or anything like that, you get that cat. Get that black cat!"
"What d'you know about him?"
"Plenty that I don't tell to strangers."
Pant lifted the wall of the tent and stepped out into the moonlight,followed by Johnny.
"You didn't finish," suggested Johnny.
"There's not much more to tell. You have to hand it to that doctor,though. When I didn't come back in the morning, he tried to organize aparty to search for me. No one would go. They were scared cold by theblack cat. So he came alone. He found me there, too weak to move, and hecarried me all the way back and put me in a bed I'd helped him to buy.
"The natives went for the black cat and brought him back to the villagein triumph.
"When I was better a trader came to me and offered me the price of atiger's cub for the black cat. I laughed in his face, and told him I'dtake the cat to the States myself. That's what I did. I got five thousanddollars for him, and sent it all back to the doctor so he could buy beds,and absorbent cotton, and medicine for his hospital."
"That was good of you," said Johnny.
"Who's good?" demanded Pant. "Didn't he teach me sense when I didn't knowanything but cats? Didn't he carry me out of the jungle on his back whenno one else dared to go in?"
For a time they were silent. Then, gripping Johnny's arm, Pant whispered:"But, Johnny, we're after worse cats than the black one. We're afterhuman tigers. Tigers that destroy man's faith in man; that make lifelittle worth the living. And, Johnny, we're on their trail, close ontheir trail. Perhaps to-morrow, perhaps the day after, you shallsee--well, you shall see what you shall see."