Roma, Fric’s uncle, cleaned out the tigers’ cage each day. Fric fed them. At night the great cage was moved near to the big tent or ‘top’ as all the circus-folk called it. A passage-way was then made from the travelling cage to the strong cage that Brownie, Jimmy’s father, built, with Roma in the ring each night, whilst Sticky Stanley the clown and Oona the acrobat were doing clever and funny tricks to amuse the watching people.
Then the tigers walked down the passage-way and entered the cage in the ring. In this cage were set six stools—two small, two tall, and two taller still. Each tiger knew his stool, and leapt nimbly on to it, so that they sat in a row, like steps going up and down.
Both Roma and Fric went into the cage with the tigers. They were dressed alike, in red velvet suits, very tight, with short, sparkling cloaks, and both carried a long whip that they could crack just as loudly as Mr. Galliano could crack his.
“Aren’t Roma and Fric clever with those tigers?” whispered Lotta to Jimmy. “I don’t know how they make those great beasts obey them like that! Look at Queenie jumping gracefully through the paper hoop, and breaking the paper as she goes through it!”
“And look at Basuka, on one of the high stools!” said Jimmy. “He’s going to jump through two hoops!”
He did—and every one clapped the graceful jump. Basuka did not go back to his stool. He stood and glared at the people. Roma cracked his whip.
“Up, Basuka, up!” he shouted. But still Basuka stood and stared. Roma picked up a sharp-pointed iron bar and pricked Basuka with it. The big tiger growled, but jumped up to his stool at once.
“I wish Roma wouldn’t do that,” said Jimmy. “I bet I could have made Basuka go back, without hurting him. It’s not fair.”
Fric took up his own smaller whip then, and cracked it three times. At once one tiger after another jumped down from the stools, and ranged themselves in a circle about small Fric.
“Around you go!” shouted the boy, and cracked his whip again.
At once the tigers began to pad round in a circle till the whip cracked again. Then they turned themselves the other way and went round in a ring in the opposite direction. Everyone clapped.
“Up!” roared Roma—and up went every tiger again on to the stools.
The whip cracked once more. The two tigers in the middle, sitting on the tallest stools, at once stood up on their hind legs and put their front paws against each other’s. Down jumped the other four tigers and went in and out of the archway made by the two middle tigers. It was extraordinary to watch.
“Fric’s clever, you know, Lotta,” said Jimmy. “And he’s not a bit afraid.”
“I don’t like Fric,” said Lotta obstinately. “If he can be unkind to tigers, his own special animals, he can be unkind in other ways. I don’t like him.”
“Oh, please, Lotta, don’t be silly,” said Jimmy. “We can all three have fun together. Come for a walk with us tomorrow morning, after we’ve done our jobs.”
“All right,” said Lotta. “But I don’t want to.”
So the next morning Jimmy called across to Fric: “Hi, Fric! Come for a walk when you’ve finished this morning?”
“Right!” said Fric. So Jimmy and Lotta went to Fric’s caravan when they were ready, and the boy jumped down the steps. But when he saw Lotta, he pulled a face.
“She’s not going with us, is she?” he said.
“Of course,” said Jimmy, surprised. “Why not?”
“Then I shan’t come,” said Fric. “Girls are silly. Always giggling and saying stupid things.”
“Lotta doesn’t say stupid things!” cried Jimmy angrily. “She’s a fine girl. She can ride any horse you like, and she knows far more about dogs than you know about tigers!”
This was not a wise thing to say to Fric. He scowled angrily, pulled his cap over his forehead, and stalked off without a word. Jimmy called after him: “Fric! Don’t be a donkey! Come along with us. I’ve got some money to buy ice-creams.”
Fric stopped and turned round. He loved ice-creams—but did he love them enough to put up with Lotta’s company?
“Oh, come on, Fric,” said Jimmy impatiently. “Come, Lotta, we’ll go after him.”
But now Lotta turned sulky! She swung round and stood with her back to Jimmy, and she stamped her foot in temper.
“I’m not coming!” she said. “If you think I’m going anywhere with that horrid boy, you’re wrong. I don’t like him. I won’t go with him.”
“But, Lotta,” said Jimmy, “please, please don’t be silly. You know that I want to make friends with Fric so that I can go into the tigers’ cage and get to know the six tigers. He won’t let me if I’m not friends with him.”
“You and your old tigers!” said Lotta, with tears of rage running down her cheeks. “I hate you all!” And the cross little girl ran like the wind to Oona’s caravan and sat watching the acrobat, who was practising steadily for that night’s show.
Jimmy was upset. How silly of Lotta to behave like that! Never mind, perhaps she would forget it all by the time he came back from his walk. He would go with Fric and talk to him about tigers, and buy him ice-creams.
But Fric, too, had gone off in a temper! Poor Jimmy stood looking round dolefully, all alone.
“Hallo, hallo, hallo!” said Sticky Stanley the clown, turning cart-wheels all around Jimmy on hands and feet. “You look like a hen left out in the rain! Come and help old Tonky rub Jumbo down with oil. He’s got some cracks in his hide, and it’s a big job, I can tell you, to oil him all over!”
“All right,” said Jimmy, cheering up, for he loved doing anything with the big kindly elephant. “I’ll come.”
So off he went with Lucky at his heels, puzzled and not very happy.
JIMMY AND THE TIGERS
LOTTA sulked for a long time. She would not be friends with Fric, and Fric called rude things after her whenever he saw her. Jimmy was angry about it, but he could not make up his mind to quarrel with Fric, for he knew that if he did, there would be no chance of his going into the tigers’ cage.
“Fric, please don’t be unkind to Lotta,” he said. But Fric only laughed, and thought out another rude thing to say to Lotta when next he met her.
Jimmy bought Fric dozens of ices, scores of bars of chocolate, bags of sweets, and even a fine toy aeroplane that Fric wanted. Each time Fric promised to allow Jimmy to come with him into the big cage, but every time he broke his word.
“No,” he said. “I’d better not today, Jimmy. If Roma got to hear of it, he’d whip me. Besides, I guess Mr. Galliano would be angry if he knew.”
“Fric, I keep telling you I’ll take the blame if anything happens, and Roma or Mr. Galliano finds out,” said Jimmy, in despair. “Look here, you shan’t have a single ice-cream or sweet till you’ve kept your word. I’m tired of trusting you.”
Fric was alarmed. He didn’t want his supply of goodies to stop, and yet he really was scared of letting Jimmy into the cage. He knew quite well that it was not right to allow any stranger inside, for the tigers were fierce and powerful, and could certainly not be trusted with any one they did not know.
Also, he was scared of his uncle. What would Roma say if he found out?
“Wait till the tigers know you better,” Fric said.
“But you said that last week!” said Jimmy. “And they know me now as well as they possibly can, seeing that they are inside the cage and I am outside. Do you know, Queenie came and rubbed her great head against my hand when I put it inside the cage-bars yesterday?”
“I don’t believe that,” said Fric at once, for this was a thing that Queenie had certainly never done to Fric or to Roma either. She was the least good-tempered of the six tigers.
“All right. Come and see her do it again!” said Jimmy. So the two of them went along to the great travelling cage in which the tigers lived, two in each partition. They stared at the little boys with their green, glinting eyes. Queenie purred, got up slowly, and gracefully came across to the bars. Jimmy
put his hand inside. The great tiger pressed her head against the small hand, and purred even more loudly. Jimmy scratched her where her whiskers grew.
Fric stared, his eyes as round as pennies. “Goodness me!” he said. “I’ve never seen such a thing! Fancy old Queenie doing that! She once nearly snapped a man’s hand off when he put it too near.”
“Well, now will you let me go inside the cage?” asked Jimmy, delighted.
“Look here, Jimmy, I’ll let you in tonight, when every one’s asleep in their caravans,” promised Fric. “You can creep up to our caravan, and put your hand inside the window. I’ll leave the keys of the cage just inside, and you can take them quietly.”
“But aren’t you coming too?” asked Jimmy, in surprise.
“Indeed I’m not!” said Fric. “You can do it on your own. I’m not going to get into any trouble about it!”
Jimmy ran off to his dinner, his eyes bright and his cheeks glowing. Tonight! And by himself too! Oh, what a glorious adventure! He could hardly eat his dinner, he was so excited.
“Jimmy, whatever’s the matter with you?” asked his mother. “You look as if somebody has left you a fortune! Look at him, Lotta.”
But Lotta wouldn’t look. She hardly spoke to Jimmy these days, and she was so quiet that Mrs. Brown was quite worried about her.
Poor Lotta! She thought that Jimmy wanted Fric for a friend instead of her, and she was worried too, because she did so want to go into the ring again and ride one of the horses, and Juanita, Pepita, and Lou would not say she could. She was not at all happy.
Jimmy did not notice Lotta’s unhappy face. He was much too thrilled about what would happen that night. He wondered if he should tell Lotta. Yes, he would!
“Lotta, I’ve got a secret to tell you,” he said after dinner, when they were rubbing down the horses together, with Lou whistling not far off.
“Is it anything to do with Fric?” asked Lotta.
“Yes, it is, partly,” said Jimmy. “Listen, Lotta, he is—”
“I don’t want to know any secret if Fric’s in it,” said Lotta, in a horrid, cold voice. “I don’t like Fric, and I’m beginning not to like you either, Jimmy.”
Jimmy was most astonished. Really, what was happening to Lotta? But he could not bother himself to think about that now, for his head was full of the tigers.
That night Jimmy crept out of his own caravan very quietly, without waking his mother, father, or Lotta. Only Lucky knew, and she was tied up and could not follow. Lulu opened one eye and then went to sleep again.
Jimmy stole towards Fric’s caravan. The window was open. He could hear Fric’s uncle snoring inside. He stood on a wheel and put his hand inside the window. He could feel three big keys there. So Fric had kept his word this time!
The little boy’s heart beat fast. He carefully picked up the keys so that they did not make a single clink, and slipped down from the wheel.
He ran like a shadow to the tigers’ great travelling-box. It was completely shut up. Air came in through the ventilating holes in the roof. There was not a sound from the cages inside.
Sammy the chimpanzee heard Jimmy’s soft footsteps and made a little noise. But for once Jimmy paid no attention to Sammy. He came to the tigers’ cages, and slipped a key into the lock. He turned the lock, opened the door, and slipped inside. There was another door to unlock inside, and then a gate of iron bars. Jimmy unlocked them all.
The tigers stirred and awoke. Jimmy could see two pairs of green eyes glinting in the dark. Moonlight came filtering in through the air-holes in the roof.
The two tigers in the first cage sniffed and growled a little. Then Queenie, one of the two tigers, lifted her head high and sniffed harder. Yes, this was the boy who so often came outside the cage and talked to her in that lovely, gentle voice. This boy had no whip, no iron bar. This boy had a voice that was gentle like the leaves, not fierce and harsh and frightening.
Jimmy stood inside the tigers’ cage, his heart thumping against his side.
He was not afraid. Jimmy had never in his life been afraid of any animal, and he never would be. But he was excited, and he felt sure that the tigers would hear his heart thumping and wonder what it was. He put his hand over his heart to hide the thumping.
Queenie began to purr. She left her corner and silently slunk over to Jimmy. She put her great head down beside his right arm. Jimmy then spoke to her in his special animal-voice, strong, and low, and gentle.
“Old Queenie,” he said. “Old Queenie, you beauty. You great, green-eyed graceful tiger. You love me, don’t you? And I love you. I love your grand head and your slanting eyes, your fine whiskers and your slinky body.”
Queenie purred more loudly. The other tiger looked on watchfully. She knew Jimmy, but she wanted Queenie to make sure he was friendly first.
“Ruby!” said Jimmy, calling the other tiger by her name. “Ruby! Do you want your head rubbed, Ruby?”
But Ruby would not come near that first night. She lay peacefully, watching with her green eyes, whilst Queenie fussed round the little boy, nearly bowling him over when she pushed him playfully with her great head.
Jimmy did not go to the other tigers that night. He slipped out of Queenie’s cage after about half an hour, very pleased with his first visit. The other tigers had been restless, smelling the scent of a strange visitor, but they had soon settled down when they heard Queenie purring.
“Tomorrow!” said Jimmy excitedly to himself. “Tomorrow night I shall go again, and I will go to all the tigers. The big beautiful things! They will soon be my friends. How can Fric be unkind to them? Why, Queenie was as loving as an old fireside tabby-cat tonight!”
After returning the keys, he slid into his caravan, and didn’t know that Lotta was awake, wondering where he had been!
LOTTA DISCOVERS JIMMY’S SECRET
JIMMY dreamt about tigers all that night! When he awoke in the morning he remembered how Queenie had made friends with him and rubbed her great head against him, purring all the time. Jimmy looked at Lotta, and wished he could tell her, but Lotta was very sulky and quiet these days.
Lotta was wondering where Jimmy had been the night before. What had made him slip out of bed all alone? She made up her mind to watch that night and follow Jimmy.
Fric ran across to Jimmy as the little boy was practising with Lucky for the night’s show. Lucky was spelling out the word ‘Galliano’, fetching each letter in turn in her mouth, and putting them down in a row.
“My word!” said Fric, stopping in amazement. “That dog is a wonder, Jimmy! How did you teach her to spell and count? Did you have her as a puppy?”
“She’s not much more than a puppy now!” said Jimmy proudly. “Yes, I taught her every trick she knows, Fric. She’s a naturally clever dog, and she loves learning. I’d never teach any animal that didn’t want to learn, you know. That’s why I’d never teach tigers. They don’t want to learn.”
“I say, Jimmy, did you go into their cage last night?” asked Fric eagerly. “Or were you afraid?”
“Afraid!” said Jimmy scornfully. “Of course I wasn’t! Yes, I went in, but only into the first partition. Ruby didn’t come to me, but Queenie did. She purred all over me and rubbed herself against me like a cat!”
Fric stared. “It’s funny,” he said at last. “I just don’t understand it. Roma and I have had those tigers from cubs, and they know us and fear us. But you are a stranger. Why should they be friends with you?”
Jimmy laughed, and took up a brush to brush Lucky, though her coat already shone like satin. The little dog stood up on her hind legs when Jimmy wanted to brush her underneath.
“I’m going into all the cages tonight,” said Jimmy. “Please leave the keys near the caravan window again, Fric.”
“Well, you’ll have to buy me a big ice-cream today then,” said Fric greedily. So Jimmy promised, and Fric went off to give the tigers fresh water. Roma was already cleaning the cages out, whilst the tigers lay and watched the big broom s
weeping.
That night Jimmy once more slipped out of his caravan at midnight, and, in the pale light of the moon, took the keys from the window of Fric’s caravan, and ran across to the tigers’ big travelling-cage.
Someone saw him go. Someone followed him. Lotta slid like a shadow after Jimmy, wondering where he was going. How she hoped he was not going off with Fric somewhere, for the little girl hated Fric.
She was very frightened when she saw Jimmy going to the tigers’ cage, and more frightened still when she saw him unlock the door and go inside.
“He’ll be killed!” said the little girl to herself. “I know he’s clever with animals, but tigers are different. They’re fierce and wild. Oh dear! He will be killed!”
She did not dare to call out, for she was afraid of upsetting the tigers. But she slipped in at the first door and stood outside the inner gate of the cage, trying to see what Jimmy was doing.
By the faint light of the moon filtering in through the airholes, Lotta could see Jimmy and Queenie and Ruby. And what she saw made her eyes open very wide in astonishment!
Jimmy was tickling Queenie, the enormous tiger, who was lying on her back like a kitten, all four paws in the air.
Ruby was pawing at Jimmy gently, asking for her turn. The little girl had never seen tigers behaving like that before. Usually they were sullen and fierce with human beings, but here were Queenie and Ruby playing like tame cats!
The tigers smelt her as she stood there, and turned their heads. But they knew her smell, and turned back to play with their friend Jimmy.
Soon the little boy slipped into the next partition, and Lotta could no longer see him.
“He shouldn’t do this, he shouldn’t, he shouldn’t,” said the little girl to herself. “It’s too dangerous. Suppose Jimmy stumbled over one of their paws or trod on a tail by mistake? They would turn on him, and he wouldn’t have a chance of escape! Oh, what shall I do to stop him?”