Leonie of the Jungle | Page 9

glued on Leonie, who was clinging
to the bars with both hands whilst calling upon the tiger to come back.
He came back, half crouched, noiselessly, stealthily, the hair of the
belly almost touching the ground, for all the world like a cat about to
spring upon an unsuspecting sparrow.
He came to a standstill within an inch of the bars and threw his pointed
ears straight forward so that they stood out at right angles to the
beautifully marked face; spasmodically twitched back the mouth
without a sound issuing therefrom, and then lay down and pressed his
head against the bars.
The tiny hand was stroking the silky ears, patting the head, and
prodding contentedly into the thick fur of the neck when suddenly with
a mighty heart-quaking roar the tiger leapt up and back, and then hurled

himself at the bars.
The keeper had crept, bent double, along the inside of the barrier, and
had most suddenly and surprisingly seized Leonie by the waist and
wrenched her free from the bars to which she had tried to cling, holding
her like a vice in his arms where she vainly kicked and struggled for
freedom.
CHAPTER VII
". . . that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing
with beasts as he now does."--Plutarch.
The whole house was in an uproar.
The lions were trotting round and round, stopping to listen and snuff in
the sawdust near the bars; the stumpy jaguar, black as ink, with a body
like a steel case, was rushing up and down, rubbing its forehead
fiercely as it turned; a lion and his mate were rearing themselves one
after the other against the walls, half turning from the middle to fall
almost backward in that peculiar movement which reminds one
forcibly of great succeeding waves stopped and thrown back upon
themselves by some bleak rock.
People were pushing and straining to look in at the windows, and
rattling the doors which had been hurriedly locked by the keepers who
had rushed to ascertain the cause of the tumult, whilst the tiger made
the place resound with its terrific roars as it hurled its huge weight
again and again at the bars of its cage.
"Come on, Mother," shouted the keeper above the din, "bring all those
children and let's get out. They'll quieten down when we've gone. Can't
you read!"
He shook Leonie slightly under the stress of his agitation as he hauled
her in front of the notice which commands you to refrain from climbing
the barrier.

"Of course I can wead," she replied with dignity; "I'm weading the
little----"
"Well! read that!"
"But--but"--stammered Leonie, having read with difficulty--"but I
knew the tiger, Mr. Keeper!"
"Oh! yes! of course! You were tiger 'unting and brought him from the
Sunderbunds about four years ago; it wasn't the gentleman, of course
not!"
"But weally," pleaded Leonie with the tears very near, "weally
I've--I've dweamed lots about him, and--and--and----"
"Take her away, Sir--she makes me see red she does. No thank you.
Sir--very much obliged, but it's part of my duty to see that people
_don't_ climb the barrier, and I kind of failed--p'raps the little girl what
came and----"
They were outside by this time and the centre of an interested admiring
crowd; it is only bleeding meat at three o'clock as a rule which can
rouse the inhabitants of the lion house from their prison apathy.
Taking the dirty little paw Cuxson, crumpling up a note, put it into the
dirty little palm and closed the fingers tightly over it. Whereupon
Gertrude Ellen blushed furiously, and went to her mother with her
clenched fist behind her back, where she kept it stiffly until tea-time,
when she held out the bit of paper without a word, to the tune of
"Lawks a mercy me!" from her mother, who immediately ordered more
buns on the strength of it.
"Lor' bless yer, lovey!" said Mrs. Higgins, whose bonnet was bobbing
on the nape of her neck, leaving the wisps of hair to straggle
unrestrainedly in the honest grey eyes, as she knelt on the ground and
tugged Leonie's short skirts into place. "Yer did give us a turn, dearie;
yer might 'av 'ad yer 'and nipped orf by that there brute. Come 'ere, Lil
and 'Erb--I'll 'ave yer eaten by the camuls next!"

The bow-legged twins, with their spirit of adventure quashed, rolled
back to mother, and stood wide-eyed as she ran her work-worn hand
through the stranger's luxuriant curls.
"Give us a kiss, lovey, an' go an' get some tea!"
For the second time that day Leonie moved to obey the same command,
but this time there was no hesitation as she put her thin arms round the
woman's neck and kissed her sweetly once and