The Crimson Flash by Roy J. Snell
CHAPTER XI THE BLACK BEAST
"Pant," said Johnny the next evening, as they sat upon the beach in themoonlight, with the tom, tom, tom of the circus drum sounding from thedistance, "there's one thing that puzzles me about this crimson flash."
"Let's hear." There was a smile lurking about the corners of Pant'smouth.
"That big yellow cat last night was scared stiff, just frozen in histracks by the crimson flash," said Johnny. "They tell me that all the bigcats act that way, except one."
"Uh!" grunted Pant. "The black panther."
"He leaps right at it, wants to eat someone up every time it's flashed onhis cage. How's that?" asked Johnny.
Pant smiled, as he drank in a deep breath of cool, night air. "That,Johnny, is a rather long story, a story I've never told. But, becauseyou've been a good pal, because, though I've doubtless seemed mightyqueer at times, you've never asked a leading question, I've a strongnotion to tell it to you."
Johnny waited in silence. The tom tom of the drum ceased. By that he knewthat Gwen, Queen of the circus, was just entering the ring for her part.He had intended to see that act again, but if Pant spoke--
"I think I will," mused Pant. "You see," he went on, "ever since I was asmall child I have had a great interest in cats. Even before I couldwalk, so they tell me, I would turn up missing, and they'd find me atlast creeping through the grass in the meadows, following an old tomatocolored cat that was hunting for moles.
"As I grew older I came to know that a cat could see in the dark, andthat he did most of his hunting at night. These things interested me.Night after night I would slip from my bed, steal out into the night andfollow the cats in their nightly wanderings. I guess I learned thingsabout cats that no one else knows; some of their secrets, I mean. I'venever told them, and I'm not going to tell them to you. Knowledge is ofvery little use to people unless they go to the places where it can beapplied, and very few are willing to go all that way.
"When I was thrown out into the world to shift for myself I still wantedto know more about cats. Little by little I came to know that house catswere but the pygmies among cats; that there were large, fierce, dangerouscats--wild cats, mountain lions, tigers, and the like. It was just whenmy curiosity about these big cats was at its height that I happened towander into a zoo. There I found tigers, panthers, leopards and mountainlions. I was wild with joy. I watched these big cats for hours. I askedso many questions of the attendant that he threatened to throw me out.When night came he did force me to go away. For a week I did nothing buthaunt that zoo.
"At last it came to me suddenly one day that I could learn nothing reallyworth while about these wonderful cats unless I could watch them, as Ihad watched house cats, in their native haunts, as they rested, fed,played and wandered about or stalked their prey. I asked the keeper wheretheir native homes were. He showed me on a map. I was astonished. Theywere from all over the world, India, Africa, South America, everywhere.
"There were two cats that had caught my eye, the great tawny beast, theBengal tiger, and the smaller black cat with the shifting eye, the blackleopard.
"When I was told that both these came from the jungles of India I wasoverjoyed. I would go there and follow them day after day, until I knewall their secrets.
"When I told the attendant of my resolve, he laughed at me; said I'd bekilled and eaten before I had been in the jungle a day.
"I took to thinking about that; then I tried to study out some way tomake the great cats of the jungle afraid of me. I returned again to thezoo and studied the great animals. When the keeper was not looking Itried many things. At last I found one thing that would make themafraid--all but one, the black cat with the shifting eyes; he was notafraid. He leaped at his bars snarling, but I said to myself, 'He is onlyone, all other black leopards will be afraid.'"
"Of the crimson flash?" whispered Johnny.
Pant gave him a look of warning, then glanced away at the lake.
"I was only a boy and not very far in my teens at that, but I went to thejungles of India. I don't remember much how I went. I was a stowaway on abig steamer, then in a smaller one. I helped pole long, heavy barges upan endless river where mosses and grape vines hung thick along the banks,and where great slimy beasts rose from the water to glare at us. I caughtthe fever and lay for weeks in a bed of a hospital provided for Dutchmissionaries.
"After I got well, I poled more boats up the river until, at last, I wasin the heart of India, where there were few white men, where there weremany naked natives, where it was all jungle, and where in the night Icould hear the call of the wild things, my friends, the great cats. Ah,my boy! Then I was happy. I would study. I would learn secrets. I wouldknow things that no other man knew."
Pant paused and, rising, began to pace restlessly back and forth, andJohnny, watching, was reminded of the great Bengal tiger pacing thelength of his cage.
"There was a mission station," Pant went on, still pacing to and fro; "alittle mission, with a tiny hospital and a doctor. It was in a nativevillage at the edge of a great jungle. The natives swarmed to it frommany miles around. When I asked the gray haired doctor why they didn'thave a large hospital, he shook his head and answered:
"'No money.'"
"I had a little money; I gave him that, and he let me stay there withthem. There were just his wife and one nurse and the servants. I didlittle things for them about the place the time I was not sleeping duringthe day. At night I went out into the jungle alone. That first night,when they saw me starting out, they called me back; told me there weregreat cats lurking in the jungle that would kill and eat me; begged menot to go, but I said to them:
"'I have a charmed life. Nothing can harm me. Besides, all cats are myfriends.'
"You see," Pant sat down upon the sand, "you see, I didn't want to tellmy secret. Never tell your secrets, Johnny, at least not all of them.You'll mean more to your friends and trouble your enemies more if youkeep them. I kept mine; but I went out into the jungle alone.
"I found them, Johnny; I found the great tawny cats with the darkstripes, the tigers. They were not hard to find, for I knew the secretsof cats, and all cats are alike.
"First I found the old tiger, then his mate. They were hunting in thetall grass. Right away, when they saw me, they wanted to hunt me and takeme home to their cubs. But there I had them. There was my great secret.When I showed them what I could do, they were afraid. They walked roundand round me until, in the morning, the grass was all trampled round in acircle.
"The next night I found their cubs playing near the roots of a fallentree. They were three months old--big as dogs. The father had broken theforelegs of a deer, and had brought it home for them to kill.
"When they saw me, the old ones wanted to get me more than ever. How theysnarled! How they circled and lashed their tails! They couldn't get me; Ihad them. They were afraid. Ten men on elephants, with rifles, they wouldhave attacked with a rush, but not me. They were afraid.
"But, Johnny, they were wonderful cats. Their coats! You have seen tigersin cages. Bah! They are nothing to the great, free cats of the jungle.The yellow! You have seen the sky at sunset sometimes when it was paintedwith golden fire? It was like that, only grander. And the dark stripes!They were like midnight. The gleam of their teeth, the burning red oftheir eyes, as they prowled in the night. Ah! Johnny! I had found truehappiness. I only wanted one thing to make me perfectly happy, and thatwas to have them play with me, as they played with their cubs; as thehouse cats played with me when I was in rompers. That, too, would havecome, but--"
Sighing, Pant rose and began pacing the beach again.
"A change came over me. I began to see things and to wonder. At times Ithought how sick I had been down there in the little Dutch missionhospital, and how the short, fat Dutch nurses had pattered about in theirwooden shoes to help make me well. Then I saw the hundreds and hundredsof poor natives who came limping into our little station, or who werecarried
"But I got to thinking that perhaps humans counted more than the greatcats in the jungle. I didn't want to think that, not at first, but Icouldn't shake it off. When I went into the jungle to watch the cats Isaw in my mind those sick people coming, coming, coming. I didn't likeit; didn't want to see them. There was yet the great black cat. I mustfind him somewhere in the jungle. I must see him.
"One day I talked to the doctor about my thoughts, and he told me thatpeople counted for much more than big cats. He said he needed medicine,supplies, new houses, everything, and since I could go to the jungle andcome back alive, perhaps I could help him.
"'How?' I asked.
"It was a terrible thing he said: 'Go into the jungle and get me tigercubs. Traders will pay big money for them.'
"It was terrible. I could do it. There were three cubs. I could get them,but--
"'But,' I said to the doctor, 'the big cats, the father and mother, mustfirst be killed.'
"'Yes,' he smiled. And that was all he said.
"I went into the jungle again that night and, as I watched the splendorof the great cats, I said, 'No, I will never do it! Never! Never!' Andyet I was going to do that very thing. I was going to take a rifle withme, and lie there in that wonderful moonlight to wait for them to comeback; sooner than I thought, too.
"It was that night, for the first time, that the old tiger left his mateand the three cubs while I watched them and went away to hunt by himself.Then I was glad, for I always had wished to watch him as he hunted downthe blue deer, the buffalo, wild goat or wild pig. So I followed.Creeping after him through the moonlight I lost him many times, for hisyellow stripes were like the moonbeams, and the dark ones like waveringshadows. But I always found him again, as he rose to leap along some pathor across an open spot in the forest.
"At last I knew that we were nearing the village. 'Ah!' I said to myself,'so that is your game. You will pick a calf or a fat young pig for yourdinner. Perhaps you may not fare as well as that,' for I decided that Imust use my charm to drive him from the village if he went to rob there.
"But, before I had expected it, he began to circle. By that I knew he hadscented some prey. Narrower and narrower his circle grew. Greater andgreater became my curiosity, for I wondered what kind of prey he couldfind so near the village and yet not safe in its pen.
"Finally I climbed upon the trunk of a dead tree, and then I saw. Myblood ran cold. Out of the village had wandered a child, a little girl offour or five years. She had crept from her bed while others were asleep,and there she was, the pale moonlight glistening from her body, and thetiger not four springs away. Then it was that I saw, saw clear as middayhow it was; that all big cats were men's enemies, and were but to bekilled.
"Yet, I could not kill. I had not as much as a knife. I could do but onething. I had my charm. I must stand between the beast and the child.
"Three leaps brought me in his path. Then I turned and faced him. It wasa great and terrible moment. My charm; would it work? He was terriblyangry. Lashing his tail, he leaped to one side. But that was no good. Ihad him. I was now beside the child, who was not one bit afraid.
"That time the tiger almost dared. He leaped once. Two more leapsremained. He leaped again. I could see the round, black pupils of hiseyes; count his teeth; hear him breathe. Three times they relaxed. He didnot dare. My charm; it worked. I had him. He did not dare.
"At last he slunk away through the tall grass. Then, because the childwas not afraid, because I knew it would be the last time I should everwatch the cats and their cubs, I took the child and followed the tigerback to the lair, where all night long, beneath the moon, the tiger andhis mate with their cubs beat a hard, round path about me and the littlegirl.
"Just before sunrise I heard the distant beat of the tom tom, thebellowing of bull buffaloes. Then it was that I knew that the nativeswere driving the herd of buffaloes to the jungle that they might frightenthe tigers from their lair, and secure the remains of the child. And allthe time I had the child safe in my arms."
Pant paused and looked away over the glimmering water. The tom, tom, tomof the circus drum was sounding. The indistinct noises wafted on thebreeze might be the lowing buffaloes. Johnny, for the second, fanciedhimself in the heart of the jungle with Pant, the child, and the tigers.
"The next night," Pant's voice had grown suddenly husky, "I went to thejungle again, and that morning I brought in the pelts of the tiger andhis mate. The kittens were chained to a tree. The natives brought them inlater. The hospital was bigger and better after that. And I, I was ahero, a hero to them all, but not to myself."
"But the black cat, the panther?" suggested Johnny after a moment ofsilence.
"Oh, yes, that was later. We have not time for it now. We move to-night.We must hurry. Already the people are leaving."
"One thing more before we go," said Johnny eagerly. "Light, Pant, doeslight travel in straight lines?" He was thinking of the crimson flashthat had leaped apparently from mid-air in the tent the previous evening.
"I am surprised that you ask it," Pant smiled. "You have been in Alaska?"
"Yes."
"Then, at Cape Prince of Wales you must have seen the midnight sun?"
"Yes, in June."
"If the sun's rays shone straight, you must have had then as many hoursof continuous darkness in December as you had of continuous daylight inJune. Did you?"
"No," said Johnny. "We had three or four hours of sun every day, even inDecember."
"Then," said Pant, smiling, "the sun's rays must have been bent that theymight reach you. In fact, the rays of light never travel straight. Solong! I'll leave you now to think that over. See you at our next stand.Hope I can tell you then who has your diamond ring."
He vanished into the night, leaving Johnny to stare after him in wonderand admiration.
"Some day," Johnny said to himself, "I'll hear the story of the blackleopard."