TELLS ABOUT HOW TIGERS LEAP
Of course, we didn't stop to think about it then, but I knew that when
the water first came rushing through Nick's Valley, it must have been
dashed right into the pit. There was Skinny's body to prove it.
Afterward, when it got flowing into the creek bottom and spreading out
over the fields below, I could see how it wouldn't flow into that hole.
But you can see for yourself, if you look at the map, that in the first
rush it _must_ have done that. Gee, I'm no civil engineer, but anyway,
I could see that. Anyway, we didn't stop to think about that, or the
canoe either, but only just Skinny.
"See if the paddle's anywhere around," Bert said. His voice was awful
funny--sharp kind of, as if he meant business.
"What do you want that for?" I asked him, all excited.
"Look and see--do as I tell you," he just said.
It was in the smashed canoe and I just stood there holding it.
"What'll I do with it?" I asked him.
"Just hold it," he said. Then he said, "Now, Blakeley, there's only one
way to get down there and that's to jump. It's pretty deep, but the
main question is, 'is it wide enough?' If it is--well, I'm a tiger and
I ought to manage it."
I didn't know then, but I found out afterward that when a tiger makes a
leap out of a tree he rolls over when he hits ground and turns a sort
of summersault, so as to break the shock. There's a certain way to do
it, that's all I know. But I knew when he said it, that the Royal
Bengal Tigers from Ohio were like the others away out in India, in more
ways than I ever thought about.
I said, "Bert, you can't do it--tigers are--"
"Shut up," he said, "and listen--"
"Even if you did," I said--"No, I _won't_ shut up--_you_ listen. Even
if you did, how could you get out? Have some sense. I've followed you
all the time, but now you've got to listen. I like you better than any
fellow--even Westy--and--_please_ wait a minute--even Skinny. It's too
late--Bert."
He said, "Blakeley, we have two chances--just two. You know the third
law. I don't tell you what you've got to do, Blakeley. That's your
business--but listen." He put his hand on my shoulder and his voice
was all husky. He said, "Blakeley, if I don't make it, you'll have my
body to ease the shock for you. People--people will be here to-morrow--
you'll get out. It's getting _in_ we have to think about. If I don't
make it, try to land on your feet--a little forward--like this--see?
And duck your head and do a summersault forward--see? If you don't want
to, it's none of my business. Only I'm telling you how. Here," he said,
and he threw a lot of things out of his pockets; "you give them to my
patrol."
"Keep them," I said, "I'll get them when I come down, if that's
necessary. It's--it's you and I and Skinny, Bert--sink or swim--live
or die--it's the three of us. I'm ready."