"GET THAT BLACK CAT"
At the first shock of the wreck, Johnny Thompson and Pant were thrown
with such violence against the express car door that the lock was sprung,
and they were pitched head foremost among the surprised and
panic-stricken counterfeiters.
Pant was the first to regain his wits. The car, like many others, had
careened to one side and lay there motionless. The instruments in the
room had been tossed about. Everyone was splashed with a stinging fluid
which came from the vats. The peculiar instrument which had occupied the
center of the room, and was undoubtedly the color-photo camera, an
instrument of priceless value, had apparently sustained little injury.
Pant seized upon this and was about to dash through the door with it,
when the large man with the black moustache wrenched it from his grasp,
and, poising it for an instant in his right hand, hurled it at Pant's
head. Leaping to one side, Pant barely escaped the blow. There was a
crash, followed by the tinkle of glass and metal instruments.
The next moment the big man shot suddenly upward and fell back with a
groan. Johnny's good right hand had got him under the chin. Two of the
men leaped from the door and fled. The one remaining sprang at Pant, but
was at once borne down by Johnny.
"Tear some of those wires from the wall," panted Johnny. "We'll tie them
and drag them out."
The fat man, who was completely within their power, was soon tied, then
carried out of the car to the embankment.
"Now for the other," puffed Johnny.
They dodged back into the car. To their astonishment, they found that the
other man had escaped.
"Gone!" muttered Pant.
"Faked unconsciousness."
"And he was the prize bird of them all."
"Too bad!"
Suddenly Pant appeared to remember something.
"Johnny," he whispered in a tense whisper, "Johnny, get that black cat!"
Catching his breath, Johnny sprang from the car.
"Wait," whispered Pant. From his pocket he had drawn a tiny vial.
"That," he whispered, "may help you. It's what they call cat-lick in
India. An old Hindu gave it to me after I had captured the big black cat.
He said it was like catnip to the cat. When a tiger or leopard smelled
it, if he could get near the spot where a drop had been spilled he forgot
his savageness, and laid down to roll in it. I'm not sure. It sounds
queer. Try it if you must."
"You got some?"
"Sure."
"I'll go up track; you go down."
"Right! And Johnny," Pant repeated, "get the black cat!"
Johnny had scarcely turned from the car when he almost ran into somebody.
"Gwen!" he exclaimed in surprise. "What you doing out here? Don't you
know half the beasts are loose? Listen to that?"
The long drawn out roar of a lion sounded above the wail of darkies, the
neighing of ponies, and the trumpeting of bull elephants.
"I know, Johnny, but Johnny, nothing half so terrible could ever have
been dreamed of!"
"The wreck? I know. Some people are almost sure to have been killed."
"But the twins?"
"Where are they?"
"I don't know. They were in the car with me when the shock came. They
were telling me about--all about you. They got away while I was freeing
myself from the seats. Went to find you and their ponies. Oh, Johnny, we
must find them quick!"
"Yes," Johnny answered, "but watch out for the black cat, the leopard.
He's a man-eater from the jungle."
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "And I saw him not a minute ago. He's loose from his
cage. He was crouching in the corner of the wreck. I caught the gleam of
his eyes."
"Where?"
"Back there."
Johnny started forward.
"Johnny, you won't go?"
"I must."
"You'll be killed."
"I've got to get him first." He drew an automatic from his pocket. Then
he walked steadily forward, his keen eyes studying every dark corner of
the wreck.
Down the train lengths lights were flashing. The keepers were searching
out the cages, striving to retain those animals which had not yet
escaped, and to locate those that were free. The wooden cars of an
ancient design which carried the animals had been torn and crushed, piled
upon one another, until the wreck at this point resembled a kindling
pile. Here one heard the splintering of boards, as some beast attempted
to free himself, and here the crash of torn-up planks told that some
loyal elephant strove to free his mate. The whole scene was one of wild
confusion. Wildest, most terrifying of all, came the occasional challenge
of a great cat of the jungle, now free to do the bidding of his own wild
will.
* * * * * * * *
Hardly had Gwen turned, after Johnny had hurried away, than she uttered a
cry of dismay. Creeping toward her, his wild eyes gleaming, was a gaunt,
yellow tiger. For a second she was paralyzed with fear. And in that
second the cat made progress--now he was ten yards away, now eight, now
five.
What should she do? To turn, to attempt to flee seemed futile. A tiger
could run much faster than she. He might leap as she turned. Her heart
stood still. Cold perspiration came out upon her brow.
Just when hope seemed gone a strange thing happened; a thing which had
happened once before under very different circumstances; a crimson flash
leaped out from the darkness and played upon the tawny coat of the tiger.
Blinded, terrified, the beast shrank back, yet the light still played
full upon him. Leaping and flaring like the light of a fire, it held the
animal at bay until the keepers came with chains and led him away.
* * * * * * * *
When the twins jumped out of the car window to go in search of Johnny
Thompson and their ponies, they stumbled down the embankment to climb
laboriously up again, and make their way tripping and falling around
wrecked cars, from which came weird, wild sounds of animals fighting for
freedom.
Suddenly from beneath Marjory's feet there sounded a queer chatter. Then
something clawed at her legs. With a wild scream, she shook it from her.
It was a monkey that had escaped from his broken cage. Others could be
heard chattering to the right of them. Leaping forward they were startled
by a great bulk that loomed unexpectedly before them in the dark.
"An elephant!" screamed Margaret.
For a minute they hesitated; the next, they leaped to one side and,
having passed the elephant, continued on down the track. Always to the
left of them there loomed the overturned cars. All at once, from beneath
the wheels of one of these there came a piercing scream. At the same
instant they caught the gleam of two red balls of fire glaring at them
out of the blackness. Some fierce, wild creature was lurking there. And
he moved. Stealthily he made his way toward them. Now he was away from
the cars. A black spot, he glided forward, his glaring eyes seeming to
grow larger and larger as he advanced.
Seized with a sudden paralysis of fear, the twins stood rooted in their
tracks.
* * * * * * * *
With a little gasp Gwen sank upon the ground. She looked in vain for the
crimson flash. It was gone. And now, for the first time she realized that
she did not know the direction whence it had come.
After leaving Gwen, Johnny Thompson made his way cautiously along the
uneven embankment. Now his eye caught a gleam that appeared to come from
the great cat's eyes. It proved but the reflection of some polished
object. Again he heard a rattle among splintered boards, only to find a
colored roustabout climbing from the pile of broken lumber under which he
had been buried. Johnny was just beginning to believe that he had missed
both the black beast and the twins when something leaped at him out of
the darkness.
It took him but a second to realize that this was not a wild beast, but a
man; the king of the counterfeiters.
Taken by surprise, he went down with the man upon his back. At the same
instant he caught the gleam of a knife in the outlaw's hand. There could
be not one shadow of doubt that he meant murder.
A terrible struggle followed. The man, fully fifty pounds heavier than
Johnny, was at the same time agile and strong. Now the knife was poised
in air, only to be dashed to the ground. Now Johnny secured a
half-nelson. Now his hold was broken. And now Johnny was thrown to earth
with such force as to render him half unconscious. Struggling against a
terrible dizziness, he fought but feebly. The end seemed to have come.
But, at that moment, there came a shrill voice:
"I'm here, Johnny Thompson! I'm here!"
One moment the knife poised above his chest; the next a diminutive figure
attached itself to the arm that held the knife and sent it whirling to
one side.
"Tom Stick, the midget clown!" gasped Johnny, renewing his struggle for
freedom.
Dimly in the half light, he saw what followed. Turning all his attention
to this new enemy, the counterfeiter appeared to seize the dwarf by the
heels and dash him with terrible force against the ground.
Then, almost instantly, a great, brown bulk lumbered in out of the
blackness, and at that instant, with a gurgling cry, the counterfeiter
appeared to rise in air to be sent crashing again and again against the
side of the embankment.
"Jo-Jo, the French elephant, Tom Stick's friend!" cried Johnny, leaping
to his feet to bend over the prostrate form of his little defender.
Two attendants came hurrying up.
"It's Tom Stick," explained Johnny. "That other fellow's dead. The big
bull elephant killed him. And right it was. He deserved it. Look after
Tom. I've got to find the twins and the black cat."
Once more, after recovering his automatic, which had been thrown from him
in the first assault of the counterfeiter, he leaped away into the dark.
He was not a moment too soon, for as he dropped down from a pile of
tumbled bales of canvas he came face to face with the twins. They were
standing wild-eyed, transfixed. Not ten yards away and within leaping
distance, his tail lashing, his white fangs gleaming, was the great black
cat.
With uncommon coolness Johnny grasped his automatic and, taking careful
aim at the spot between the creature's fiery eyes, grasped the handle
tight. There came a metallic click, but no report. The gun had
jammed--was utterly useless. With a cry of consternation, Johnny dropped
the gun and reached for his clasp knife. Thus poorly armed, he was about
to rush at the man-eater, when there came the sudden glare of red light
as it played upon the great cat.
"The crimson flash! Thank God!" he murmured.
But the next instant he remembered the words of Pant, when he had told of
his jungle experience: "He did not fear my charm; he leaped!"
What now would be the outcome? It was a time of terrible suspense.
Johnny's breath came in little gasps. One of the twins had dropped to the
ground.
There was not long to wait. Whirling, the cat leaped away to the right.
Then, for the first time, Johnny saw that the crimson flash came directly
from a dark bulk, a clump of bushes close to the track. There had been no
time for tricks, Pant had flashed it direct, and he was there now. The
great cat would be upon him in another minute.
Even as he sprang after the cat, Johnny thought for the first time of the
magic perfume, the cat-lick Pant had given him. Drawing this from his
pocket, he uncorked it as he ran. He was not a second too soon. Already
the beast's fangs were at Pant's throat.
With mad hope beating at his heart, Johnny dashed a few drops of the
precious perfume at the beast's head.
Prepared as he was for miracles, he was astounded at the result. The wild
beast became at once a mere house kitten rolling upon the ground. Over
and over he tumbled, while Pant, limping painfully, crept away.
Throwing a glance about him, Johnny saw Tom Stick's house to the right of
him, and remembered how it had been built around a cage.
"Door's still on the hinges and open," he muttered. "If I only can!"
Six steps he took, and with each step, spilled a drop of the precious
fluid. Then, with a breathless leap, he was inside the dwarf's house.
Dashing the vial against the wall, he caught his breath at the thought
that the cat might trap him here; then with a wilder leap than before, he
cleared the door and breathed the outer air.
He was not a second too soon. Hot on the trail of that burst of perfume,
the cat flashed past him and into the house that was a cage.
Johnny banged the door shut and barred it, then sank down upon the ground
for a quiet breath.
Soon he rose and, making his way to the bushes, examined the spot where
the black cat had pinned Pant to the ground.
As he flashed a light about, he uttered a low exclamation, and stooping,
picked up the bent and lenseless ruins of Pant's glasses. He dropped
these a second later to gather up a mass of fine wires and strangely
tangled tubes and peculiar instruments. These he crammed into his jacket
pocket, and, having cast one more glance about him, hastened away to find
the twins.