“He tried to jump through our window,” said Aunt Cynthia.

“Before or after you fired at him?”

“Afterward.”

“I suppose it was caused by the hullabaloo of the people, frightened out of their wits.  It is the same as when a hue and cry is raised about a dog.  If he isn’t mad, he will soon become so.  But, madam, we are very anxious to secure the animal before he is killed or seriously injured.  We will pay a good reward for his recapture.”

“How much?” asked Tom, to the surprise of his relatives.

“One hundred dollars to any one who will secure him without injury, or fixes it so we can recapture him.  May I ask where the tiger seemed to be going when you last saw him?”

“The last we seen of him,” replied Tom, “he was cutting ’cross the field toward the woods over yonder.”

Thanking the boy and the ladies for their information, the horsemen rode off, soon disappearing up the highway.

The fact that these men, experienced in their knowledge of wild animals, were searching for the escaped tiger, naturally lifted much of the fear of the beast from the hearts of the Gordon family.  They believed the keepers would recapture him before he could do much harm in the community.  They were convinced, too, that they were not the only ones looking for him.

The shutters of all the windows were never more carefully barred than before the three inmates retired to their beds.

Tom Gordon, being a rugged, healthy boy, generally passed the night in refreshing slumber.  Not a trace of the ague which kept him from the circus showed itself in his system when he went up-stairs to his room; but, somehow or other, after he lay down he could not sleep.

No doubt the excitement through which he had gone so wrought upon his nerves as to drive away all drowsiness; but the thought that was running through his brain found expression in the words:—­

“A hundred dollars!  What a fortune that is!  It would make us comfortable for life.  I wonder if there is any way of catching Tippo Sahib before the men find him.

“I don’t believe there’s anything in what Jim said about looking the creature in the eye.  S’pose I should meet him in the woods, and fix him that way, what good would it do?  I’d have to stand there till the keepers come along, and they might not do that for a week or two.  By that time I’d be starved to death, and so would the tiger, and they want him alive.

“Jim must be mistaken, too, ’bout shooting off his tail.  Jim and me haven’t got any tails, and we don’t have any trouble in walking.  I can’t see how it would make any difference with the tiger, either.  I wonder where Jim got all them ideas,—­I guess where he got the stories ’bout so many people being chawed up.”

The lad lay for a while on one side, and then flung himself on the other.  Several times he was on the point of dropping into an uneasy slumber, but some slight noise always came at the critical moment to make him wider awake than he was in the first instance.