The tiger kept walking back and forth in his cage.  It was just long enough to allow him to take two steps one way, and two steps the other way.  And he kept going back and forth all the while, up and down, his red tongue hanging out of his mouth, for it was very hot.  His fur, too, was scratched and cut, as though he had fought very hard, before he had let the natives catch him and put him into the crate.

Mappo was not so much afraid now, and once, when his cage was close to that of the tiger, the big, striped beast spoke to the little monkey.  Of course he talked in tiger language, which the natives could not understand, but Mappo could.

“Ha!  So they caught you too, little monkey?” asked the tiger.

“Yes, I got caught in a net, while I was eating some cocoanut,” answered Mappo.

“The cocoanut was bait,” said the tiger.  “I got caught eating a little goat.  The goat was bait, too, and they caught me in a noose that almost choked me.  Then they slipped me in this box when I was half dead.  If I had had my strength, they never would have gotten me in it!” and the tiger roared and growled, and tried to break out of his crate.  But it was too strong—­he could not.

“Keep quiet there, Sharp-Tooth!” cried one of the black natives who was marching along beside the tiger’s cage.  “Keep quiet, or I shall hit you on the nose with a stick,” and the black man held up a hard stick.  The tiger growled, away down deep in his throat, and kept quiet.  But still he spoke to Mappo, now and then.

“Seems to me I have seen you before, somewhere, little monkey,” said Sharp-Tooth.

“Yes, you—­you tried to eat me, if you please,” said Mappo, who spoke politely, because he was still afraid of the tiger.

“Did I?” asked the tiger.  “Well, I have to live, you know.  And I have eaten so many monkeys that one, more or less, doesn’t matter.  So I tried to eat you, eh?  I wonder why I didn’t finish.  I usually eat what I set out to.”

“I—­I hit you on the head with an empty cocoanut shell and ran away,” said Mappo.

“Oh, that’s so.  You did!” exclaimed the tiger.  “I thought I remembered you.  So you’re the chap who played that trick on me, eh?  Well, I thought I knew you.  Ha!  Yes.  An empty cocoanut shell!  I remember I was quite frightened.  I thought my head was broken.  But never mind.  I forgive you.  One shouldn’t remember things like that when friends are in trouble.  Listen, little monkey, will you do me a favor?”

“What is it?” asked Mappo, wondering how he, a little monkey, could do anything to help a big, strong tiger.

“Will you help me out of this cage?” asked the tiger.

“How can I?” inquired Mappo.

“Very easily,” the tiger said.  “I know what is going to become of us.  We are to be taken to the big ocean-water, and put in a house that floats on the waves.”  That was what the tiger called a ship; a house that floats on the waves.