‘You are a very intelligent, observant fellow. What is your name?’
‘Shekar,’he answered proudly and loudly.
‘Shekar,’cried Alphonse enthusiastically.‘Come and see me with your friend. I’ll have a present for you. I’ve a wonderful air-gun, with which you can practise. You won’t need a licence for it although you can hit and disable a buck at forty feet ... Our country needs more boys of your type. You are our only hope.’
‘He is the brightest fellow in our school,’the assistant headmaster ventured to suggest with some pride, to please the gunman.
‘I’m glad you recognize it, if you really mean it. Shekar, you and your friend take the ladder over there and put it up for me to go up to the roof ...’
One couldn’t have secured more spirited helpers. Shekar and Ramu felt so flattered that they were prepared to obey any command from Uncle Alphonse.‘He has promised me a gun. I’ll shoot all the crows and dogs in our street.’
‘I’ll shoot the donkeys,’said Ramu.
‘How can you?’Shekar asked.‘He has only one gun and that is promised to me.’
‘It’s for both of us,’Ramu said.‘Let us share it.’
‘How can two shoot with a single gun?’sneered Shekar, but before it could develop into a full-scale argument, Alphonse cried, ‘Come on, boys, march on with the ladder.’
The two boys took the ladder out to the spot indicated, and Alphonse placed it below the eaves of the headmaster’s office. He then turned to a small crowd, which followed him. He braced himself for the task, put one foot on the first rung, and turned to face his audience:‘You must all be calm and mind your business if you have any. Don’t get panicky if you hear gunshots presently. I can shoot straight and finally, of course, but there can be no guarantee how the tiger will behave when he is hit. Before I send the second shot and dispatch him, he may go mad and devilish and storm his way out of the room, he may spring skyward, or dash through the door or break the walls in his fury. One can’t foresee what’ll happen then, especially when I have not seen the brute -’
‘He is no brute,’shouted my Master from back of the crowd. ‘No more than any of us here.’
‘Ah, ah! You are still here. You were ordered to remain out of range, weren’t you? Anyway if you are still here you will see who is a brute when he comes out. However, if you have no business here, get out of this place smartly ... I want two men up here to come up with me and loosen the tiles. If I see clearly inside, I can finish the job in a moment.’
‘What about the headmaster, who must be somewhere between your gun and the animal?’
‘That’s a problem,’said Alphonse generously,‘but if you have confidence in me, he’ll escape the shot.’
‘But the tiger may spring up, you said, and God knows where he will be caught,’said someone.
Alphonse said,‘Don’t imagine troubles. Have you confidence in me or not?’He paused and waited for an answer. It was Shekar who shouted at the top of his voice,‘Don’t let them stop you, Uncle, go on and shoot the animal. I’d love to see how you shoot.’
‘Follow me then and help to remove the tiles. I’ll tell you how to do it ... The grown-ups here are all cowards and ought to wear saris; they are afraid to see a tiger even from a rooftop.’
‘I’m not afraid,’said Shekar, and his friend added a confirmation. Alphonse climbed the ladder, followed by the two boys, who were cautioned and admonished by their teachers for their foolhardiness.
‘If I had four arms like some of your gods,’said Alphonse from the roof,‘I would not have needed the help of these young people. Two of my hands would have pulled the tiles out, while the other two might have been holding the gun and triggering off the shot. Four arms are a most sensible arrangement.’And then he proceeded to remove a few tiles and asked the boys to follow his example. They tore up the tiles with zest and threw them down recklessly, enjoying the sight of their elders dodging below.
Soon an opening was made, and a shaft of sunlight entered the room. The headmaster was on the point of collapse, crouching there in the narrow attic, amidst bundles of old papers and files. He looked up and saw the faces of the two boys on the roof and could not make out what they were doing up there. He could not believe his eyes. He tried to stand up, but hit his head on the rafters. Shekar cried,‘It’s me, sir. My friend is also here, Ramu of Four B. Uncle is here to shoot the tiger ...’The headmaster had enough wits about him to understand the situation. ‘Sir, aren’t you hungry? If you come out, I’ll run up to Pankaja Cafe and bring you tiffin, if someone gives me money...’said the boy.
The headmaster took his finger to his lips to warn the boy not to make a noise and wake up the tiger. He spoke in a hoarse whisper. At the mention of the tiger, Shekar was pushed aside and in his place the headmaster found another head.‘I’m Alphonse,’said the man.‘Headmaster, keep cool; we will get you out soon. Ah! I see him there ... must be eleven-point-five feet ... a full-grown brute. Wish his head were not under the table. I could dispatch him with one shot then and there. You need have no doubt ... I could shoot now, but if he is hit in the hind part, he may go mad and spring up. I’ve seen such beasts go up even fifteen feet in the air under similar circumstances. But first let me get you out of here ... Keep cool ... don’t fall off the attic.’He looked around.‘Boy, you must run and get a hacksaw or an ordinary carpenter’s saw. Run and get it as smartly as you brought the ladder. If you see a carpenter, snatch it from his bag.’
‘Yes, you will need more than a carpenter’s saw,’said a voice, and turning round Alphonse exclaimed,‘You, here still!’
‘Yes, yes,’said my Master.‘I could come up a ladder as well as anyone.’
‘Weren’t you told to keep out?’asked Alphonse angrily.
‘Yes, yes,’agreed my Master amiably, and added,‘Who are you to pass such orders?’
‘You are a pertinacious pest,’remarked Alphonse in disgust. ‘Now the urgent thing is that you get the saw. You stick like the burr, but at least make yourself useful ... go and get a saw immediately.’
‘What for?’
Alphonse suppressed his irritation, and said,‘I want to saw off a couple of those crossbars, enough to admit the headmaster’s head, and then we could pull him out and tackle the tiger.’
‘And you expect the tiger to watch the fun while you are at your carpentry?’Master said with a smile.
Alphonse said,‘If you do not behave, I’ll push you in through this gap. Shekar, get a saw without delay — instead of listening to this mad fellow. He is persistent ... No way of keeping him off.’
‘How can you keep me off? Who are you?’asked my Master, and added,‘I can ask the same question you asked, who are you? I know enough law to realize that I have as good a right to be on a roof as anyone else!’
‘I’m only here to help the headmaster ...’
‘You won’t be able to work through the rafters so easily. They are old teak beams. You will have to saw for days before you can make a dent...’
‘In that case, I’ll shoot. I’ve enough sight now. Let the headmaster stay where he is, and take his chance and pray for his life and pray that the tiger does not spring up vertically ...’He turned to the headmaster, who was peering out like a prisoner behind the bars: ‘Only be careful that you don’t fall off the edge when you hear my gun go off, stick close to the wall so that even if the tiger springs up, you will stay clear of his reach. With the second, I’ll get him, even if he is in mid air ...’
‘Oh, here they are,’exclaimed my Master, pointing at the school gate. A jeep had arrived at the gate and a number of persons jumped out of it and hurried across the school compound. They pushed their way through the crowd.
‘Come down, please, and keep your finger off the trigger. We are Save Tiger Committee. You must hear us first. We are a statutory body with police powers ...’
Alphonse came down the ladder, saying,‘The headmaster is about to be saved. Please give me five minutes, I’ll get him out and then we can discuss.’
The wild-life committee paused to consider it for a moment, and asked,‘Explain how you propose to save the headmaster.’
Alphonse explained that he proposed to cut through the rafters and bail out the headmaster.
My Master, who had followed him down, said,‘Rafters are of ancient timber, it’ll take at least three days to make a notch.’
Alphonse glared at him and exclaimed,‘You again! Why do you dog my steps like this? I’d knock you down with the butt, but for your age. The animal is there already stirring and growling. How long do you think the headmaster will stand the tension? He may faint and roll off the attic straight into the mouth of the tiger. You won’t let me call him a beast. I don’t know why I’m being plagued by you ... you follow me like a shadow ...’
My Master ignored Alphonse and turned to the visitors:‘I’m grateful that you have responded to my call. If you hadn’t come, he’d have murdered the tiger. His plan was to make enough noise with a saw or anything to stir up the animal, and shoot, leaving it to chance for the headmaster to survive ...’
Alphonse ground his teeth and remained silent. Meanwhile Shekar plucked at his sleeve.‘Uncle, give me money, I’ll buy idli and
vadai
at the Pankaja restaurant for the headmaster ...’Alphonse fished out of his pocket a rupee and gave it to the boy, who at once ran off. Alphonse said, looking after him,‘This fellow is the hope of our country. He is fit to ride on the back of a tiger ...’
The leader of the wild-life group said,‘Mr Alphonse, as you may be aware, I’m the chairman of the local chapter of Tiger Project, affiliated to the Central Committee under the Ministry of Agriculture at Delhi ...’
‘What has agriculture to do with tigers?’asked Alphonse.
‘We will go into the question later, but at the moment we wish to emphasize the fact that “Save Tiger Project” as its name indicates, is to prevent the decimation of the tiger population which was at one time in the neighbourhood of fifteen thousand; today it’s less than fifteen hundred.’He went into statistics until Alphonse said,‘Is this the time for a lecture, while the headmaster is half dead inside? You think that only tigers are important and not a headmaster ...’
‘And so,’continued the chairman,‘there is a general ordinance issued by the government which prohibits the shooting of any tiger, in any part of India, and we are given powers to enforce the rules and initiate prosecution if and when necessary; with penalty up to two thousand rupees and one year’s rigorous imprisonment and confiscation of the offender’s weapon and licence ...’
‘I know all this and more,’said Alphonse.‘You are opening your eyes on this subject probably only now. But I have been in the tiger business for half a century. There’s a provision in the same ordinance, an exemption where a man-eater is concerned ...’
‘Yes, yes, we know all that; where a tiger has been established to be a man-eater, we can permit the shooting, provided you apply for it with proof and evidence ...’
‘What proof? Remains of a poor villager snatched away from the tiger’s jaw? I’ll also have to file a photograph and write an application in triplicate, I suppose?’he asked, with grim humour.‘You and your government regulations. You have no practical sense ... You’ll see half the population destroyed in your zeal to protect the tiger: perhaps that’s a ruse to keep down the population of our country! Ha! Ha! Ha! Here’s a headmaster struggling to survive and you go on talking rules. You people do not distinguish between what’s important and unimportant.’
Meanwhile I awoke after a very good stretch of sleep and heard voices outside. I looked up and saw the headmaster cowering in the attic. I stretched myself and roared, for no particular reason except that I felt alive. The poor human being in the loft must have trembled at that moment. I wished to assure him that I was not going to hurt him. If it had been the old jungle days, I’d have gone after him; already a change was coming over me, I think. My Master’s presence in the vicinity, though he had not come near me yet, must have begun to affect me. I tried to assure the headmaster by raising myself and putting up my forelegs on the wall and scratching it, and growling softly, which must have shaken the poor man so much that he seemed to lose control of his bowels and bladder. Thereupon I withdrew from the wall and curled myself under the table once again in order to reassure the poor man ...
Meanwhile, outside, my Master noticed Alphonse taking the chairman aside under a tree, where they spoke in whispers. When they came back, the chairman was a changed man. He took aside, in his turn, his committee members, and spoke to them. Thereupon they took papers out of a briefcase and signed and gave them to Alphonse. All this concerned me. I was declared a man-eater and Alphonse was given written permission to shoot.‘In the normal course,’explained the chairman,‘I should get the sanction from Delhi, but in an emergency, I am empowered to use my discretion.’ My Master suspected that Alphonse had offered a substantial bribe, as he was known to be engaged in a flourishing business exporting tiger skins.
Shekar was seen coming down the ladder with a packet of food in hand. He approached Alphonse.‘Uncle, I can’t see the headmaster; I held out the
idli,
but he didn’t take it. What shall I do now?’
‘You and Ramu shall share the
idli,’
said Alphonse.
The boy continued,‘I peeped and couldn’t see him; I called and he wouldn’t answer. I heard the tiger scratching something and growling. I came away ...’He looked sad and anxious, moved aside and gobbled up the tiffin hurriedly.
The crowd, which watched in silence all along, let out a moan in chorus:‘Aiyo! Never thought our beloved headmaster would come to this end ...’They all looked bitterly at the assistant headmaster, who they somehow held responsible for all the delay. The assistant headmaster probably had confused feelings, happy at the thought that after all he was getting his chance to become the headmaster, but also unhappy at the same time. He wailed the loudest at the thought of the headmaster’s fate.