102 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 



of the ship, telling Mr. La Souef that if he did not 

 get some kind of a boat or lighter to put the cage 

 in, he would drop tiger, cage and all into the water, 

 and as this happened at about half-past eleven at 

 night, things did not look very bright for Mr. La 

 Souef. He begged and prayed the captain to let 

 the carpenter or himself get nails and boards, but 

 the captain was firm. They finally got the head 

 stevedore of the dock to let him put the cage in 

 a lighter, which they did, and then towed the lighter 

 out in the harbor, everyone leaving it as soon as 

 it was tied to a buoy, and Mr. La Souef then told 

 them to notify me, which they did. There I was, 

 with instructions to get the tiger, recage it and 

 ship by next steamer, eighteen days later. 



I asked the boatman where the lighter was. Tak- 

 ing Ali and four natives with ropes, boards, nails, 

 etc., we went down to the docks, and there out in 

 the harbor tied to buoy was the lighter with a fleet 

 of small boats surrounding it at a good distance. I 

 called a sampan and told the owner of the lighter 

 to follow. As we neared the lighter, we could hear 

 the growling and the tearing of wood, and getting 

 alongside and cautiously climbing up, I looked in. 



There was the cage with the tiger's head through 

 a hole that it was trying to make larger. Fortu- 

 nately the cage had been strengthened by the ship's 

 carpenter, otherwise he would have broken out and 

 escaped before I could have been notified. By that 

 time the docks were lined with people. The story 



