Free Archer's Quest by Linda Sue Park Page B

name.
Indian (Bengal) tiger—Panthera tigris tigris. Male. Born March 25, 1996, at the San Antonio Zoo.

    Could Archie tell from this distance that the tiger was male? Or was that just a lucky guess?
    "He has lately come into his full adulthood." Archie was still whispering, as if he was in church or something. Wow, the guy really did know a lot about tigers.
    Now Archie began examining the enclosure. His brow was furrowed, his eyes narrowed. He looked at the perimeter inch by inch. Then he peered down through the chainlink fencing at the concrete wall and the moat below.
Man, he can really concentrate.
    Kevin stared down into the moat, too. The water was green and murky-looking. He could see part of the big tree reflected on the surface.
    Kevin raised his head to see what Archie was looking at now.
    Archie was gone.

    "Archer?" Kevin looked around, but the man was nowhere in sight.
Oh, jeez. He hasn't gone wandering
off on his own, has he? How the heck did he get away without me noticing?

    Kevin hurried back to the zoo's entrance, searching for Archie the whole way. Then he retraced his steps and returned to the tiger viewing area. That had always been his parents' rule when he was little: If he got lost, he was supposed to go back to the last place they'd been together and wait there.
    Not that Archie would know the rule, but Kevin didn't know what else to do. In the few minutes it took him to walk to the entrance and back, he went from feeling puzzled to worried to almost angry.
Why didn't he tell me where he was going?
    Kevin reached the tiger enclosure, his eyes still darting everywhere. At last he caught a glimpse of Archie—but it wasn't all of him.
    It was just his head and shoulders, visible beyond the indoor complex.
    Archie appeared to be floating in midair.

8. One Big Tabby
    Kevin blinked.
Okay, he can't be floating like that—so what's he standing on?

    Then Kevin realized that Archie had to be perched on the zoo's exterior wall.
He must have gone out the exit, walked around the outside of the zoo, climbed the wall—
    Kevin knew the zoo's layout from previous visits. The zoo was surrounded by a high stone wall. The picnic area, a wide expanse of lawn with tables and chairs, stretched between the big cats' building and the wall. Way too big a gap to jump.
    So what's he gonna do next?
    Kevin did not have to wait long to find out. Archie disappeared from view for a few moments, and when he reappeared, he was holding his bow, which was fitted with an arrow. He drew back the bowstring, took careful aim, and let the arrow fly.
    Kevin saw everything clearly, as if it were happening in slow motion: the long rope that was tied to the arrow. The arrow heading straight for the big tree outside the enclosure. The arrow's course altered abruptly by a twitch of the rope—Archie giving it a yank from where he stood on the wall. The arrow landing high up in the tree—not with its point stuck in the wood, but held firmly in place crosswise at a Y-shaped junction where the tree's trunk met one of its branches.

    If Kevin hadn't seen it, he would never have believed it was possible. The fact was, he
had
seen it and he still didn't think it was possible.
    He turned his attention from the arrow back to the man who had made that incredible shot. Archie tugged on the rope a few times. Apparently satisfied, he took a few running steps along the top of the stone wall—and jumped, swinging on the rope.
    Kevin had
exactly
enough time to think that the shaft of the arrow would never hold Archie's weight when there was a small snapping sound.
    The shaft of the arrow broke. The arrow fell to the ground inside the enclosure, along with the rope, which looked like an impossibly long snake that had been shot out of the sky.
    And Archie landed lightly on his feet, right on top of the indoor complex.
    ***
    Archie wasted no time in leaping down from the roof of the building. He was now
in
the enclosure—with the