Free 13 Tiger Adventure by Willard Price

housed the tiger, the lion and cub.
    Luckily, die lion’s head was near the door. Opening the door just a little, Vic slipped the noose of the lasso over the Ben’s head.
    Then they leaped into the car and started it. The lion was pulled out of the cage. She might have roared her displeasure, but she had learned not to roar. The little cub did the roaring but it was only a little squeak. The tiger thundered.
    The car dragged the lion down the road. But all was not going to be roses for the three thieves. The powerful lion broke the rope and retreated into a cave.
    The boys stopped the car and followed. Hanging from the roof of the cave were dozens of beehives. Jim thought they were old hives without any bees. He smashed one with his stick. At once a swarm of bees descended upon the intruders. From all the hives more came and bees covered the heads and faces and arms of the boys and wriggled down into their clothes. Sharp stings plunged into warm flesh.
    These were not ordinary bees. They were killer bees like those which, according to the newspapers, had begun to come up into the United States from South America, causing great suffering and death. The stings were very painful. This particular kind of bee loses its sting in the victim and then promptly dies itself. But for every one that died there were hundreds to take its place.
    The boys ran on, hoping to leave the bees behind. They came to a small pool of water. The lion was on the other side. They must wade through the pool. It was not deep -just up to their knees. But their legs from the knees down began to give them a great deal of pain. Why should a little water hurt them? When they came out on the other side they saw that their legs were covered with leeches.
    There are many leeches in some parts of India. They are worms that vary in length from one inch to half a foot These were the large variety. Every leech had a big sucker at one end and a small sucker at the other. In the middle was a mouth with sharp teeth. The leech fastens itself to the skin by the two suckers, and then sinks its teeth into the flesh and drinks blood until it becomes twice its ordinary size. It does not need any more food for a month. And it takes about a month for the wounds it makes to heal.
    A curious thing about the leech is that it swims backward. It likes to live in water but it is also at home on land. j The wound that it makes keeps on bleeding for days.
    The boys forgot their lion and made tracks for home. By . this time, all those stings from the killer bees had given \ them a severe attack of ague and fever.
    They undressed and began pulling off leeches from all parts of their bodies where the bloodthirsty worms had crawled under their clothes.
    Again, of course, the Hunts were to blame.
    Everything is so big here.’ moaned Vic. ‘Big bees, big leeches, toads a foot long, big lions, big tigers, spiders as big as soup plates on webs that stretch twenty feet, the j biggest panda, the biggest gaur bull, the biggest deer, the biggest forest, the world’s biggest mountains and the biggest pests - Hal and Roger Hunt.’
    At this very moment, Hal and Roger were learning about 1 rhinos. They had met one member of this species and it was giving them much difficulty. It had one horn, instead of ‘ two as in Africa, but it made up for this with enormous teeth with which it ate wait-a-bit thorn bushes as if they were lettuce and could chew up a human whenever it got a chance. The boys wished that Dad had not wanted a rhino.
    The one that they were trying to catch frightened them with its terrific rushes, but when it came within ten feet of them it would apologise, turn round, go back, and then make another rush.
    The boys had made a pit six feet deep and covered it with grass and bushes, hoping that the rhino would not notice the cover and would fall into the pit. They stood so that the pit was directly between them and the rhino. If the beast came to attack them he would certainly fall