, to
get it mingled with his captors' food.

No, he felt he must wait now, and trust to their dropping off to sleep,
when he might still manage to crawl to the doorway, leap down, and dash
into the jungle.

As he lay thinking, the hard breathing of a couple of the Malays could
be plainly heard, and his hopes rose, for the others must grow weary,
sooner or later, and fall asleep. The noises in the jungle increased;
and as he lay with his cheek against the bamboo flooring, the sounds
came up very plainly between the interstices. Now it was the heavy
crashing of the reeds, the rustling of some animal going through the
dense undergrowth, and then, unmistakeably, the low, snarling roar of a
tiger. Now it was distant--now close at hand, and he knew that one of
the great, cat-like creatures was answering another. How close it
seemed! He could almost fancy that the tiger was beneath the house,
hiding in the reedy grass that had sprung up amidst the ruins.

Two of the Malays moved about uneasily, and they lit a fresh torch, an
act that set Ali thinking of cases he had known, in which tigers had
sprung up eight or ten feet to the platform of a house, and seized and
borne off its occupants one after the other.

If only one of the monsters would perform such a good office for him
now, he would be able to escape in the midst of the confusion, perhaps
into the jaws of another.

Well, if he did; what then? he asked himself. Better trust to chance in
the jungle, than be left to the tender mercies of these men.

The roars came louder and nearer, close up at last, and the Malays
seized their limbings, and stood with the keen points advanced towards
the entrance; but their leader sulkily rose, took one of the
dammar-torches, made it blaze a little, and going boldly towards the
door, waited till a snarling roar came close at hand, when he hurled it
with all his might in the tiger's direction.

There was a savage, deep-mouthed, hollow yell, and the crash of brittle
reeds, telling that the tiger had rushed away, alarmed at the fire; when
the man came slowly back, said something to his companions, who resumed
their seats, while he seemed to lie down and go off to sleep.

Seemed, Ali felt; for after his late experience, he was sure that if any
attempt were made to cross the room this watchful Malay would
immediately rise to his feet and confront him.

Ali was intensely agitated. The expedition was to start the next
morning, a