produced in him by all that he had gone
through, and by Killer's continuous growling, prevented his
touching the meat which lay near the bars of his cage. But hunger
triumphed after a while, and with a quick, rather furtive movement,
but with lips drawn back and every sign exposed of readiness to
defend his action, Finn lifted the big chunk of meat from its place
by the bars, and carried it into a corner at the back of the cage,
where he tore it into fragments, and ate it, of necessity, very
much as a wolf eats, the blood of the raw meat trickling meanwhile
about his jaws. To drink, Finn had to place his head close to those
bars which most nearly adjoined the front of the tiger's cage. But
drink was necessary to him now, and so, with his nose all furrowed,
his fangs bared, and a formidable low snarl issuing from his
throat, he slowly approached the water-pan, and lapped his fill,
pausing to snarl aloud at the tiger between each three or four laps
of his tongue. But Killer had fed full, and crunched his bone to
splinters and eaten that; so now he was preparing himself to sleep.

If Finn could have followed Killer's example and slept it would
have helped him immensely, for his overwrought system needed rest
more badly than anything else just then. But this was impossible as
yet for the sensitive Wolfhound. The two bears in the next cage
were playing together fubsily, and the tiger's breathing while he
slept was a maddening kind of cross between a purr and a snore;
maddening, that is, to one who found the creature's mere proximity
incredibly distasteful. This hatred of the Killer's neighbourhood
was no whim, no personal fastidiousness on Finn's part. It went
much deeper than that. For example, so far, the hair on Finn's back
would not assume its natural position; it still stood half erect,
and harsh and stiff as fine wire; by which the tension of his
nerves may be imagined. No, Finn could not sleep.

The hours of the day dragged slowly by, and Finn began to suffer in
new ways. He had never been confined for any length of time before,
and strict cleanliness was an instinct with him.

At length, as the hot afternoon drew to its close, a number of men
came to the cages, and horses were hitched on to the heavy wagon
which supported them, at a level of less than three feet from the
ground. Killer woke with a start and, with his tail, angrily
flogged the partition which divided him from Finn, while delivering
himself of a sn