My mother’s agitation came to nothing. The tigers which clung to the island’s far reaches had grown scarce and Father returned from his hunt unscathed. When he appeared, a pack of boys trailed him along the road from the station, calling, “Have you a tiger, sir?”
My father kept his steady gaze facing forward as a young boy ran before him waving his arms.
“Tiger man! Tiger man!” the boy roared.
Father’s horse dropped its neck sharply, flashing a long stretch of mane behind it. “Step aside,” called Father, “get out of my way.”
The boys let out wheezy laughs as they followed behind my father. They pulled at each other and lolled from side to side in merriment as they kept inside father’s tracks.
Upon the hillside, where the scene played below, I turned to Tilly. She sat atop a five-bar f
