What had happened was this. The farmer, on whose load of hay Tamba had hidden, gone to sleep, and been given a ride to the city, had brought the hay to the zoölogical park, to sell, as he often did. He had driven it right up to the barn to unload, and then it was that Tamba slipped off and hid before any one saw him. And the wild animal smell that Tamba noticed was the smell of the animals in the park. I suppose you have been to the zoölogical park near your own city, perhaps, and have noticed that smell. It is almost like a circus, so it is no wonder Tamba was puzzled.
“So this is the zoo, is it?” he asked the zebra. “Well, I don’t want to stay here, any more than I want to stay in a circus. But how can I get away?”
“Well, if you really belonged here, of course it wouldn’t be right for me to tell you how to get away,” said the zebra. “But as you are not one of the zoo animals, it will be all right for you to run off. You had better wait until it is dark, though, and then you can crawl out through the fence near the back of this barn. But you will be in the middle of a big city, and not in your jungle.”
“I know,” said Tamba, sadly. “But I’m used to cities. I have been in parades in them often enough. I’ll find my way out somehow, and then I’ll go to my jungle. But I wish I had something to eat. You haven’t a bone or a piece of meat, have you?”
“I am sorry to say I have not,” replied the zebra. “All I eat is hay and grains. But I can show you where to get a drink of water.”
“I shall like that,” said the tame tiger, “as I am very thirsty.”
So the zebra showed the tiger where, in the barn, was a tub of water out of which the horses who worked in the zoölogical park got their drinks. There Tamba quenched his thirst and felt better. Then he crawled back into the dark corner to hide. The zebra had to go away, but he promised to come back and let Tamba know when it was dark enough for the tiger to run out and start afresh on his journey to the jungle.
All that day Tamba remained hidden in the barn. He saw none of the other wild animals, and the zebra did not come back. Tamba was getting hungrier and hungrier, but he knew he dared not go out to look for anything to eat. If he had the park men would have seen him and chased after him, either catching him to put in one of their cages, or else sending him back to the circus. And Tamba did not want that.