Explosive Adventures by Alexander McCall Smith Page B

wailed Mr Gopal. “We are going to be entirely eaten up. This terrible beast will shin up our tree and eat us up – one, two, three, four. Every one of us.”
    But Mr Gopal was wrong. The tiger looked at the trunk of the tree, stretched its claws in and out, and then yawned.
    “He’s too lazy,” said Mr Bhalla. “That’s a typical tiger for you! He knows that hedoesn’t even have to try to climb the tree. All he has to do is lie there until we come down.”
    The tiger looked up again, gave another growl, and then lay down at the foot of the tree. There was no need for him to waste his energy – his lunch was up the tree, hanging on to a branch, but sooner or later it would have to come down, and by then he hoped he would have an even sharper appetite!

9
    Bubblegum to the Rescue
    They sat on their high branches, looking down at the patient tiger and wondering how long it would be before one of them was overcome by sleep and fell off. It could be a day or two, if they were lucky, or it could be before that.Whenever it would be, it was not a nice thought.
    Then, after about an hour, Mr Bhalla suddenly let out a cry.
    “I’ve had a wonderful idea,” he said. “Why didn’t I think of it before?”
    “What is it?” asked Mr Gopal. “Could it possibly help us?”
    “Yes,” said Mr Bhalla. “Do you know what sort of tree this is?”
    “A bubblegum tree,” said Billy. “Or at least it looks like one.”
    “Precisely,” said Mr Bhalla. “And it’s a very nice juicy one at that. If I cut a little hole here, sap will come out by the bucketful.”
    “But what use would that be?” asked Nicola. “It won’t do us any good to sit up here and chew bubblegum!”
    Mr Bhalla laughed. “Indeed it would not,” he agreed. “What I propose is that we make a bungee rope out of the gum and then one of us can bounce down, give that tiger a bit of a fright, and then bounce back!”
    Everybody was silent. It was a most peculiar plan, but then the Bubblegummies were most peculiar people.
    Then Billy broke the silence. “But who will jump?” he asked.
    Mr Bhalla smiled. “I was thinking you might like to do it, Billy,” he said with asmile. “I hear that you were bungee jumping last night in the village, and you did it very well.”
    Billy swallowed hard. He really had no choice. They had to do something about the tiger and he might as well be the one to do it. But a bungee jump on to a tiger’s back? That sounded even worse than biting a tiger’s tail!

    Mr Bhalla made a hole in the bark of the bubblegum tree and had soon extracted a large lump of soft pink sap in his cupped hands. He passed this to Nicola, showing her how to twist it into a rope. Then he made another hole and collected moresap and passed that on to Billy. Soon everybody had twisted a long piece of gummy rope, which Mr Bhalla tied together to make one long bungee jumping rope.
    “Now,” he said, tying one end of the rope to their branch. “Let’s attach the other end round you, Billy, and then you’ll be ready.”
    “But what do I do once I get down there?” asked Billy, his voice unsteady with fear.
    “Pull its whiskers,” said Mr Bhalla. “That’s one thing which a tiger can’t stand. If you pull its whiskers it will go away soon enough.”
    Billy looked down through the leaves to the waiting tiger. He closed his eyes and counted. One, two, three … now! Taking a deep breath, he cast himself off the branch, shooting down through the leaves, straight towards the tiger. Then, with a sudden lurch, he felt the bubblegum rope tighten and slow down his fall.
    Mr Bhalla had calculated the length of the rope to perfection. Billy found himself just above the rather astonished tiger, and he was able to reach out and give the tiger’s whiskers a good tweak. The tiger roared out in fury and slashed at Billy with his great claws, but he was too late – the bubblegum rope had yanked Billy up againand the next thing the tiger saw was the boy