How, then, could he expect to get the hundred dollars offered for the capture of the brute?
Mingled with the eager wish of the lad to earn the munificent sum, was a slight misgiving as to the meaning of this return of the tiger.

Having eluded the men sent after him, had he come back to revenge himself upon those who had treated him so ill?
This discomforting thought was dissipated by the action of Tippo Sahib.
He did not move around as on his former visit, but seemed to be prowling about the woodshed, as if in quest of something.

Surely he would not act thus if he meditated an attack upon the inmates of the home! But Tom had learned from his aunt and mother that if the tiger chose, he could readily leap from the ground to the windows of the upper story, and, therefore, would have little difficulty in entering, if he was bent on doing so.
"I'll get my gun, so as to be ready to shoot him.

But if I shoot him, I won't get the reward that was promised; but it's better to kill him than to have him chaw us to pieces." Just then the animal worked his way round the corner of the structure, out of the shadow, into the bright moonlight.

He showed no interest in the house itself, but confined his attention to the woodshed,--a fact which lessened the lad's fear, and held him at the window, closely watching the beast.
His change of location brought him to the front of the strong wooden building, and near the partially open door.
The heart of the lad gave a great bound.
"S'pose he goes inside, and I slip up and shut him in!" All the indications pointed to the tiger entering the structure, though it was impossible to imagine his purpose, unless he scented the waste food kept there in a barrel for the pigs belonging to the Widow Gordon.
The attempt the lad had in mind involved a fearful risk; for there could be no doubt that if the beast detected him, he would make him serve for supper.
Probably if Tom had been given a few more minutes to think over the matter, he would have abandoned the design in his mind; but that one hundred dollars looked as big to him as a million does to most people.
Hastily drawing on his trousers, he began stealthily descending the stairs.