While doing so, he observed a slight scratch on the hip of the beast, barely sufficient to break the skin; that was the path of the bullet fired by the lad the day previous.
Other ropes were fastened about the tiger, who took it all as a matter of course, and calmly followed when his guards moved in the direction of the horses.

These resented the approach of the huge cat, so the professor and one of his men walked some distance behind the others, who took care of the animals.
Before their departure, Professor De La Cordova told Tom to call at the hotel between six and seven that evening, and he would be paid the hundred dollars with the thanks of Mr.Jones and all connected with the menagerie and circus.
"I wonder if they mean to cheat me out of it ?" said the boy that afternoon, when he looked at the clock and saw it was nearly time to start.
"I hardly think so," replied his mother.
"Why didn't they give the money before they took the tiger away ?" "Probably they hadn't so much with them," suggested Aunt Cynthia, who plainly felt some misgiving over matters; "most likely the money has to be paid by some officer connected with the show." "And he may say he never gave his men the right to make such an offer," remarked Tom.
"That may be," said the mother, thinking it wise to prepare her son for a probable disappointment; "the circus is to exhibit at Boorman's to-night.
That is twenty miles off, and all may have gone thither.

If those men choose to disregard their word, I see no help for it." "It will be awful mean in them," declared the boy, who had become quite nervous; "I'll never catch any more tigers for them." Tom loitered on his way to Briggsville, striving not to reach there before the time named; but despite the effort, he was in town fully a quarter of an hour too early.
A surprise awaited him.

The news of the recapture of the runaway tiger had preceded him; and, as was natural, the story was exaggerated to an absurd degree.

Jim Travers had told the wondering people that he saw Tom capture Sipo Tahib, as he called him, by jumping on his back and bending his forepaws over his neck.