noon
If a man entered the cage of a strange tiger , as little master of himself as this -- it would be taking his life in his own silly hands . Skag could n't get past this point , and he had a romantic adjustment in his mind about Carlin and the tiger -- one all his own . Deeper and deeper into the jungle he went , along the little river , but all paths appeared to lead him to the monkey glen ; and there he sat down at last and remembered all that Alec Binz had told him about handling himself in relation to handling animals , and all that Cadman Sahib had told him from the lips of wise men of India ... but all that Skag could find was pain -- rising , thickening clouds of pain . He kept seeing her continually as she entered the jungle -LRB- walking so silently and swift , her face flushed from crossing the open space this side of the city in the terrible heat of noon -RRB- -- and then not finding him there . Something about this hurt like degrading a sacred thing , but he did n't mean to . He repeated that he did n't mean to hurt her ... . Then suddenly it occurred to him that it was all his own thinking about her coming at noon .