Chapter 10

The Best Class

Chapter Ten

“What happened?” yelled _Remi.

“The flare must be a dud,” shouted _Braxten. “The spares are back at the raft.”

_Talan grabbed a large club from the pile of wood that _Remi had dropped. _Remi did the same. They started to back up the trail followed closely by the snarling tiger. Behind them the other children were hurrying toward the basin. _Rhylla suddenly appeared beside them waving her own club.

“If we can get back to that narrow spot on the trail. I think we can hold him there,” shouted _Rhylla.

“I hope so,” said _Remi.

The tiger was growing bolder and getting closer as they backed onto the skinny part of the trail. The cliff dropped straight to the slowly moving water below them. As the trail began to narrow, the tiger paused. He looked down at the water, then up at the children that were still backing away from him. They were now in single file, edging away with their backs pressed against the cliff to be sure that they wouldn’t fall.

The tiger crept slowly out onto the ledge. He too leaned towards the cliff and away from the edge. _Remi was the closest to the tiger, who was only a few feet from him. _Remi could see the yellow teeth of the beast and almost feel it’s warm breath. _He didn’t dare look away from the tiger, but knew that he was close to the point where the trail began to widen out again. It was there, he knew, that the tiger would certainly make his move. He heard _Talan and _Zoey step away from the cliff face as they reached the wider part of the trail.

Suddenly, a long pole appeared in front of his stomach.

“Grab the pole,” shouted _Seth.

_Remi grabbed the pole and risked a quick glance behind him. There was the rest of the group. Most were armed with some of the sticks of wood that they had just gathered. Others had hurriedly found stones.

“Put the end of the pole against the cliff in front of the tiger,” shouted Seth.

_Remi pulled the pole in close to his body and planted its end against the rock face. The tiger paused to try to figure out his new predicament. _The boy was only a few feet in front of him, but now there was a thick pole that barred his way. He couldn’t go around it without falling off the cliff.

The huge cat crouched down low and tried to crawl under it. _Remi quickly lowered the pole so it still barred the tiger’s way. To help keep it steady, _Remi also crouched as low as he dared on the narrow ledge. The tiger batted at the pole, but the children were able to keep it in place.

With _Remi crouching, he was now low enough that the children with stones could throw them at the beast. The rocks whizzed over _Remi’s head, some coming quite close. The first few rocks missed the tiger, but he growled angrily just the same. When two rocks hit him hard in the face and shoulder, his growl turned to a roar. His dinner was only a few feet away, but he was being blocked by the pole. His frustration grew as he was pelted with stones. Finally, his anger overcame his caution and he leaped as best he could towards _Remi. _Remi gave a desperate push with the pole. It caught the huge cat half way down its striped side. With the angle of its leap altered, the cat flew off the cliff. One paw full of claws nearly raked _Remi’s leg. It missed and the tiger scratched desperately at the edge of the ledge. It could get no hold though, and the tiger fell away from the cliff in a flurry of orange and black. The animal twisted in mid-air and landed with a huge splash in the river.

It disappeared from view for a moment, but quickly bobbed to the surface. The cat splashed along the cliff for a few seconds and then turned toward the sandy beach on the opposite shore. It swam easily across the narrow river and walked up onto the beach. He shook himself throwing a huge spray of small drops into the sunshine. He turned back towards the cliff and hurled one last angry roar at the children. The beast then turned and loped into the jungle.

_Remi scrambled off of the narrow ledge and collapsed on the trail beside his companions.

“Whew,” he exclaimed. “That was close. That was too close.”

The others agreed and they all grew quiet thinking about the tragedy that had almost occurred.

“If we didn’t have that pole,” said _Braxten “That tiger could have killed us all.”

“The pole and the ledge,” agreed _Zoey. “We’ve got to do something about that tiger before he gets us.”

“What we need to do now is get up to that basin and get a fire started,” said _Rhylla. “Maybe that will keep him away.”

The others agreed and gathered up the wood that they had dropped. Keeping a good lookout for the return of the tiger, they carefully made their way back to the basin.

When they reached the basin, they quickly set about making a fire. Using the knife, _Braxten cut a few splinters off of the dry driftwood. He set these on a flat rock forming a small teepee. Above these he placed slightly larger twigs and above these he put some small sticks. Striking the match, he held the small flame among the smallest splinters. These quickly caught fire and carried the flame up to the larger splinters and sticks above them. Soon, they had a small fire to which they added the larger pieces of wood they had gathered. Some of the sticks they only put halfway in. When these had caught fire, the children picked them up to use as torches.

“I guess we’re ready,” said _Tanner.

“Let’s see what’s in that cave then,” added _Zoey, who was already heading for the cave entrance.

Holding her torch as high as she could, Zoey led the way into the cave. The cave was only four feet wide where it made its turn away from the sunlight. _Zoey stuck her torch around the corner. Her small flickering light only pierced the gloom for a few feet. She moved slowly, with the rest of her classmates crowding closely behind.

“Oooooo,” moaned _Braxton like a creepy ghost.

The other children laughed nervously.

“Are you sure we want to go farther?” asked _Zoey.

“Of course we do,” answered _Patrick.

“Even if we have to go by that?” _Zoey pointed into the gloom just beyond the light of her torch.

“Oh man,” exclaimed _Jocelyn. “It’s a...a… skeleton!

“And

look what’s stuck between its ribs,” whispered _Asher. “A cutlass!”