Pavithra Rao

School holidays are here but John is not happy. He has to stay home. Off late, farm houses in Brooksville are being robbed one after another. Adding to this is the tiger menace.
As per rumors, a tiger is lurking in the forests surrounding Brooksville. Residents of the town have heard it roar. But, no one has seen it yet. It is this unseen tiger that is making life hard for John.
Linda is John’s mother and a single parent. She is worried about the tiger and won’t let John go around town. Linda is also concerned about John’s college education and is working hard to arrange funds. John has just graduated from high school, is hoping to get into a reputed college in the city.
Like John, his friend Walter, has also graduated from high school. He, however, is not aspiring to join college. His father, Mr. Smith, is a rich farm owner and Walter wants to work on his father’s farm.
One day, John receives a phone call from Walter. He learns that Walter had heard the tiger roar. John also learns that one of Walter’s sheep has gone missing. John realizes that he cannot ignore the tiger as a rumor any more. They look for the sheep in the nearby woods. They find nothing.
They decide to try again. They enter the forest the next day and go farther deep. They look for the sheep everywhere. By noon, they are both tired. They sit on a rock, on the bank of a stream, to relax when they see the sheep grazing on the other bank.
The next morning John returns to Walter’s farm. He is curious and wants to know how the sheep got across the stream. They retrace their path into the woods.
John goes deeper into the woods. Walter follows him. After a while, something meets John’s eye. It is a store house in the middle of the woods.
John decides to look inside the store house but Walter refuses. Walter fears that the tiger could be lurking nearby. But John disagrees. He has not seen anything that can prove the tiger’s existence. To John, the tiger is just a rumor.
That evening John returns home and mulls over the day’s events. He concludes that the store house, the tiger and the thefts are all interconnected. He is engrossed in his thoughts when he hears something. The tiger’s roar!
Three days later, Mr. Smith - Walter’s dad, is back in town. Mr. Smith too is worried about the thefts and the tiger. He tells John that the tiger could just be a cover for the thefts. There might not be a real tiger.
He also hints about the link between the tiger and thefts. They deduce that when the tiger roars, a house in that part of Brooksville is robbed. A tiger’s roar precedes every theft in the town.
John puts together the pieces of the puzzle. He concludes that the rumor about the tiger is spread only to infuse fear among people.
The next day, John sneaks into the woods to enter the store house. On his way, he meets Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith advises John not to trespass into his private property. John is shocked to hear this. John learns that Mr. Smith owned this piece of forest for long. Mr. Smith also tells him about the successful lumber business they once ran here and about the store house!
John is disturbed and asks if Walter knew about the store house. He is startled when Mr. Smith says ‘yes’.
John wonders if Walter is the culprit. He runs to the store house for evidence... Read on to know who the real culprit is.