They embraced. The tigress’ hind paws came together over his haunches. Then, suddenly, the beast shifted position.
“What ees eet?” There was annoyance in Pierre’s voice.
The tigress placed a paw against his chest and turned him over on his back—gently, but firmly. Then, bracing her front paws on his belly, her muzzle dropped toward his manhood.
“But no!” Pierre exclaimed. “I’ve told you before cherie, zat I do not like zat. What ees the matter weeth you? Eet ees perverted! Eet ees dirty. Now you stop zat, cherie. I nevair taught you to be a degenerate. Stop it, I say.”
Angry now, he slapped the beast hard on its questing snout. The tigress emitted a savage little yelp. When Pierre slapped her again, the yelp turned into a snarl. This is no love-tap, the snarl seemed to say. Her jaws shot downward and closed and Pierre’s sudden scream testified that he wasn’t lucky any more.
Penny’s scream echoed Pierre’s. She bolted the scene. “Help!” she screamed as she ran. “Help! Before it’s too late! Help! Help! Help!”
She was so panic-striken in her flight that she tripped right over the odd little man before she even saw him. “Oh, thank goodness,” she said as they got to their feet together. “You have to help me. There’s a tigress back there and she’s eating a man!”
“Oh, you mean Pierre and his cherie?” the little man said. “Don’t be alarmed, young lady. I know Pierre protests, but he really likes it. Don’t let him fool you. And even if he didn’t, it takes two for sex and she’s entitled to her little preferences.”
“But you don’t understand! She’s eating him!”
“There’s no need to be graphic, Miss. I understand perfectly. All I’m trying to do is point out to you that your very fear is a moralistic value judgment. Now, it may not be to your taste, may disgust you even, but you have no right to dictate to others what their sex lives should be. To each his own, young lady. Live and let live.”
“I’m not talking about sex!” Penny was beside herself. “I’m not talking about perversion!”
“No? How charming! How enlightened! You find nothing odd about a man and a tigress making love? May I congratulate you on your broad-mindedness? It isn’t often today that-”
“Please!” Penny was in tears. “You don’t understand! The tigress has gone mad! She’s tearing his flesh from his body!”
“A lover’s spat.” The man shrugged. “What a shame. They seemed such a happy couple!”
“She’s killing him, I tell you! Do something!”
“You mean she’s really attacked him?”
“Yes! She’s killing him!”
“Killing him?”
“Yes! Do something!”
“But what should I do?” the man asked logically.
“I don’t know. Something.”
“I think,” the little man said, “that I’d prefer not to get involved. That tigress can get nasty when she loses her temper.”
“But you can’t just leave them there! She’ll devour him!”
“If you’re so concerned, why didn’t you do something? Why did you run away?”
“I was afraid,” Penny admitted. -
“Exactly. So am I.” The little man’s tone of voice said that there was nothing else to be said on the subject.
“Oh! But I have to get help!” Penny started to run off in the direction she’d been going.
“They won’t help you,” the little man said.
“Who?”
“Them.” He pointed vaguely. “Wait, I’ll show you.” He lifted the binoculars hanging from the strap over his shoulder, held them to his eyes, and focused for a moment. “Here, see for yourself.” He held them in position and motioned to Penny to come and look.
She squinted through the eyepieces. They were aimed at the shore of the Central Park lake. She looked again, unbelievingly, and gasped. There were ten or twelve young men, mother naked, cavorting on the grassy slopes beside the lake. Some of them were stooped over; the others were vaulting over the stooped figures and then stooping in turn.
“Who are they?” Penny asked.
“Didn’t you ever wonder where those pretty chorus boys from the Broadway musicals go after showtime?”
“Yes.”
“Well, now you know.”
“But what are they doing?” Penny Wanted to know.
“Playing leapfrog.”
“Playing leapfrog?”
“Sure. Listen.”
Penny strained her ears and managed to hear the voices raised in song wafting through the air from the lake. Soon she could distinguish the words:
“They were only playing leapfrog.
“They were only playing leapfrog.
“They were only playing leapfrog.
“When one sweet sister jumped right over another sweet sister’s back!
“They were only playing leapfrog . . .”
“Well, I’ll be!” Idly, Penny moved the glasses to scan the landscape.
“Ouch!” the man said as the strap tightened around his neck. “What are you trying to do? Garrote me?”
“Sorry.” Penny eased up on the tension of the cord “What’s that over there?” she said suddenly, pointing off to the distance on their right.
“That? Oh, that’s the Museum of Natural History.”
“I think it’s being robbed,” Penny said excitedly. “Look! There are men on the roof!”
The little man took back his fieldglasses and looked where she’s indicated. “So there are,” he agreed. “But I don’t think they’re burglarizing the place. After all, who’d be foolish enough to try to rob a museum?”
“Well, if they’re not burglarizing it, What are they doing?”
The little man thought about it a moment. “Making a movie,” he decided finally. “That’s it. They’re making one of those silly movies. I don’t know why they can’t make movies that are true to life, instead of nonsense like that.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Penny agreed. “Say,” she said, her thoughts taking a sudden turn, “maybe it’s none of my business, but what are you doing here in the park at this time of night, anyway?”
“I’m a birdie-watcher.”
“A bird-watcher?”
“No. A birdie-watcher. You know what a birdie is, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t,” Penny said, honestly bewildered.
“Well, aren’t you the unsophisticated one,” the little man giggled. “A birdie’s what those boys down there have, and you haven’t.”
“You mean—?” Penny blushed.
“Exactly.”
“And you come here at night to watch them?”
“Oh, dear me no! They’re such tame game. I couldn’t be bothered. I come to see the hood-peckers.”
“The what?”
“The hood-peckers. They’re my real hobby. Of course, anybody can see them on the street all covered up by those tight-fitting pants. But then all you see is the swollen outline pulsing for freedom. It’s really a crime to cage them like that, isn’t it? Still, I must admit that that’s how I originally got interested in them. But how many people get the opportunity to see them flying free in their natural habitat? Not many, I’ll wager. Yes, I’ll bet I’m one of the few who watch them when they’re wild and uninhibited in their own environment.”
“I’m afraid I don’t—” Penny began.
“I’ll show you.” He scanned the edge of the park with his glasses. “There! There’s a flock of them.” He held the binoculars up to Penny’s eyes.
She looked through them and saw a bunch of young hoods crouching behind the bushes at the edge of the park. All wore the same sort of crotch-strangling pants and black leather jackets. In their hands they carried an assortment of billyclubs, switchblade knives and tire-chains. They seemed to be waiting for something.