BUT
SURELY THEY WERE NOT DEAD. No sign of decay could be seen on them, nor
any apparent cause of death.
Sylviana had told him of the aquatic lizards of the Galapagos Islands,
who when diving for the sea vegetation which sustained them could hold
their breath for an hour or more, even stopping their heartbeat to do
so. But even this did not fully explain the phenomenon by which these
enormous, cold-blooded creatures could remain suspended for the nearly
six month period when the world outside became to them untenable, or
reveal the inner clock that told them to wake once more, and slowly
revive into a living state.
The tiger, who had discovered this place on that first, bitter wandering
from the man-child's cave, being drawn by its warmth and shelter, had
no need for such questions, and simply accepted the fact. He had
returned one time since, and in his animal way reasoned that these, like
all hibernating creatures, would not be stirring until the weather
turned warm. And now that the time had come for him to return again
northward, to the long forests where Winter hardly waned, he desired to
give some last gift to his friend, who had helped bring him back to the
world of the living. This gift was the magic of the green, budding
cactus which on that troubled night had opened his mind to show him that
his own feelings, as well as the strange company who had taken him in,
could be trusted.
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