It was the hot, dry end of spring, and the fields had cracked like old clay. Jackal had walked all day and found nothing — not a crumb, not a bone. His empty belly growled and grumbled as he went. Then the wind turned, and it carried something wonderful: the smell of food! Jackal stopped dead. What was that, far away across the fields?
He followed his nose over the cracked earth — and came out somewhere very strange. Rows of tents. Bright banners snapping in the wind. An army camp! But the king's soldiers had marched away and left it all behind. “Hello-o?” called Jackal. “Anybody home?” Only the wind answered, whistling between the tents.
BOOM! The sound was so huge the ground shivered under his paws. Jackal shot behind an old wooden cart like an arrow — ears flat, tail tucked tight, heart drumming pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat. “Oh my whiskers,” he whispered. “That must be a monster. A big one.” Now — what would you have done: run away, or go and look?
Night came. One lonely moon in the sky; one lonely jackal under the cart. Every gust sent the terrible boom rolling through the dark. Run, said his shaking legs. But his belly was empty as a drum, and the food-smell was so near. At last Jackal took one long, deep breath. “No. First I'll see this thing with my own eyes. I can always be scared later — if I need to be.”
One paw. Then another. His tail trembled, but he kept going, straight toward the sound. And there, under the great banyan tree, he saw it. A branch was swinging in the wind — and every time it swung, it struck a huge old war-drum. WHUM! The wind blew again. WHUM!
“Well, well, WELL!” laughed Jackal. “No monster at all — a drum!” He reached out one brave paw and tapped it. Tap, tap. It echoed. Hollow! Empty! Nothing inside but air! Jackal laughed until he rolled in the dust. “Such a big voice — and nothing in its belly at all! And to think I shivered all night!”
Morning spilled gold over the quiet camp. And inside the very first tent, Jackal found what the soldiers had left behind — flat rice and sweet lumps of jaggery! He ate until his belly was round, then climbed right up on the big drum and played it himself: BOOM-da-boom! “Remember this,” he chuckled. “A big noise doesn't mean a big danger. Look first — be scared later!”