Twelve-year-old Tembu lives

with his father Baldeo, mother,

and young sister in a tribal
village on the outskirts of a
jungle forest in India. They rely
on the produce from a small rice
field for subsistence, but the
lands paltry yield provides
them with little more than a
bare living.
To supplement their income, Baldeo works as a watchman at a nearby
way station for the railroad. Every night, he stays in a bare hut near a
tunnel cut into the rock; his duty is to keep the signal lamp burning and
make sure that the tunnel is clear of obstruction so that the overland
mail can pass through safely.
When he does not have to help his mother and little sister at home,
Tembu accompanies his father to his job at the railroad, sleeping with
him in the hut. On this particular night, he awakens close to midnight
to find his father preparing to leave to check the signal lamp and the
tunnel. Tembu asks if he should go with Baldeo, but his father

responds that it is cold outside and that the boy should stay in the
shelter of the hut.
As Baldeo stumbles alone through the darkness, he thinks about the
wild animals he might encounter. He has heard tales of a famous
man-eating tiger who is known to frequent the area, but he has neither
seen nor heard it so far during his nightly treks.
Despite the dangers in the forest, Baldeo walks with confidence. He is
used to the ways of the jungle and carries a weapon, a small axe that
is fragile to look at but deadly when in use. The axe, which his father
made for him, is an extension of himself, and he is capable of wielding
it with great skill against wild animals.
When Baldeo reaches the tunnel, he finds that the signal light is out.
Hauling the lamp down by its rope, he relights it and hoists it back into
position. When this task is done, he walks quickly down the length of
the tunnel to make sure it is clear, then returns to the entrance. The
train is late, but soon the trembling of the ground gives notice of its
imminent approach. Back at the hut, Tembu also feels the low, distant
rumble; wide awake now, he waits for the train to pass and for his
father to return.
In the moments before the trains arrival, a tiger suddenly springs into
the area before the tunnel and heads straight towards Baldeo, who
sojourns there unprotected. Knowing that flight is useless, the
watchman stands firmly with his back to the signal-post, and when the
tiger attacks, he leaps to the side and tries to get the tigers neck by his

axe but as the tiger ducks away, the axe strikes his forefoot and
remains stuck in it almost severing it. The tiger groans while Baldeo is
horrified as he was left unarmed.Back at the hut Tembu wonders why
his father is taking so much time. Meanwhile, the tiger pounces upon
the puny man and tears his body apart. After killing him the tiger sits
down licking his leg where he was struck by the axe. Meanwhile, the
ground shakes with the approach of the Midnight train. the tiger still is
there. With great noise of the engine it enters the cutting with a
shower of sparks. The tiger, seeing the train, lifts himself up and tries
to walk out of the tunnel but he was not able to and was run over by
the train.
While Tembu waits for his father to come back, there at a stop, the
tigers half body was seen still above the cow-catcher. Tembu comes
out to search for his father and as he finds him dead, controls himself
and protects his fathers body from the hyenas with the help of his
fathers axe. Baldeos family was in a shock but life had to go on and
Tembu had to take place of Baldeo.
In the end, Tembu was seen sitting at the cutting with the lamp lit and
whistling to himself as he was not afraid of anything now for his father
had killed the famous man-eating Tunnel Tiger. Even if there is
trouble, he had the axe to his defence. This thing of Nature is
mostly experienced by the poor villagers and it is they who
actually know how to overcome it.