What are the various reactions to the tiger at large?

In Chapter Four, Raja enters Malgudi, after snacking on some livestock along the way. He is in playful spirits, but the citizens of Malgudi are thrown into a panic, and interpret his behavior as threats to their lives. He attacks two dogs and a horse, and runs past restaurants and coffee houses to scare the diners. Children are sent home from school and come flooding out of the building, celebrating; caught up in their sense of joy, Raja runs into the school and heads straight into the headmaster's office. Alarmed, the headmaster leaps off his desk and climbs into an attic; Raja, in the now empty office, sprawls out and enjoys a nap.

A panicked crowd assembles and tries to form a plan. When citizens call the tiger a "beast" and a "brute," a man — introduced by Raja in the narrative voice as "the Master" — scolds them for using such abusive words (103). The citizens jeer at the Master, who sits in a corner to watch what they will do next. Shortly after, a "gunman" named Alphonse turns up on a motorbike, ready to kill the tiger (108). Two school boys, Shekar and Ramu, assist Alphonse in climbing a ladder to the school's roof, where they find the headmaster stuck in the attic. The Master joins them, and gently mocks Alphonse's methods.

After a brief exchange with the "Save Tiger Committee," who Alphonse bribes to go away (115), the gunman prepares to enter the office. To bolster his courage, he drinks rum from a hip flask, but slips into a deep sleep instead. After being made to sign a document saying he is happy to risk his own life, the Master then enters the office instead. He immediately soothes Raja's spirits, and encourages him to leave violence in his past from this point onwards. Raja obediently sits in a corner whilst the headmaster leaves, and then he and the Master calmly leave the school together, stunning the assembled crowd.