damage a cage
by ripping up the timbers; it seems as if nothing can resist their claws
and teeth. And this particular cage was in such bad shape that Rajah
managed to get out of it. I knew something must be wrong when I saw the
big elephant-wagon that headed the procession go tearing away with its
six horses on a dead run under the driver's lash. No wonder the driver
was scared, for he had turned his head and seen the two draft-horses
that followed him down on the ground, with Rajah tearing at one of them,
and the other one dead.

"It wasn't a pretty sight when we got there, and it wasn't an easy job,
either, capturing Rajah. I don't know what we should have done if it
hadn't been for a long-haired fellow in the show called 'Mustang Ned,'
who came up with a coil of rope and lassoed the tiger. Then we tangled
him up in netting, and finally got him into one of the shifting-cages.
But after that he was never the same tiger. You wouldn't think there was
a time when Rajah used to ride around the tent on an elephant's back,
with only a little black boy to guard him!"

"What, outside the iron ring?"

"Yes, sir, right among the women and children. He did that twice a day
for over a year. Might be doing it yet if the black boy hadn't been so
careful of his white trousers."

"His white trousers?"

"That's right. You see, this boy rode on the elephant, behind Rajah, and
he wore long black boots and a fine white suit. Made quite a picture.
Only he didn't like to rub his trousers against the tiger, for an
animal's back is naturally oily; so he used to tuck his legs under a
lion's skin that Rajah rode on, and wrap it around him like a
carriage-robe.

"Well, one day as they were going around the nigger lost his balance and
tumbled off the elephant, pulling the lion's skin with him, and of
course that dragged Rajah along, too. The first thing we knew, there was
a big tiger on the ground, and people running about and screaming.
Pleasant, wasn't it?

[Illustration: PUTTING THE TIGER "RAJAH" AGAIN UPON THE ELEPHANT'S
BACK.]

"In another minute we'd have had a panic; but by good luck I was there,
and caught Rajah quickly around the neck and held him until the others
got a rope on him. Then we had a time getting him back on the elephant.
First I tried to make him spring up from a high pedestal, but he
wouldn't spring. Next I had them work a ladder under Rajah, so that he
sat on it; and then, with two men at one end and me at the