ng in the time and
making the audience of Coney Island pleasure seekers laugh by their
antics with a performing dog, while the stage hands were bringing in the
properties for the next trained animal act, when the Proprietor came
from behind the scenes and strolled, apparently unconcerned, to the back
of the Arena, where he could command a clear view of the performance,
the audience and the cages. He said a few words to each of the trainers
and keepers whom he passed, and the Stranger, who knew the clock-like
regularity with which each one of them went through his allotted duties,
noticed an unwonted haste and suppressed excitement among them.

As he joined the Proprietor the sound of hammering mingled with the
noise of the blatant brass band and the cries of the ballyhoo spielers
for the other Dreamland attractions, which came in through the open
windows, and he saw that Stevenson, the mild eyed quiet man who is
always on hand to rescue imperiled trainers and keepers when their own
carelessness, or unexpected revolt on the part of the animals, leads to
a fight, was rapidly nailing boards over the ventilating spaces above
the cages. Madam Morelli, whip and training rod in hand, hurried from
her dressing room to the runway, and every keeper and trainer seemed to
be loitering in the space between the leopards' den and the audience.

He looked at the Proprietor inquiringly, but the little trickle of
blood which ran down his cheek from under his cap answered the question
he would have asked, an animal was loose and the Proprietor had
encountered it in his rounds. A crash of weird music from the band
drowned the sound of a cracking whip and sharp commands which came from
the runway, and announced the appearance of Brandu, the snake charmer,
in the exhibition cage, and the audience watched him play with a cobra,
all unconscious that Franz, the jaguar, which a few minutes before had
desisted from his attempt to tear the fair shoulders of Morelli only
after a dozen blank cartridges had been fired in his face, was a
gentleman-at-large in Dreamland. The Proprietor gave a sigh of relief as
the jaguar backed into his cage from the runway, snarling and striking
at the little woman who forced him backward with the whip until she was
able to slam the door and make him once more a prisoner. When she passed
them on her way back to the dressing-room, her dress was torn, and her
eyes were flashing from the excitement of the encounter and a