we called it, in wonderful and terrible places, and under
all sorts of conditions. The only rules he must bear in mind are: Get
the news, and get it _quick_. Accuracy is a mere detail for later
editions--or not at all.

The loft was dark and small, and we only just managed to squeeze in. It
smelt pleasantly of hay. But there was another odour besides, that no
one understood at first, and that was decidedly unpleasant. Overhead
were thick rafters. I think every one of us noticed these before he
noticed anything else, for the instant the roar of that lion sounded up
through the boards under our feet the reporters scattered like chaff
before the wind, and scuttled up into those rafters with a speed, and
dust, and clatter I have never seen equalled. It was like sparrows
flying from the sudden onslaught of a cat.

Fat men, lean men, long men, short men--I never saw such a collection of
news-gatherers; smart men from the big papers, shabby fellows from the
gutter press, hats flying, papers fluttering; and in less than a second
after the roar was heard there was not a solitary figure to be seen on
the floor. Every single man had gone aloft.

We all came down again when the roar ceased, and with subsequent roars
we got a little more accustomed to the shaking of the boards under our
feet. But the first time at such close quarters, with only a shaky
wooden roof between us and "old Yellow Hair," was no joke, and we all
behaved naturally and without pose or affectation, and ran for safety,
or rather climbed for it.

There was a trap-door in the floor through which, I suppose, the hay was
passed down to the horses under normal circumstances. One by one we
crawled on all-fours to this trap-door and peered through. The scene
below I can see to this day. As soon as one's eyes got a little
accustomed to the gloom the outline of the stalls became first visible.
Then a human figure seated on the top of an old refrigerator, with a
pistol in one hand, pointed at a corner opposite, came into view. Then
another man, seated astride the division between the stalls, could be
seen. And last, but not least, I saw the dark mass on the floor in the
far corner, where the dead horse lay mangled and the monster of a lion
sprawled across his carcass, with great paws outstretched, and shining
eyes.

From time to time the man on the ice-box fired his pistol, and every
time he did this the lion roared, and the reporters flew and climbed
aloft. The t