in one hand and a whip like Tomaso's in the other, drew
nearer; and the audience, with a thrill, realized that something more
than ordinarily dangerous was on the cards. The tiger came and
stretched itself at full length before Tomaso, who at once
appropriated him as a footstool. The bear and the biggest of the lions
posted themselves on either side of their master, rearing up like the
armorial supporters of some illustrious escutcheon, and resting their
mighty forepaws apparently on their master's shoulders, though in
reality on two narrow little shelves placed there for the purpose.
Another lion came and laid his huge head on Tomaso's knees, as if
doing obeisance. By this time all the other animals were prowling
about the stand, peering this way and that, as if trying to remember
their places; and the big Swede was cracking his whip briskly, with
curt, deep-toned commands, to sharpen up their memories. Only King
seemed quite clear as to what he had to do--which was to lay his tawny
body along the shelf immediately over the heads of the lion and the
bear; but as he mounted the stand from the rear, his ears went back
and he showed a curious reluctance to fulfil his part. Hansen's keen
eyes noted this at once, and his whip snapped emphatically in the air
just above the great puma's nose. Still King hesitated. The lion paid
no attention whatever, but the bear glanced up with reddening eyes and
a surly wagging of his head. It was all a slight matter, too slight to
catch the eye or the uncomprehending thoughts of the audience. But a
grave, well-dressed man, with copper-colored face, high cheek-bones
and straight, coal-black hair, who sat close to the front, turned to a
companion and said:--

"Those men are good trainers, but they don't know everything about
pumas. _We_ know that there is a hereditary feud between the pumas and
the bears, and that when they come together there's apt to be
trouble."

The speaker was a full-blooded Sioux, and a graduate of one of the big
Eastern universities. He leaned forward with a curious fire in his
deep-set, piercing eyes, as King, unwillingly obeying the mandates of
the whip, dropped down and stretched out upon his shelf, his nervous
forepaws not more than a foot above the bear's head. His nostrils were
twitching as if they smelled something unutterably distasteful, and
his thick tail looked twice its usual size. The Sioux, who, alone of
all present, understood these signs, laid an inv