you sure about the reward?" asked Snap.

"O' course---I read the poster in the post-office. They'll give
three hundred dollars fer the lion an' five hundred fer the eddicated
chim---what-you-call-him. You know."

"The educated chimpanzee," said Shep.

"That's it. It looks as if that chimpanzee was wuth a lot to them.
He was a whole show in hisself."

"Well, we've got the lion right enough," said Snap. "We don't know
anything about the monkey."

They told the old hunter about many of their doings, and related
the story of the missing watch, camera, and other things.

"Why, I didn't know anybody lived in this cabin," said Jed Sanborn.
"It's been empty ever since old Sturgis died---about twelve years
ago. He had some awful disease---like smallpox---and folks got
scared to come here."

"Gracious! You don't suppose we'll get any disease?" cried Giant
in alarm.

"Not from him, son---it's too long ago. Why, say, I was at this
cabin less than a month ago---stopped here overnight account o'
a rainstorm."

Wasn't nobuddy here then. It can't be Peter Peterson, can it?"

"No; it didn't look like Peterson," answered the doctor's son.
"Besides, Peterson isn't so plumb crazy as this chap."

"I'll take a look around," answered Jed Sanborn.

He made the same investigation as had the boys. Then he got down
on his hands and knees and examined the soft ground in and around
the cabin.

"Say, did ye see anything o' a dog around here?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Giant. "That is, the circus boy we told you about
has his dog with him---a collie."

"Here's a trail looks something like a dog's, but not much. Plenty
o' other footmarks---but I reckon you made those."

What to do next the boys did not know. There was no telling what
had become of the strange occupant of the lonely cabin, or when
he would return.

"We'd like to let those circus folks know about the lion," said the
doctor's son. "I suppose one of us will have to go back to town to
send them word."

"I am going back to town to-morrow," answered the old hunter. "I
can take word, if ye want me to."

"That will do first-rate," answered Shep. "We can send word where
some of the men can meet us---and in the meantime we can watch the
lion, so that he doesn't get away, and doesn't die of hunger and
thirst."

"Wild beasts can live a long time without food and drink," said
Jed Sanborn. "But the gittin' away is another story. Better
watch him putty c