in
speaking of that poor, defiant mother, and then of the three little cubs
that "howled for her a whole month, sir, and looked so sad it made us
boys feel like murderers, blamed if it didn't!"

[Illustration: HOW THE LIONESS WAS CAPTURED ON THE OPEN PRAIRIE.]

Another man, with steely gray eyes and a stubble of beard, ventured the
opinion that they must have had a pretty poor quality of gumption in
that outfit, or somebody would have got the lioness into her cage. He
was mighty sure George Conklin would have done it. George was over in
Europe now handling big cats for the Barnum show. There wasn't anything
George didn't know about lions.

"Why, I'll give you a case," said he. "We were showing out in Kansas,
and one night a cage fell off the circus train, became unlashed or
something as she swung round a curve, and when we stuck our heads out of
the sleeper there were a pair of greenish, burning eyes coming down the
side of the track, and we could hear a ruh-ruh-r-r-r-ruh--something
between a bark and a roar--that didn't cheer us up any, you'd better
believe. Then George Conklin yelled, 'By the Lord, it's Mary! Come on,
boys; we must get her!' and out we went. Mary was a full-grown lioness,
and she was loose there in the darkness, out on a bare prairie, without
a house or a fence anywhere for miles."

"Hold on," said I; "how did your circus train happen to stop when the
cage fell off?"

With indulgent smile, he explained that a circus train running at night
always has guards on the watch, who wave quick lanterns to the engineer
in any emergency.

"Well," continued the man, "George Conklin had that cage fixed up and
the lioness safe inside within forty minutes by the clock. Do? Why, it
was easy enough. We unrolled about a hundred yards of side-wall wall
tenting, and carried it toward the lioness. It was a line of men,
holding up a length of canvas so that it formed a long, moving fence.
And every man carried a flaming kerosene torch. There was a picture to
remember, that line of heads over the canvas wall, and the flaring
lights gradually circling around the lioness, who backed, growling and
switching her tail--backed away from the fire, until presently, as we
closed in, we had her in the mouth of a funnel of canvas, with torches
everywhere, except just at her back, where the open cage was. Then
Conklin spoke sharp to her, just as if they were in the ring, and
snapped his whip, and the next thing Miss Mary was sa