cage, although we had never seen one
killed. The cats about a menagerie instinctively keep out of harm's way,
and it puzzled me to know how Mephisto had managed to get them within
reach of his heavy paw. Jack Bonavita, who fusses about his lions at all
hours of the day and night, solved that mystery and incidentally saved
his pet cat, Tramp, from an untimely ending. Tramp has been with Jack
for years and appreciates the folly of venturing within reach of the
animals in the cages, but Bonavita came across him in front of
Mephisto's cage in the middle of the night. The bear was absolutely
quiet, lying with its head on its paws and its eyes, which glistened
like two points of flame, fixed on the cat. Tramp was staring at it in
turn and slowly drawing nearer to the cage, apparently struggling
against some influence which was stronger than its will. Bonavita
watched them for a few minutes, but before the cat ventured within
striking distance he picked it up and carried it away, while Mephisto,
growling with rage, tried to break through the stout bars and get at it.

[Illustration: _"Tramp was slowly drawing nearer to the cage."_]

"Two days before we were to sail for America I was sitting at my desk
arranging some of the last details of shipment, when the door burst open
and a well-dressed, handsome woman rushed in, followed by the artist who
had sold me the bear. She was in a tearing rage and jabbering excitedly
in a language which I did not understand, while the artist was trying to
quiet her. She pushed him aside, and opening a purse which was well
stuffed with banknotes, she asked in French, which she spoke with a
marked foreign accent, for how much I would sell Mephisto. The artist
protested, but she turned on him and gave him a tongue lashing of which
I could guess the meaning, although the words were unintelligible to me.
I couldn't quite grasp the situation, but the strange hypnotic power
which the bear apparently exercised over cats had excited my curiosity,
and I wished to investigate it at my leisure, so I politely but
positively refused to name a price, and told her the animal was not for
sale. The artist seemed relieved and she was very much disappointed, but
she quieted down and asked me what I intended to do with the animal. I
told her that I was taking it to America, where it would be put in a
mixed group which Rey was to train, and after inquiring when we were to
sail, they left the office.

"I regretted