with plaster."

No thunderbolt dropped from the blue dome over the Dreamland tower, and
the Proprietor, with a childlike and bland smile on his face, motioned
to the waiter to refill the glasses.

THE BITE OF A RATTLER AND THE SAD FATE OF BIG PETE

THE BITE OF A RATTLER AND THE SAD FATE OF BIG PETE

Like the pitcher which went to the well until it met the proverbial
fate, the trainer entered the lion's den once too often, and what
remained of him was placed in an ambulance and taken to the hospital.
After the performance for the evening was over, Baltimore, the bad lion,
who had suddenly developed a craving for human flesh, had been dealt
with by the Proprietor of the menagerie in a manner which would spoil
his appetite for many a day to come and make him remember that trainers
cannot be mangled with impunity.

Most of the lights were extinguished at Dreamland, but two men sat at
the table in front of the Arena with the Proprietor, discussing the
accident and listening to stories of former encounters which he
related. His own body bears the scars of many a battle with his savage
charges, but he has discontinued giving personal exhibitions with them
in the large cage, because his wife has developed a prejudice against
having him brought to her in fragments, and he has found that the
training of trainers is a far more difficult task than the education of
wild animals.

"Yes, any man who follows this business carries his life in his hands,"
he said in answer to a question from the Stranger within the gates. "You
helped to care for poor Bonavita to-night, after Baltimore finished with
him, so you know what a lion's jaws can do. I've seen 'em chewed up as
bad as that and get over it, but they never get quite the same again.
Leave the business? No; it is like the sea: a man who takes to it keeps
it up until the time comes when he doesn't recover, but after a bad
accident he usually takes another breed of animals.

"The worst sight I ever saw was about five years ago, when one of our
performing bears turned on its trainer and seized his arm. He worried
it as a terrier would a bone for a good twenty minutes before we could
drive him off, and the bear died from the punishment we gave him. The
man's arm isn't much use to him now, but he is crazy for me to give him
another group of animals to train, which I can't do because a man needs
two good pairs of limbs when he gets into the exhibition cage." He told