urry balls which
were huddled in a corner of the den she understood and forgave all. The
cubs were no larger than St. Bernard puppies, but Grace apparently
considered them worth fighting for; and Selica's dance was given that
night with only five lionesses in the cage, and the Proprietor told the
Stranger the reason for the empty pedestal.

"Wait until after the performance and I will take them out of the cage
and show them to you," he said; and the Stranger, remembering a
tradition to the effect that robbing a lioness of her cubs is a
dangerous feat, looked forward with a great deal of interest to the
after-piece.

"We can't trust the rearing of the cubs to Grace," said the Proprietor,
as he stood in front of her cage after the audience had been dismissed.
"The close proximity of the other animals in the Arena and the curiosity
of the thousands of people who come here every day would make her so
crazy that she would destroy them, so I must get them a foster mother. I
have sent to New York for a bitch with pups, and in a couple of days I
will show you a happy family." The cubs were in the center of the cage
and Grace stood over them, snarling and looking with blazing eyes at the
group in front of it; but Selica's voice from the runway and a rattling
of the door at the back distracted her attention, and as she sprang at
the door the Proprietor darted a hand between the bars and seized one of
the cubs, drawing it safely out a half second before the enraged mother
landed against the bars with a force which made them rattle.

The poor beast was almost frantic, but the same maneuver was twice
repeated, and in spite of her fierce attacks on doors and bars the
Proprietor, who had acquired through his lifetime association with the
great cats as much of their quickness of movement as it is given to mere
man to learn, removed the three cubs without receiving a scratch.

Poor helpless little creatures they were, and it was difficult to
realize that they would soon grow into beasts as powerful as the
ferocious Baltimore, the terror of trainers, who was answering Grace's
lamentations with roars which fairly shook the building, from his cage
on the other side of the Arena.

[Illustration: _"Looked like the pennant of a man-o'-war."_]

"That animal was bred in captivity, born and raised in our menagerie in
England," said the Proprietor after he had placed the cubs in charge of
one of the keepers. "I suppose that's what makes him