r. Don't let him go
too near at the time of doing it. Don't let him open the lion's jaws
with his own hands. You do that. Do you mind?"

"Of a certainty not, monsieur. Gustave, show the good doctor how you go
about it when papa lets you do the trick. But you are not really to do
it just yet, only to bend the head near to Nero's mouth. Now then, come
see."

As he spoke he divided the lion's jaws and signaled the child to bend.
He obeyed. Very slowly the little head drooped nearer to the gaping,
full-fanged mouth, very slowly and very carefully, for Cleek's hand was
on the boy's shoulder, Cleek's eyes were on the lion's face. The huge
brute was as meek and as undisturbed as before, and there was actual
kindness in its fixed eyes. But of a sudden, when the child's head was
on a level with those gaping jaws, the lips curled backward in a ghastly
parody of a smile, a weird, uncanny sound whizzed through the bared
teeth, the passive body bulked as with a shock, and Cleek had just time
to snatch the boy back when the great jaws struck together with a snap
that would have splintered a skull of iron had they closed upon it.

The hideous and mysterious "smile" had come again, and, brief though it
was, its passing found the boy's sister lying on the ground in a dead
faint, the boy's stepmother cowering back, with covered eyes and shrill,
affrighted screams, and the boy's father leaning, shaken and white,
against the empty cage and nursing a bleeding hand.

In an instant the whole place was in an uproar. "It smiled again! It
smiled again!" ran in broken gasps from lip to lip; but through it all
Cleek stood there, clutching the frightened child close to him, but not
saying one word, not making one sound. Across the dark arena came a
rush of running footsteps, and presently Senor Sperati came panting up,
breathless and pale with excitement.

"What's the matter? What's wrong?" he cried. "Is it the lion again? Is
the boy killed? Speak up!"

"No," said Cleek very quietly, "nor will he be. The father will do the
trick to-night, not the son. We've had a fright and a lesson, that's
all." And, putting the sobbing child from him, he caught young
Scarmelli's arm and hurried him away. "Take me somewhere that we can
talk in safety," he said. "We are on the threshold of the end,
Scarmelli, and I want your help."

"Oh, Mr. Cleek, have you any idea, any clue?"

"Yes, more than a clue. I know how, but I have not yet discovered why.
Now, i