normous
strength, but they did not seem to give at all. Then he sought to grind
one to splinters between his teeth, but instead he broke a tooth, and the
effort made him see stars.

What new and amazing substance was this, which could not be bent or
broken, or even bitten into? The more Black Bruin pushed at the iron
bars of his cage, the fainter grew that spark of hope which is the
mainspring of all life, until at last he ceased to hope altogether, and
bowing to the inevitable, no longer sought to be free. Sullenly he
glared at the gaping crowds that passed his cage daily, and the only
thing to which he looked forward was his food. This he received each day
at about noon.

What it all meant, he could not imagine. The great crowds, the blare of
bands, the gala dress and the babel of voices all reminded him of the
country fairs that he had often attended with Pedro, in the old
dancing-bear days.

The long journeys by rail he soon got used to, so that he was no longer
sick, but it was a weary existence. The snap and rattle of car-wheels
was continually in his ears, and if it was not that, it was the rattle
and the rumble of heavy wheels over paving-stones, the noise of the
brazen-throated circus-band, or the high and insistent calliope. Noise,
noise, noise everywhere.

When the animals were fed, there was the roaring of the lions, the
snapping and snarling of wolves, jaguars, pumas, and the hideous laugh of
the hyena; the chattering of the monkeys, and the piping and croaking of
strange, tropical birds. And, more insistent than any of these, the
bellowing of the sacred cattle from India, and the belling and bleating
of strange deer, not to mention the cavernous trumpeting of elephants
when their keepers prodded them into obedience.

There is but one law in the circus, and that is the law of fear. All the
wild beasts are ruled by it alone. The tricks that the great cats do are
clubbed into them, and the elephants' ears are often so torn by the
trainer's iron that they hang in ribbons.

It is only with the domestic animals, like the horses and the trick-dogs,
that the trainer can exercise gentle persuasion. So in this great arena,
this bedlam of wild beasts, were often heard the blows of club and lash,
and the sharp report of pistols fired in the faces of unruly big cats.

How the two mammoth tents, covering many acres, and a dozen smaller ones
came and went was a mystery to the general circus-goer. In t