screamed. The tamer's spring aside was too late, He went down on his
face, the lioness upon him.

Norah's cry rang out over the circus, just as the lioness sprang--too
late for the trainer, however. The girl was on her feet, clutching her
father.

"Oh, Daddy--Daddy!" she said.

All was wildest confusion. Men were shouting, women screaming--two girls
fainted, slipping down, motionless, unnoticed heaps, from their seats.
Circus men yelled contradictory orders. Within the ring the lioness
crouched over the fallen man, her angry eyes roving about the disordered
tent.

The two lions in the chariot were making furious attempts to break away.
Luckily their harness was strong, and they were so close to the edge of
the ring that the attendants were able, with their iron bars, to keep
them in check. After a few blows they settled down, growling, but
subdued.

But to rescue the trainer was not so easy a matter. He lay in the very
centre of the ring, beyond the reach of any weapons; and not a man would
venture within the great cage. The attendants shouted at the lioness,
brandished irons, cracked whips. She heard them unmoved. Once she
shifted her position slightly and a moan came from the man underneath.

"This is awful," Mr. Linton said. He left his seat in the front row and
went across the ring to the group of white-faced men. "Can't you shoot
the brute?" he asked.

"We'd do it in a minute," the proprietor answered. "But who'd shoot and
take the chance of hitting Joe? Look at the way they are--it's ten to
one he'd get hit." He shook his head. "Well, I guess it's up to me to go
in and tackle her--I'd get a better shot inside the ring." He moved
forward.

A white-faced woman flung herself upon him and clung to him desperately.
Norah hardly recognised her as the gay lady who had so merrily jumped
through the burning hoops a little while ago. "You shan't go, Dave!" she
cried, sobbing. "You mustn't! Think of the kiddies! Joe hasn't got a
wife and little uns."

The circus proprietor tried to loosen her hold. "I've got to, my girl,"
he said gently. "I can't leave a man o' mine to that brute. It's my
fault--I orter known better than to let him take her from them cubs
to-night. Let go, dear." He tried to unclinch her hands from his coat.

"Has she--the lioness--got little cubs?"

It was Norah's voice, and Mr. Linton started to find her at his side.
Norah, very pale and shaky, with wide eyes, glowing with a great idea.