arling yawn. Finn leapt to his feet, answering the
tiger's snarl viciously, himself looking to the full as savage as
any of the wild kindred. The wagon moved with a jerk, Killer rolled
against his side of the partition and growled ferociously; Finn
sprang at the partition as though he thought his great weight would
carry him through it, and his jaws snapped at the air as he sprang.
The men roared with laughter at him, and this accentuated his
feeling that they were all mad wild beasts together. Presently,
Finn's cage, with others, was ranged along the side of a
canvas-covered passage way by which the public were to approach the
main tent, where that night's performance was to be given. This
double row of cages was arranged here with a view to impressing the
public; a kind of foretaste of the glories they were to behold
within. The Southern Cross circus had patent turnstiles fixed at
both ends of the main tent, those at one end admitting only of
ingress, those at the other end admitting only of egress.

It was shortly after this that Finn became conscious of a curious
grinding small sound at the back of his cage. Presently a sharp,
bright point of steel entered the cage from behind, just above the
level of Finn's head, as he sat on his haunches. The steel wormed
its way into the cage to a length of fully six inches, and then it
reached the side of Killer's cage, pointing diagonally, and bored
slowly through that. The auger was well greased, and made only a
very slight sound, so slight indeed that Killer was not aware of
it. He was not so highly strung as Finn at this time.

This auger-hole was an idea of Sam's, for which he hoped to derive
credit from the boss. He had noted carefully the remark of the
Professor about keeping the Giant Wolf close to the tiger, in order
to lend additional fierceness to his demeanour. And so, with the
thoughtlessly cruel cunning of a schoolboy, he had devised a means
of improving upon this. He took a thin iron rod, and covered the
end of it with soft, porous sacking, which he moistened with the
blood of raw meat. Then, by thrusting this between the bars of
Finn's cage, and jabbing violently at the Wolfhound with it for
several minutes, he endeavoured to impregnate the sacking on the
rod with a smell of Finn. Then he invited John L. Rutherford to
take up a stand in front of the cages, as though he were a member
of the general public, and to whistle, by way of signalling that he
was ready.