what to make of her. I have to
put her through her paces in the cage this afternoon, and I do not want
any accident to happen.

"It is not that I am afraid for myself," went on the tamer, and Joe
knew he spoke the truth, for he was absolutely fearless. "But if she
comes for me and I have to--to do--something, it may start a panic.
No, I do not like it," and he shook his head dubiously.

"Oh, well, maybe it will come out all right," Joe assured him. "But
you'd better tell Jim, and have some extra men around. She can't get
out of her cage, can she?"

"Oh, no, nothing like that. Well, we shall see."

It was almost time for the performance to begin. The crowd was already
streaming into the animal tent and slowly filtering into the "main
top," where the performance took place. Before that, however, there
was a sort of "show" in the animal arena, Senor Bogardi's appearance in
the cage with the lioness being one of the features.

Joe had gone to his dressing tent and was coming out again, when he
heard unusual roars from the animal tent. The lions often let their
thunderous voices boom out, sometimes startling the crowd, but, somehow
or other, this sounded differently to Joe.

"I wonder if that's Princess cutting up," he reflected. "Guess I'll go
in and have a look. I hope nothing happens to the senor."

Though lion tamers, as well as other performers with wild beasts, seem
to take matters easily, slipping into the cage with the ferocious
creatures as a matter of course, they take their lives in their hands
whenever they do it. No one can say when a lion or a tiger may
suddenly turn fierce and spring upon its trainer. And there is not
much chance of escape. The claws of a lion or a tiger go deep, even in
one swift blow of its powerful paws.

Joe started for the animal tent, and then remembered that he needed in
his act that day a certain short trapeze, the ends of the ropes being
provided with hooks that caught over the bar of another trapeze.

He hurried back to get it, and then, as the unusual roars kept up in
the arena, he hastened there. As he had surmised, it was Princess who
was roaring, her fellow captives joining in. Senor Bogardi had slipped
into the cage, and was waiting until the creature had calmed down a
little.

Cages in which trainers perform with wild beasts are built in two
parts. In one end is a sort of double door, forming a compartment into
which the trainer can slip for safety.