SOMETHING ABOUT A LION
"They are certainly up to something," was Snap's comment.
"Yes; and I'd give something to know just what it is," added the
doctor's son.
Having rested, Mr. Jally took the boys to the bank of the river and
there showed them how to make a good picture with a strong reflection
in the water. This was rather difficult because of the distribution
of light over the plate.
"Be careful when you point your camera toward the sun," said the
photographer. "Otherwise you may get a sun-spot, or 'ghost,' right
in the center of your picture."
"I know about that," said Whopper. "Once I tried to take a picture
of my cousin standing by a well. The glare of the sun got on the
plate just where her head ought to have been, so she was headless."
"That sure was a ghost!" cried Shep; and then all laughed.
The boys were to take the seven o'clock train back to Fairview,
so at five o'clock they bid farewell to Mr. Jally and walked toward
Mrs. Carson's house to get supper. Just as they turned the corner
of a street close to the house they heard a man yelling wildly. He
was running rapidly at the same time.
"What's that fellow saying?" asked Whopper. "Maybe it's a fire."
"No, he didn't say fire," returned Snap. "It sounded to me like
lion."
"Lion?" questioned Whopper.
"Look out for the lion!" bawled the man. "Look out for the lion!"
And down the street he went on the double-quick.
"He did say lion!" exclaimed Giant.
"One of the circus lions must have gotten free!" burst out the
doctor's son.
"Or else those circus men let him loose!" returned Snap. "Don't you
remember they said something about a lion?"
"So they did."
Others were now taking up the cry, and in a very few minutes men,
women and children were hurrying in all directions to get out of the
way of the beast. Some said it was one lion, and some said five or
six, and everybody was thoroughly scared.
"We'll be eat up alive!" shrieked one lady. "Come, Bess!" And she
took her little girl by the hand and ran for home, slamming and
locking the door after her.
Soon everybody was running for shelter, and in a twinkling the
doors of stores and houses were tightly closed, and windows followed.
The majority of the people went to the upper floors of their dwellings
and peered forth anxiously to catch sight of whatever might be roaming
the streets waiting to devour them.
"If a lion is really at large it will certainly make things
interesting," observed Snap. "But maybe it's only a scare."
"I hope it is," answered Giant. "Excuse me from brushing up against
a real, bloodthirsty lion!" And he moved toward the Carson home, the
others following.
"What is it, boys?" asked Shep's aunt, coming out on the piazza. "What
is all the noise about?"
"They say a lion got loose from the circus," answered her nephew.
"Mercy on us!" ejaculated the lady, and turned pale. "Come in the
house this minute, before you are all eat up!"
"We don't know if it is true or not," said Snap.
"Better not take any chances," answered Mrs. Carson. "I once heard
of a lion getting loose from Central Park in New York City and
eating up five school children."
"Yes, father tells that story, too," answered Shep. "But it was all
a newspaper hoax---it never happened, aunty."
"Well, come in, and we'll close the doors and windows."
As much to please the lady as anything, the boys went in, and
assisted in closing up the lower part of the house. They had just
reached an upper window when a man went hurrying through the Street,
holding a shotgun in his hands.
"Did a lion really get loose?" called out Snap.
"He certainly did," was the answer.
"Where is he now?"
"Somewhere back of the freight depot, or in one of the empty freight
cars."
"Going to try to shoot him?" asked Whopper.
"Yes. Four or five of us are going to try to do that or capture
him."
The man hurried on, and presently another appeared, armed with a
rifle.
"Wish I had a gun; I'd go on the hunt, too," said Snap. "Think
of laying a real lion low!"
"It would beat deer hunting, wouldn't it?" answered Whopper. "But
supposing the lion turned and hunted you? You'd want to run about
'leven hundred miles!"
"If you had the chance," came from Giant. "I've heard that a lion
can get over the ground as quick as a cat."
"I don't want any of you boys to leave this house until that lion
is caught," said Mrs. Carson firmly. "I feel it my duty to keep you
here."
"Maybe they won't catch him at all," suggested her nephew.
"Oh, they'll be sure to catch or shoot him by morning," answered
the lady of the house.
Supper in the dining-room below was rather a haphazard affair.
It was eaten behind closed blinds and in semi-darkness, the lady
of the house being afraid to make a light, for fear of allowing
the roaming lion to see the eating, and her guests. Just as the
hired girl was bringing in the dessert a distant shot rang out,
and uttering a scream the girl, whose nerves were on edge, let the
dessert saucers fall to the floor with a crash.
"Somebody must have shot the lion!" cried Giant.
"Or shot at him," corrected Whopper.
"Just look what you have done, Mary!" cried Mrs. Carson in dismay.
"I couldn't help it, mum," answered the servant girl. "That lion
gettin' loose has scared me stiff!"
"Well, I am scared myself. Clear up the muss, and be careful next
time. Boys, you'll have to do without the preserves. But you can
have cake."
"Cake is good enough for me," answered Snap, and the others said
about the same.
Not long after that came another shot, this time from the corner
at the end of the block.
"They are coming this way!" exclaimed the doctor's son. "Let us
go upstairs again and see what is doing."
"Be careful!" screamed his aunt. "That lion may jump right up
to the second story window!"
The boys went to an upper window, and then, growing bolder, stepped
out on the top of the front piazza. They saw several men running
along a cross street. Then another shot rang out.
"The lion must be in this vicinity," said Snap.
"I saw something then---over yonder!" cried Giant, and pointed to
the back of a yard down by the corner of the street.
"A dog---and he is legging it for dear life," returned Whopper. "He
looks as if he wouldn't stop this side of the North Pole!"
"Perhaps the lion scared him," said Shep. "I think-----Look!"
The doctor's son broke off short and pointed with his hand. Gazing
in the direction indicated, the lads saw something dark slinking
on the opposite side of a high picket fence.
"It's the lion!" said Snap in a whisper. "See his tail swaying
from side to side?"
"Oh, for a rifle!" murmured Whopper. "Aunty, have you a gun?"
called Shep. "We see the lion!"
"No, I haven't any gun," answered the lady of the house quickly.
"And you had better get inside as quickly as you can. The lion
may leap up at you."
"I don't think he can jump so high."
"There are some of the men with their guns," went on Giant. "See,
they are running around to the front of that house."
"I wonder if they see the lion?" asked Snap. "Let us yell to them,"
suggested Whopper. One after another the boys set up a shout. But
the hunters were now out of sight and paid no attention to them.
A moment later the lads saw the lion leave the vicinity of the
fence, cross the yard, and disappear behind the side of a barn.
Then came a sudden smashing of boards, and a wild-eyed horse
burst into view and ran down the street at top speed.
"The lion scared that horse," said Whopper. "Well, he's enough to
scare anything."
"Boys! boys! why don't you come in?" pleaded Mrs. Carson. "If he
sees you he'll surely try to get up on the piazza."
"If he turns this way we'll come in and shut the blinds," answered
her nephew.
"It may be too late then."
"Oh, I think not, aunty."
Another shot rang out, and then the boys saw the men running around
the barn.
"Perhaps they have managed to shut the lion in the barn," said Snap.
"If they are circus men they would rather capture the lion than kill
him," returned the doctor's son. "Lions must be worth a good deal
of money."
It was now about seven o'clock, and not as light as it had been.
A few minutes passed and the men did not seem to be doing anything.
"Do you know what I think?" declared Whopper. "I think that lion
is hiding on them."
"Just what I was going to say," came from Giant. "Maybe he has
crawled to some dark corner of the barn and nobody has the courage
to stir him up."
"Do you want to stir him up?" asked Snap dryly.
"Not on your necktie!" answered the small youth.
"Let him sleep in peace," added Whopper.
"He won't sleep," said the doctor's son.
"Something doing, now!" cried Whopper a few minutes later. He had
seen one of the men run across the yard. "Why, I declare, there is
the lion in the yard next door!"
"How did he get there?" asked Snap.
"I don't know."
"That man is going to take another shot!" cried Shep as he saw a gun
raised.
"And there goes the lion!" cried Snap as the form of the animal arose
swiftly in the air. With grace and precision the lord of the animal
world cleared the back fence of the yard and crouched down in the
street, close to a tree.
"He's heading this way!" burst out the doctor's son. "Maybe we had
better get indoors."
"Oh, he can't leap up here," insisted Giant, who was brave, even
though small.
"We'll take no chances," was Shep's answer. "Come."
He turned to the window, and so did Snap and Whopper. At that
minute one of the men came around the corner of the street. The
lion leaped from behind the tree into the roadway. Pulling up his
gun, the man banged away wildly, for he was nervous and frightened.
"Oh!" came in a groan from Giant, and his chums saw him stagger.
"What is it?" asked Snap quickly. But instead of answering the
small youth staggered around the piazza top.
"Giant is shot!" gasped Whopper. "Catch him! He is falling off
the roof!"
Snap made a quick leap forward and caught Giant around the waist.
Both were now on the slanting portion of the piazza roof. Snap
did what he could to stay their progress, but it was in vain, and
the next instant both boys slipped down over the edge. Snap
clutched at a honeysuckle vine growing there, but it gave way, and
a moment later the two boys rolled to the ground.