"You did it entirely alone?"

"Yes, sir," was the modest reply.

"Thet ain't so; it wuz me as captured yer lion fer yer," came from Daniel Hawkins, who had joined the party in the yard.

"Mr. Hawkins, how can you say that!" exclaimed Leo in amazement. "You ran for your life and locked yourself in the house, even before your wife got away."

"Tain't so. I captured the lion, an' if there's any reward it comes to me."

"We have offered no reward, but we are willing to pay for the capture,"

replied the leader of the circus men. "But if you caught the lion how is it you were up in the house when we rode up?"

"Daniel! Daniel!" shrieked Mrs. Hawkins, still in the window. "Come up again! Leo didn't fasten him tight enough an' he's gettin' away!"

The alarm again terrorized Daniel Hawkins.

Forgetting all about his a.s.sumed bravery, he made a wild dash for the cottage, leaving Leo and the men alone in the yard.

"Does that look as if he had much to do with catching him?" laughed Leo.

"No, it does not. But the woman is right. Nero is getting ready to struggle for freedom. Come, boys, put the harness over him while we have the chance."

The three circus men set to work. It was a dangerous proceeding, but at last it was finished and the escaped lion was a prisoner.

Then one of the men rode back to the circus grounds to return with the cage in which the brute belonged.

While this was going on, Daniel Hawkins again came out, this time followed by his wife.

He tried to convince the circus men that he had captured the lion, but no one would believe him.

"I reckon the credit goes to this boy," said Barton Reeve, the manager of the menagerie attached to the "Greatest Show on Earth."

"No sech thing. He only got the ropes fer me."

"If you were so brave, what made you run just now?"

"I-I-went ter help my wife. She-she sometimes hez fits, an' I was afraid she would git one and fall from the winder."

All the circus men laughed at this explanation, but not one believed it true.

"An' another thing, thet apple tree hez got ter be paid for," continued the farmer.

"We'll pay for that if the lion pulled it down."

"He certainly did," put in Mrs. Hawkins.

"Well, what was the old tree worth?"

"Fifty dollars an' more."

"Hardly," put in Leo. "You said only day before yesterday you were going to cut it down for firewood, because it was so rotted."

"Shet up, boy!" howled Daniel Hawkins. "The tree is wuth fifty dollars an' more."

"I'll pay you ten dollars," said Barton Reeve.

"You'll pay fifty."

"Not a cent over ten. The tree is not worth five."

"I'll have the law on yer fer trespa.s.s!"

"All right; if you want to sue, I guess we can stand it," was the circus man's cool response.

Daniel Hawkins talked and threatened, but all to no purpose.

At last he agreed to take ten dollars and two tickets for the evening performance, and the bargain was settled on the spot.

It was not long after that that the steel-caged circus wagon came along, followed by a crowd of men and boys, all eager to see the strange sights connected with an escaped lion.

It was noised about that Leo Dunbar had captured the savage brute, and the boys gazed at the farm lad enviously.

"He's a brave one, eh?" said one.

"I wouldn't do it for a thousand dollars, would you?" added another.

"I always knew he was a cool one, and there isn't a fellow around as limber as he is," put in a third.

And so the talk ran.

When the lion was safe in the cage once more, Barton Reeve turned to Leo.

"Can you come with me to the circus grounds?" he asked. "I would like to talk with you."

"Certainly," replied Leo quickly. "I was going up there at the first chance I got to get away from the farm, anyway."

"Going up to see the show?"

"Not only that, but to see the manager."

"What do you want to see the manager for?"

"I want to strike him for a job."

"What sort of a job?"

"As a gymnastic clown."