"If they are up to anything unlawful, they ought to be exposed," was Mr. Jally's comment. He, too, had heard of the quarrel of the afternoon before.

"I don't care to put myself out to help that circus man," said Snap. "He is responsible for what happened to that sick boy. At the same time, I know 'two wrongs don't make a right.'"

The men continued to talk, but in such low tones that the others could only catch a word or two. Something was said about a lion and a chimpanzee and a toolhouse, but the boys could not imagine what the circus men had in mind to do.

Presently one of the circus men got up from his seat and walked around the lumber piles. When he saw the boys and Mr. Jally he uttered a whistle of surprise. Then he turned back to his companions, and all three of the men hurried away into the woods skirting the railroad tracks.

CHAPTER V

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!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed 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 a.s.sisted 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.