answered Ben, with a knowing wag of the head, as the sides of the cage
rattled down, and the poor, fierce creatures were seen leaping and
snarling as if they resented this display of their captivity.

Bab curled up her feet and winked fast with excitement as she watched
the "shiny man" fondle the great cats, lie down among them, pull open
their red mouths, and make them leap over him or crouch at his feet as
he snapped the long whip. When he fired the gun and they all fell as
if dead, she with difficulty suppressed a small scream and clapped her
hands over her ears; but poor Billy never minded it a bit, for he was
pale and quaking with the fear of "heaven's artillery" thundering over
head, and as a bright flash of lightning seemed to run down the tall
tent-poles he hid his eyes and wished with all his heart that he was
safe with mother.

"'Fraid of thunder, Bill?" asked Ben, trying to speak stoutly, while a
sense of his own responsibilities began to worry him, for how was Bab
to be got home in such a pouring rain.

"It makes me sick; always did. Wish I hadn't come," sighed Billy,
feeling, all too late, that lemonade and "lozengers" were not the
fittest food for man, or a stifling tent the best place to be in on a
hot July day, especially in a thunder-storm.

"I didn't ask you to come; _you_ asked _me_; so it isn't my fault,"
said Ben, rather gruffly, as people crowded by without pausing to hear
the comic song the clown was singing in spite of the confusion.

"Oh, I'm _so_ tired," groaned Bab, getting up with a long stretch of
arms and legs.