audience!" fumed the ringmaster.

"Well; I don't know where he went," answered the canvasman, and resumed his work on the wall of the menagerie tent. Then the ringmaster walked to another part of the dressing-tent to put on his street clothing, for he did not dare appear in the ring again at that performance.

"I hope that boy did run away," said Snap as he and his friends turned back to look at the rest of the performance. "I don't see why such a nice looking lad should travel with such a crowd as this."

"Oh, I suppose some of the circus folks are good people," answered
Whopper. "But not that ringmaster."

"He ought to be tarred and feathered, and I'd like to help do it," came from Giant.

"Wonder who the boy is?" asked Shep.

"He is down on the bills as Master Buzz, the Human Fly. Of course,
Buzz isn't his real name."

"No. It is more likely to be Smith or Jones," answered Whopper. "I'd like to see him and have a talk with him."

"Perhaps we'll get a chance to-morrow. The circus is to stay two days, you know," said Snap.

"Maybe the boy is all alone," said Shep. "If he is it might be that he would like it first rate if we would help him."

The boys had lost interest in the show, and were not sorry when it came to an end. They were among the first out, and hurried directly toward Mrs. Carson's house. In doing this they had to cross the railroad track, and here a passing freight train held them up. The freight came to a halt, and backed to take on some empties. Then it proceeded slowly on its way.

"Well, I never!" cried Snap suddenly as one of the empty cars came into view, under the rays of an electric light. "Look there!"

He pointed to the open doorway of a car. A figure stood there, wrapped in a coat several sizes too large for it—-the figure of a slender boy with a whitish face,

"Was that that boy acrobat?" gasped Whopper as the freight train gathered headway and cleared the crossing.

"I think it was," answered Snap.

"So do I," put in the doctor's son.

"If it was, he is losing no time in getting out of town," was Giant's comment. "And I don't blame him."

"He had on a coat big enough for a man, and his trousers were rolled up around his feet," observed Snap. "Most likely he grabbed up the first suit he could find when he left the dressing-tent."

"If it really was the boy," said Whopper. "It looked like him, but we may be mistaken."

It did not take the four youths long to reach Mrs. Carson's home.
They went in softly, and each got a cookie and a drink of milk.
Then they went to bed and slept soundly until morning.

Promptly on time they presented themselves at Mr. Jally's studio, and found not only the photographer but also an assistant present.

"I am going to leave my assistant in charge," said Mr. Jally. "I'll go out with you, and we'll have a practical lesson in getting outdoor views."

Taking two cameras with them, the photographer and the boys started off, to be gone until noon. They walked across the city and along the river, and at the latter locality took half a dozen pictures, Mr. Jally instructing them all the while.

"Now I'll show you how a commonplace bit of scenery can be made to look quite romantic," said Mr. Jally presently. "Let us walk over to the railroad embankment. Such an embankment is not pretty in itself, but I think we can get quite a pretty view of it."

After many instructions they took a view of the embankment. Their walk had tired the photographer, who was rather stout, and he proposed that they rest. Near at hand was a section shed with some lumber piles, and there they took it easy.

During a lull in the conversation the boys noticed three men approaching. They were rather tough-looking characters, and at first the lads took them to be tramps. The men walked behind the lumber piles without noticing our friends.

"Some fellows that followed up the circus, I suppose," said Snap.

"Yes; the kind my aunt was afraid of," added the doctor's son.

"We can do it jest as well as not," they heard one of the men say.
"An' we got a right, too."

"Sure we got a right," said another of the trio in a heavy, rasp-like voice. "We'll show Casso what it means to do a feller out o' his lawful wages."

"Yes; but you look out you ain't caught," added the third man. "He's got all hands watching to spot us."

"We'll bust up his show, see if we don't," growled the first speaker.

"They must be the fellows who were discharged for drunkenness," whispered Snap.

"Yes; and they are laying plans to square up with the proprietor," added Whopper. "Wonder what they will do?"

"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