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