Helen then told what she had seen and heard in the dressing tent.
Joe shook his head.
"It may be some secret process they have of treating ropes to make them tougher, so they"ll last longer," Joe said. "They may call it ripening, but I never heard of it. I"ll ask them."
"Don"t tell them I saw them," Helen cautioned him.
"Of course not," Joe answered. "Perhaps it may be a professional secret with them, and they won"t tell me anyhow. But I"ll ask."
But when Joe, as casually as he could, inquired of Sid and Tonzo what they knew of ripening trapeze ropes, the two Spaniards shook their heads, though, unseen by Joe, a quick look pa.s.sed between them.
"I sometimes oil my ropes, to make them pliable," Tonzo admitted.
"Olive oil I use. But it does not make them ripe."
"I guess that must have been it," thought Joe. "Helen was probably mistaken. It might have been a word that sounded like ripening."
So he said no more about it then, though when he reported to Helen the result of his questioning, she shook her head.
"I"m sure I heard aright," she declared. "And they were pouring something from a bottle on the trapeze rope from which they had pushed the silk covering."
"It might have been olive oil," Joe said.
"It might," Helen admitted, ""but I don"t believe it was. They don"t handle any of your ropes, do they?"
"I always look after my own. Why?"
"Oh, I just wanted to know," and that was all the answer Helen would give.
As Joe went to his dressing room for that afternoon"s performance he pa.s.sed Senor Bogardi, the lion tamer. Something in the man"s manner attracted Joe"s attention, and he asked him:
"Aren"t you feeling well to-day, Senor?"
"Oh, yes, as well as usual. It is my Princess who is not well."
"Princess, the big lioness?"
"Yes. I do not know what to make of her actions. She is never rough with me, but a little while ago, when I went in her cage, she growled and struck at me. I had to hit her--which I seldom do--and that did not improve her temper. I do not know what to make of her. I have to put her through her paces in the cage this afternoon, and I do not want any accident to happen.
"It is not that I am afraid for myself," went on the tamer, and Joe knew he spoke the truth, for he was absolutely fearless. "But if she comes for me and I have to--to do--something, it may start a panic.
No, I do not like it," and he shook his head dubiously.
"Oh, well, maybe it will come out all right," Joe a.s.sured him. "But you"d better tell Jim, and have some extra men around. She can"t get out of her cage, can she?"
"Oh, no, nothing like that. Well, we shall see."
It was almost time for the performance to begin. The crowd was already streaming into the animal tent and slowly filtering into the "main top," where the performance took place. Before that, however, there was a sort of "show" in the animal arena, Senor Bogardi"s appearance in the cage with the lioness being one of the features.
Joe had gone to his dressing tent and was coming out again, when he heard unusual roars from the animal tent. The lions often let their thunderous voices boom out, sometimes startling the crowd, but, somehow or other, this sounded differently to Joe.
"I wonder if that"s Princess cutting up," he reflected. "Guess I"ll go in and have a look. I hope nothing happens to the senor."
Though lion tamers, as well as other performers with wild beasts, seem to take matters easily, slipping into the cage with the ferocious creatures as a matter of course, they take their lives in their hands whenever they do it. No one can say when a lion or a tiger may suddenly turn fierce and spring upon its trainer. And there is not much chance of escape. The claws of a lion or a tiger go deep, even in one swift blow of its powerful paws.
Joe started for the animal tent, and then remembered that he needed in his act that day a certain short trapeze, the ends of the ropes being provided with hooks that caught over the bar of another trapeze.
He hurried back to get it, and then, as the unusual roars kept up in the arena, he hastened there. As he had surmised, it was Princess who was roaring, her fellow captives joining in. Senor Bogardi had slipped into the cage, and was waiting until the creature had calmed down a little.
Cages in which trainers perform with wild beasts are built in two parts. In one end is a sort of double door, forming a compartment into which the trainer can slip for safety. The senor had opened the outer door of the cage and slipped in, it being fastened after him.
But he was still separated from Princess by another iron-barred door that worked on spring hinges. And Princess did not seem to want this door opened. She sprang against it with savage roars and thrust her paws through, trying to reach her trainer. He sought to drive her back into a far corner, so that he would have room to enter. Once in, he felt he could subdue her. But Princess would not get back sufficiently, though Senor Bogardi ordered her, and even flicked her through the bars with the heavy whip he carried.
"I guess you"d better cut out the act to-day," advised Jim Tracy, as he saw how matters were going. The women and children were beginning to get nervous, some of them hastening into the other tent. Men, too, were looking about as if for a quick means of escape in case anything happened.
"No, no. I must make her obey me," insisted the performer. "If I give in to her now I will lose power over her. Get back, Princess! Get back! Down!" he ordered.
But the lioness only snarled and struck at the bars with her paws.
Then she threw herself against the spring door, roaring. The cage rocked and shook, and several women screamed.
"Cut out the act!" ordered the ring-master. "It isn"t safe with this crowd."
"That"s right," chimed in a man. "We know it isn"t your fault, professor."
"Thank you!" Senor Bogardi bowed. "For the comfort of the audience I will omit my act to-day. But I will subdue Princess later."
There was a breath of relief from the crowd as the trainer prepared to leave the cage. Men who had fastened the door after him raised the iron bar that held it so he could emerge.
The lion-tamer slipped from the cage through the outside door, which was about to be shut when Princess, with all her force, threw herself against the inner spring door.
Whether it was insecurely fastened or whether she broke the fastenings, was not disclosed at the moment, but the door gave way and the enraged beast sprang into the smaller compartment and toward the outer door.
"Quick!" cried the trainer. "Up with that bar! Fasten the door, or she"ll be out among us!"
The circus men raised the bar, but the cage was swaying so from the leapings of the lioness that they could not slip the iron in place. It almost dropped from their hands.
Joe Strong saw the danger. He stood near the cage, the crowd having rushed back, men and women yelling with fright. Joe saw the outer door swing open. In another instant the lioness would be out.
At that moment the men dropped the iron bar.
"Quick! Something to fasten the door--to hold it!" cried the lion-tamer.
Joe acted in a flash and not an instant too soon. He forced the strong hickory bar of his small trapeze into the places meant to receive the iron bar, and as the lioness, with a roar of rage, flung herself against the door, it did not give way, but held. Joe had prevented her escape.
CHAPTER XIII
A BAD BLOW