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Suddenly his partner spoke. “The girl might take a turn!”

“In the show?” the portly man said in surprise.

“The Company’s Una weighs two hundred pounds and has a face as broad as a barn-door. She shows she is afraid of the lion when she stands beside him in the street parade, and–curse him–he is so clever that he knows it, no matter how he is doped. It incites him to growl at her all through the pageant, and that simply queers the sweet peace of the idea.”

“And you think this untrained girl could take her place!”

“Why not? She couldn’t do worse–and she could look the part. See,” he continued, in as business-like way as if Valeria were merely a bale of goods or deaf, “ethereal figure, poetic type of beauty, fine expression of candor and serene courage. She has a look of open-eyed innocence–I don’t mean ignorance.” He made a subtle distinction in the untutored aspect of the two countenances before him.

“Would you be afraid of the lion, child?” the stout man asked Valeria. “He is chained–and drugged, too–in the pageant.”

It was difficult for the astonished Valeria to find her voice. “A lion?” she murmured. “I never seen a lion.”

“No? Honest?” they both cried in amazement that such a thing could be. The portly man’s rollicking laughter rang out through the thin walls of canvas to such effect that some savage caged beast within reach of the elastic buoyant sound was roused to anger and supplemented it with a rancorous snarl.

Valeria listened apprehensively, with dilated eyes. She thought of the lion, the ferocious creature that she had never seen. She thought of the massive strong woman who knew and feared him. Then she remembered the desolate old grandparents and their hopeless, helpless poverty. “I’ll resk the lion,” she said with a tremulous bated voice.

“That’s a brave girl,” cried the manager.

“I hev read ’bout Daniel’s lions an’ him in the den,” she explained. “An’ Daniel hed consid’ble trust an’ warn’t afeard–an’ mebbe I won’t be afeard nuther.”

“Daniel’s Lions? Daniel’s Lions?” the portly manager repeated attentively. “I don’t know the show–perhaps in some combination now.” For if he had ever heard of that signal leonine incident recorded in Scripture he had forgotten it. “Yes, yes,” as Valeria eagerly appealed to him in behalf of Brent, “we must try to give Hubby some little stunt to do in the performance–but you are the ticket–a sure winner.”

Of course the public knew, if it chose to reflect, that though apparently free the lion was muzzled with a strong steel ring, and every ponderous paw was chained down securely to the exhibition car; it may even have suspected that the savage proclivities of the great beast were dulled by drags. But there is always the imminent chance of some failure of precaution, and the multitude must needs thrill to the spectacle of intrepidity and danger. Naught could exceed the enthusiasm that greeted this slim, graceful Una a few days later in the streets of a distant city, as clad in long draperies of fleecy white she reclined against a splendid leonine specimen, her shining golden hair hanging on her shoulders, or mingling with his tawny mane as now and again she let her soft cheek rest on his head, her luminous dark gray eyes smiling down at the cheering crowds. This speedily became the favorite feature of the pageant, and the billboards flamed with her portrait, leaning against the lion, hundreds of miles in advance of her triumphal progress.

All this unexpected success presently awoke Brent’s emulation–so far he had not even “barked a few.” A liberal advance on his wife’s salary had quieted him for a time, but when the wonders of this new life began to grow stale–the steam-cars, the great cities, the vast country the Company traversed–he became importunate for the opportunity of display. He “barked a few” so cleverly at a concert after the performance one evening that the manager gave him a chance to throw the very considerable volume of sound he could command into the jaws of one of the lions. “Let Emperor speak to the people,” he said. Forthwith he wrote a bit of rodomontade which he bade Brent memorize and had the satisfaction soon to hear from the lion-trainer, to whom was intrusted all that pertained to the exhibition of these kings of beasts, that the rehearsal was altogether satisfactory.