The alarm again terrorized Daniel Hawkins.
Forgetting all about his assumed bravery, he made a wild dash for the cottage, leaving Leo and the men alone in the yard.
“Does that look as if he had much to do with catching him?” laughed Leo.
“No, it does not. But the woman is right. Nero is getting ready to struggle for freedom. Come, boys, put the harness over him while we have the chance.”
The three circus men set to work. It was a dangerous proceeding, but at last it was finished and the escaped lion was a prisoner.
Then one of the men rode back to the circus grounds to return with the cage in which the brute belonged.
While this was going on, Daniel Hawkins again came out, this time followed by his wife.
He tried to convince the circus men that he had captured the lion, but no one would believe him.
“I reckon the credit goes to this boy,” said Barton Reeve, the manager of the menagerie attached to the “Greatest Show on Earth.”
“No sech thing. He only got the ropes fer me.”
“If you were so brave, what made you run just now?”
“I – I – went ter help my wife. She – she sometimes hez fits, an’ I was afraid she would git one and fall from the winder.”
All the circus men laughed at this explanation, but not one believed it true.
“An’ another thing, thet apple tree hez got ter be paid for,” continued the farmer.
“We’ll pay for that if the lion pulled it down.”
“He certainly did,” put in Mrs. Hawkins.
“Well, what was the old tree worth?”
“Fifty dollars an’ more.”
“Hardly,” put in Leo. “You said only day before yesterday you were going to cut it down for firewood, because it was so rotted.”
“Shet up, boy!” howled Daniel Hawkins. “The tree is wuth fifty dollars an’ more.”
“I’ll pay you ten dollars,” said Barton Reeve.
“You’ll pay fifty.”
“Not a cent over ten. The tree is not worth five.”
“I’ll have the law on yer fer trespass!”
“All right; if you want to sue, I guess we can stand it,” was the circus man’s cool response.
Daniel Hawkins talked and threatened, but all to no purpose.
At last he agreed to take ten dollars and two tickets for the evening performance, and the bargain was settled on the spot.
It was not long after that that the steel-caged circus wagon came along, followed by a crowd of men and boys, all eager to see the strange sights connected with an escaped lion.
It was noised about that Leo Dunbar had captured the savage brute, and the boys gazed at the farm lad enviously.
“He’s a brave one, eh?” said one.
“I wouldn’t do it for a thousand dollars, would you?” added another.
“I always knew he was a cool one, and there isn’t a fellow around as limber as he is,” put in a third.
And so the talk ran.
When the lion was safe in the cage once more, Barton Reeve turned to Leo.
“Can you come with me to the circus grounds?” he asked. “I would like to talk with you.”
“Certainly,” replied Leo quickly. “I was going up there at the first chance I got to get away from the farm, anyway.”
“Going up to see the show?”
“Not only that, but to see the manager.”
“What do you want to see the manager for?”
“I want to strike him for a job.”
“What sort of a job?”
“As a gymnastic clown.”
“A clown and a gymnast,” said Barton Reeve slowly. “Well, you might be a clown, if you got funny, but what do you know about gymnastics?”
“Quite a bit, sir, if I do say it myself. I have liked the exercise all my life, and it seems to me I was cut out for that sort of life.”
Leo’s earnestness kept Barton Reeve from smiling
He had often had boys and even men come to him full of silly notions about joining the circus.
He saw that Leo was a level-headed youth, and he noted, too, that the boy’s body was finely formed and well developed.
“See here, what do you think of this?” suddenly cried Leo.
Running forward, he turned several handsprings and ended with a clear air somersault.
“That’s all right.” In fact, it was first-rate.
“If I had the apparatus I would like to show you what I can do on the bar and with the rings,” went on Leo.
“You can do that at the grounds. Come on.”
Barton Reeve rode off, with Leo behind him on the horse.
Daniel Hawkins tried to call the boy back, but all to no purpose.
“Has he any claim on you, Leo?” asked the man.
“Not a bit of a claim. He treated me like a dog, and now I’m going to leave him whether I get in with the circus or not.”
CHAPTER IV. – LEO JOINS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH
On the way to the circus grounds Leo told Reeve much about himself.
He was seventeen years old, and for years had had a nice home with his parents, and it was during this time that he had taken a thorough course of gymnastics.
His father had been a retired officer of the United States army, and was supposed to be well to do at the time of his death.
But Leo had never gotten a cent out of the estate, and since becoming an orphan had known nothing but hard work.
The boy was satisfied that Squire Dobb was keeping him out of his money, but he had no proofs to use in bringing a case against the rascally lawyer.
Life on the farm he could not endure, and it was only the hope of getting some money out of Daniel Hawkins which had kept him so long at the drudgery there.
Now he was satisfied there was no money to be had, and he intended to leave at the first chance.
By the time Leo’s story was told the party had arrived at the circus grounds.
It was afternoon, and already the great white tents were up, covering an entire block in the southern end of the town.
The cage was properly placed in the menagerie department, and then Barton Reeve led the way between numerous empty wagons to the rear of a large affair used as a ticket office.
This was not yet open, but a knock on the door brought a quick response.
Two men were in the wagon, the treasurer, Mr. Giles, and Adam Lambert, the traveling manager of the show.
“Here is a young man who would like to see you, Mr. Lambert,” said Barton Reeve, and he introduced Leo.
“What is it?” asked the manager shortly. “My time is valuable.”
“He would like a job in the ring.”
And then Reeve told about what Leo had done and what the boy’s aspirations were.
Ordinarily the manager would not have listened to such an application, having hundreds of such made to him every week.
But