He was the lion-tamer， and he had the self-same trick of puttinghis head into the lion’s mouth. He’d put it into the mouthsof any of them， though he preferred Augustus， a big， goodnaturedbeast who could always be depended upon.
“As I was saying， Wallace—‘King’ Wallace we called him—wasafraid of nothing alive or dead. He was a king and no mistake.
I’ve seen him drunk， and on a wager go into the cage of a lionthat’d turned nasty， and without a stick beat him to a finish.
Just did it with his fist on the nose.
“Madame de Ville—”
At an uproar behind us the Leopard Man turned quietlyaround. It was a divided cage， and a monkey， poking throughthe bars and around the partition， had had its paw seized by abig gray wolf who was trying to pull it off by main strength.
The arm seemed stretching out longer end longer like a thickelastic， and the unfortunate monkey’s mates were raisinga terrible din. No keeper was at hand， so the Leopard Manstepped over a couple of paces， dealt the wolf a sharp blowon the nose with the light cane he carried， and returned witha sadly apologetic smile to take up his unfinished sentence asthough there had been no interruption.
“—looked at King Wallace and King Wallace looked at her，while De Ville looked black. We warned Wallace， but it was nouse. He laughed at us， as he laughed at De Ville one day whenhe shoved De Ville’s head into a bucket of paste because hewanted to fight.
“De Ville was in a pretty mess—I helped to scrape him off；but he was cool as a cucumber and made no threats at all. ButI saw a glitter in his eyes which I had seen often in the eyes ofwild beasts， and I went out of my way to give Wallace a finalwarning. He laughed， but he did not look so much in Madamede Ville’s direction after that.
“Several months passed by. Nothing had happened and I wasbeginning to think it all a scare over nothing. We were Westby that time， showing in ’Frisco. It was during the afternoonperformance， and the big tent was filled with women andchildren， when I went looking for Red Denny， the head canvasman，who had walked off with my pocket-knife.
“Passing by one of the dressing tents I glanced in through ahole in the canvas to see if I could locate him. He wasn’t there，but directly in front of me was King Wallace， in tights， waitingfor his turn to go on with his cage of performing lions. He waswatching with much amusement a quarrel between a coupleof trapeze artists. All the rest of the people in the dressing tentwere watching the same thing， with the exception of De Villewhom I noticed staring at Wallace with undisguised hatred.
Wallace and the rest were all too busy following the quarrel tonotice this or what followed.
“But I saw it through the hole in the canvas. De Ville drewhis handkerchief from his pocket， made as though to mop thesweat from his face with it （it was a hot day）， and at the sametime walked past Wallace’s back. The look troubled me at thetime， for not only did I see hatred in it， but I saw triumph aswell.
“‘De Ville will bear watching，’ I said to myself， and I reallybreathed easier when I saw him go out the entrance to thecircus grounds and board an electric car for down town. A fewminutes later I was in the big tent， where I had overhauledRed Denny. King Wallace was doing his turn and holding theaudience spellbound. He was in a particularly vicious mood，and he kept the lions stirred up till they were all snarling， thatis， all of them except old Augustus， and he was just too fat andlazy and old to get stirred up over anything.
“Finally Wallace cracked the old lion’s knees with his whipand got him into position. Old Augustus， blinking goodnaturedly，opened his mouth and in popped Wallace’s head.
Then the jaws came together， CRUNCH， just like that.”
The Leopard Man smiled in a sweetly wistful fashion， andthe far-away look came into his eyes.
“And that was the end of King Wallace，” he went on in hissad， low voice. “After the excitement cooled down I watchedmy chance and bent over and smelled Wallace’s head. Then Isneezed.”
“It... it was...？” I queried with halting eagerness.
“Snuff—that De Ville dropped on his hair in the dressingtent. Old Augustus never meant to do it. He only sneezed.”