What's that to
going at him alone, and mastering him too, as he had done before
those idiots thought proper to yell?"
Being talked about, of course, awoke Harold; his eyes opened, and he
answered for himself, greeting Dermot heartily. Only then did we
understand the full history of what had happened. The lion-tamer,
whose part it was to exhibit the liberty he could take with the
animals, was ill, and his assistant, after much bravado as to his
equal power, had felt his courage quail, and tried to renew it with
drink. Thus he was in no state to perceive that he had only shot-to
the bolt of the door of the cage; and his behaviour had so irritated
the beast that, after so dealing with him that he lay in a most
dangerous state, he had dashed out at the door in rage and terror,
and, after seizing the hindmost of the flying crowd, had lain down
between the shafts of the waggon, as we had seen him.
The keepers had lost their heads in the panic, and no one durst go
near him. The lion-tamer had to be called from his bed, in lodgings
in the town, and only came on the scene just as Dermot's rifle had
finished the struggle. The master had quite seen the necessity, but
was in great despair at the loss of so valuable an animal.
"I'll share in making it good to him," said Harold.
"You? You are the last to do so. If you had only been let alone,
the beast would have been captured unhurt.
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