“So they did.”

Others were now taking up the cry, and in a very few minutes men, women and children were hurrying in all directions to get out of the way of the beast.  Some said it was one lion, and some said five or six, and everybody was thoroughly scared.

“We’ll be eat up alive!” shrieked one lady.  “Come, Bess!” And she took her little girl by the hand and ran for home, slamming and locking the door after her.

Soon everybody was running for shelter, and in a twinkling the doors of stores and houses were tightly closed, and windows followed.  The majority of the people went to the upper floors of their dwellings and peered forth anxiously to catch sight of whatever might be roaming the streets waiting to devour them.

“If a lion is really at large it will certainly make things interesting,” observed Snap.  “But maybe it’s only a scare.”

“I hope it is,” answered Giant.  “Excuse me from brushing up against a real, bloodthirsty lion!” And he moved toward the Carson home, the others following.

“What is it, boys?” asked Shep’s aunt, coming out on the piazza.  “What is all the noise about?”

“They say a lion got loose from the circus,” answered her nephew.

“Mercy on us!” ejaculated the lady, and turned pale.  “Come in the house this minute, before you are all eat up!”

“We don’t know if it is true or not,” said Snap.

“Better not take any chances,” answered Mrs. Carson.  “I once heard of a lion getting loose from Central Park in New York City and eating up five school children.”

“Yes, father tells that story, too,” answered Shep.  “But it was all a newspaper hoax—–­it never happened, aunty.”

“Well, come in, and we’ll close the doors and windows.”

As much to please the lady as anything, the boys went in, and assisted in closing up the lower part of the house.  They had just reached an upper window when a man went hurrying through the Street, holding a shotgun in his hands.

“Did a lion really get loose?” called out Snap.

“He certainly did,” was the answer.

“Where is he now?”

“Somewhere back of the freight depot, or in one of the empty freight cars.”

“Going to try to shoot him?” asked Whopper.

“Yes.  Four or five of us are going to try to do that or capture him.”

The man hurried on, and presently another appeared, armed with a rifle.

“Wish I had a gun; I’d go on the hunt, too,” said Snap.  “Think of laying a real lion low!”

“It would beat deer hunting, wouldn’t it?” answered Whopper.  “But supposing the lion turned and hunted you?  You’d want to run about ’leven hundred miles!”

“If you had the chance,” came from Giant.  “I’ve heard that a lion can get over the ground as quick as a cat.”

“I don’t want any of you boys to leave this house until that lion is caught,” said Mrs. Carson firmly.  “I feel it my duty to keep you here.”