Spot wagged his tail. He didn't quite understand what his new acquaintance was saying. But it seemed to be something nice.
And then Spot decided, suddenly, that he had stayed in that tent long enough. For the pleasant man found a piece of rope and tried to tie it about Spot's neck.
"I've been tied up once to-day; and once is enough," Spot growled. Slipping out of the man's grasp, Spot ran out of doors.
Both men followed him. For a few minutes they chased him. One of them tripped over a guy rope and sprawled on the ground. And to escape the other Spot dodged under a canvas wall where it lifted slightly at the bottom.
He found himself in a huge tent where hundreds of people sat all around on tiers of seats. Men and horses were capering about in the center of the place. And somewhere a band was playing.
He was under the big top.
XXIII
SPOT SEES THE SHOW
Old dog Spot was bewildered. When he crawled under the canvas he had not dreamed that he was entering the main tent of the circus. He saw so many strange sights that he didn't know whether to bark or to crawl away and hide somewhere. Yet among all those people he felt lonely. He couldn't see anybody he knew.
All at once the bandsmen began to play louder than ever. They seemed to be trying to burst their horns—or themselves. And men in flowing robes, each one standing in a sort of little two-wheeled cart and driving four horses abreast, came tearing past the place where Spot was standing.