wasn't room inside. But they put their big heads through the bushes so that there was no mistake about their being there.
You can just imagine how frightening it was to the robbers to find themselves suddenly surrounded by roaring lions, and tigers, and leopards, and huge trampling elephants and hippopotamuses instead of tiny toy creatures they thought they could pick up and carry away. If Barty had not known that all of them were his particular friends he would have been frightened too. The robbers stood in the midst of them all and howled with fright.
"Call them off! Call them off!" they shouted to Barty because they saw he was really the ring-master, "we will never do it again! Never—ever—never—never-r-r!"
The captain tried to dart to the crack in the rock and wriggle through, but the biggest lion put out a huge paw and dragged him back by the seat of his trousers. He laid him flat on the grass and put the huge paw on him and roared and roared.
"I wouldn't kill him," cried Barty. "Perhaps he is sorry."
"We are all sorry," the robbers sobbed.
