Joe Strong saw the danger. He stood near the cage, the crowd having rushed back, men and women yelling with fright. Joe saw the outer door swing open. In another instant the lioness would be out.
At that moment the men dropped the iron bar.
"Quick! Something to fasten the door—to hold it!" cried the lion-tamer.
Joe acted in a flash and not an instant too soon. He forced the strong hickory bar of his small trapeze into the places meant to receive the iron bar, and as the lioness, with a roar of rage, flung herself against the door, it did not give way, but held. Joe had prevented her escape.
CHAPTER XIII
A BAD BLOW
"Quick now! With the iron bar!" cried Señor Bogardi. "That trapeze stick won't hold long!"
But it held long enough. As the lioness, flung back into a corner of her cage by her impact against the steel door, gathered herself for another spring, the men slipped into place the iron bar, Joe pulling out his trapeze.
"It's all right now—no more danger!" called Jim Tracy. "Take it easy, folks, she can't get out now!"