260 WILD ANIMAL CELEBRITIES 



In some curious way Pluto always seemed 

 to know when this danger was coming, and 

 gave his warnings by low spirits, low mur- 

 muring growls and an occasional melancholy 

 howl. On one occasion he was particularly 

 unhappy, and growled and whined continu- 

 ally ; this was at first partly attributed to the 

 wet weather which always affected him, and 

 partly to the fact that some new lions had 

 just arrived in the show, a thing which Pluto, 

 for some reason or other, always resented. 



Just before the evening performance, as 

 soon as the band began to play, there was a 

 low-.murmuring sound, which gradually de- 

 veloped into a weird, bloodcurdling howl — 

 such a howl that all the trainers in the show 

 stopped whatever they happened to be doing 

 at that moment and looked at one another in- 

 quiringly. Never had Pluto been known to 

 howl like that unless there was danger coming 

 to Bonavita, and even he, brave man as he is, 

 grew a little nervous and uncomfortable. 



But he laughed it off, saying Pluto had a fit 

 of the "blues," that the lions were in fine 



