They stood beside a car which held a strong iron cage. This was empty, and at one end its canvas covering was torn, and two of its bars were bent far out of regular position.
Ralph ran up against an old friend as he pressed on the outskirts of the crowd.
This was John Griscom, the veteran engineer who had impressed Ralph into service the day of his first railroading experience when the yards at Acton had caught fire.
Griscom was on his way to the roundhouse to get his locomotive in trim for a regular afternoon trip. His dinner pail swung from his arm. He was such a practical old fellow that Ralph wondered at his taking an interest in anything so trifling as circus excitement.
"What's the excitement, Mr. Griscom?" he asked.
"Animal loose."
"Indeed? When did it escape?"
"That's what's worrying the circus people. They don't know. They just took off the canvas cover of the cage to make the discovery. The train switched here before daylight. It was in the cage then, they say."
Here the six circus hands started out on the quest of the missing animal.
"Search the yards thoroughly," ordered the
