"What news?" asked Bert, wondering if the boy meant that Mr. Mason had reached the show and taken away Frank. "News about the wild animals escaping from the circus," went on the boy on the hay-wagon. "Wild animals escaping!" exclaimed Nan, with a frightened look over her shoulder, while Flossie came over closer to her sister. "That's it!" said the boy. "When the show was moving out of Rosedale last night, some tigers and lions got loose, and ran off in the woods. They looked for 'em, but couldn't find 'em. Some of the farmers around here are out now with guns." "Oh, Nan!" exclaimed Flossie. "Let's go back home! I don't like wild animals!" CHAPTER XVIII WHAT FREDDIE SAW For a few seconds Bert and Harry, his cousin, stared at the boy on the hay-wagon. Then Harry, who knew him well, asked: "Say, Jim Bates, are you joking or did you really hear about some wild animals escaping from the circus?" "Indeed I'm not joking!" cried Jim. "I did hear it! Bill Snowden told me. You know he lives over on the road that runs from Rosedale to Blaisdell and the circus went there. It went right past his house in the night, and he looked out of his window and saw the camels and elephants and wild animal cages." "I saw the elephants, too!" exclaimed Freddie. "I took hold of one's big toothpick tooth. Elephants eat hay. Were they eating any hay when that boy saw 'em? I wish elephants would go past our house." "Quiet, Freddie dear, please," said Nan. "We want to hear about the wild animals. Did they really get loose?" she asked, and she looked over her shoulder, as did Flossie and Mabel Herold. "Well, that's what Bill Snowden said," replied Jim Bates. "Of course I didn't see 'em run away myself, but I'm all ready for 'em, if I meet any bears, or lions or tigers," he added. "Ready for 'em--how do you mean?" asked Bert. "I've got a big club, and some stones," answered Jim, and he took up from the seat beside him a stout stick, and showed where he had made a little pile of stones in the wagon. "They wouldn't hurt a lion," said Freddie. "Lions or tigers aren't afraid of sticks or stones. I'm going to get my fire engine. It squirts water, and wild animals is afraid of water." "Yes, we've heard that story before," said Bert, with a laugh. "But don't you go out hunting for wild animals with that toy engine of yours, Freddie!" his older brother advised. "No, indeed," added Nan. "Oh, I think we ought to go home, Bert." "I'm going home," said the boy on the wagon, "and if I meet any animals on the way; I'm going to throw stones at 'em." "Pooh! They won't be afraid of stones," declared Freddie. "Yes, they will, too!" declared Jim Bates. "I read in a book that a bear's nose is very soft and tender, and if you hit him on it he'll howl, and run away." "I heard that, too," said Harry. "I hope it's true."