"The clowns had to pull the knives out to get him loose, for he was pinned fast. So the word went around to watch out for De Ville, and no one dared be more than barely civil to his wife. And she was a sly bit of baggage, too, only all hands were afraid of De Ville.
"But there was one man, Wallace, who was afraid of nothing. He was the lion-tamer, and he had the self-same trick of putting his head into the lion's mouth. He'd put it into the mouths of any of them, though he preferred Augustus, a big, good-natured beast who could always be depended upon.
"As I was saying, Wallace—'King’ Wallace we called him—was afraid of nothing alive or dead. He was a king and no mistake. I've seen him drunk, and on a wager go into the cage of a lion that'd turned nasty, and without a stick beat him to a finish. Just did it with his fist on the nose.
"Madame De Ville—"
At an uproar behind us the Leopard Man turned quietly around. It was a divided cage, and a monkey, poking through the bars and around the partition, had had its paw seized by a big gray wolf who was trying to pull it off by main strength. The arm seemed stretching out longer and longer like a thick elastic, and the unfortunate monkey's mates were raising a terrible din. No keeper was at hand, so the Leopard Man stepped over a couple of paces, dealt the wolf a sharp blow on the nose with the light cane he carried, and returned with a sadly apologetic smile to take up his unfinished sentence as though there had been no interruption.
"—looked at King Wallace and King Wallace looked at her, while De Ville looked black. We warned Wallace, but it was no use. He laughed at us, and he laughed at De Ville one day when he shoved De Ville's head into a bucket of paste because he wanted to fight.
"De Ville was in a pretty mess—I helped to scrape him off; but he was cool as a cucumber and made no threats at all. But I saw a glitter in his eyes which I had seen often in the eyes of wild beasts, and I went out of my way to give Wallace a final warning. He laughed, but he did not look so much in Madame De Ville's direction after that.
"Several months passed by. Nothing had happened and I was beginning to think it all a scare over nothing. We were West by that time, showing in ‘Frisco. It was during the afternoon performance, and the big tent was filled with women and children, when I went looking for Red Denny, the head canvas-man, who had walked off with my pocket-knife.
"Passing by one of the dressing tents I glanced in through a hole in the canvas to see if I could locate him. He wasn't there, but directly in front of me was King Wallace, in tights, waiting for his turn to go on with his cage of performing lions. He was watching with much amusement a quarrel between a couple of trapeze artists. All the rest of the people in the dressing tent were watching the same thing, with the exception of De Ville, whom I noticed staring at Wallace with undisguised hatred. Wallace and the rest were all too busy following the quarrel to notice this or what followed.
"But I saw it through the hole in the canvas. De Ville drew his handkerchief from his pocket, made as though to mop the sweat from his face with it (it was a hot day), and at the same time walked past Wallace's back. He never stopped, but with a flirt of the handkerchief kept right on to the doorway, where he turned his head, while passing out, and shot a swift look back. The look troubled me at the time, for not only did I see hatred in it, but I saw triumph as well.
"'De Ville will bear watching,’ I said to myself, and I really breathed easier when I saw him go out the entrance to the circus grounds and board an electric car for down town. A few minutes later I was in the big tent, where I had overhauled Red Denny. King Wallace was doing his turn and holding the audience spellbound. He was in a particularly vicious mood, and he kept the lions stirred up till they were all snarling, that is, all of them except old Augustus, and he was just too fat and lazy and old to get stirred up over anything.
"Finally Wallace cracked the old lion's knees with his whip and got him into position. Old Augustus, blinking good-naturedly, opened his mouth and in popped Wallace's head. Then the jaws came together, crunch, just like that."
The Leopard Man smiled in a sweetly wistful fashion, and the far-away look came into his eyes.
"And that was the end of King Wallace,” he went on in his sad, low voice. “After the excitement cooled down I watched my chance and bent over and smelled Wallace's head. Then I sneezed."
"It ... it was...?” I queried with halting eagerness.
"Snuff—that De Ville dropped on his hair in the dressing tent. Old Augustus never meant to do it. He only sneezed."
First published in Leslie's Magazine, August 1903.
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Department: THE MYSTERIOUS CIPHER by Willie Rose
Each letter consistently represents another. The quotation is from a short mystery story. Arranging the answer letters in alphabetical order gives a clue to the title of the story.
BY RMMTYX JE, HIQGIRYX, LCIB Q HBQGE CSHIGJUYSI CS YQWB BQSX QSX QS YNEGYHHCMS IBQI UQXY UY ARQX C QRLQOH AM QGUYX MS Q BMUCWCXY WQHY.
—RMGYS X. YHIRYUQS
CIPHER ANSWER: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Department: SOLUTION TO THE MYSTERIOUS CIPHER
He looked up, startled, with a sharp instrument in each hand and an expression that made me glad I always go armed on a homicide case.
—Loren D. Estleman
From “Trust Me,” AHMM, June 2007
qvwxyzabcd trusme fghijklnop
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
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Department: THE LINEUP
JOHN C. BOLAND'S first published story, “Stand-In,” appeared in these pages in September 1976. He wrote a half-dozen financial mystery novels in the 1990s. His last story for AHMM, “Marley's Woman,” appeared in the September 2007 issue.
JOHN H. DIRCKX retired in 2003 after practicing primary care medicine for forty years. He remains active as a technical writer and editor, with emphasis on medical lexicography, and indulges in book collecting and fiction writing for amusement and relaxation.
JEAN FEMLING has published several mystery novels, as well as fantasy, children's and crime/suspense short stories, a non-fiction travel book, and articles on everything from graphoanalysis to junior rodeo riders. This is her first story for AHMM.
Booked & Printed columnist ROBERT C. HAHN reviews mysteries for Publishers Weekly and New York Post, among other places, and is the former mystery columnist for the Cincinnati Post.
A short story Edgar winner, G. MIKI HAYDEN teaches writing at Writer's Digest's online workshops. She is author of Writing the Mystery and The Naked Writer, a writing style and composition book. Her last story for AHMM, “A Killing in Midtown,” appeared in the January/February 2008 issue.
EDWARD D. HOCH published nearly a thousand short stories before his death in January 2008. He was presented with the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America in 2001. “Baja” is his 106th contribution to AHMM.
RUSSEL D. MCLEAN'S first novel, The Good Son, will be released in Winter 2008/2009 by Nottingham, England publisher Five Leaves.
DONALD MOFFITT has published six science fiction novels since 1977. “Feat of Clay” is his first contribution to AHMM.
J. RENTILLY is a Los Angeles-based journalist who covers film, music, and literature for a variety of national and international publications.
HARRIET RZETELNY is currently working on a novel featuring her AHMM series characters, social worker Molly Lewin and Detective Steve Carmaggio. Although she currently lives on Cape Cod, her mysteries continue to be about New York City and its people, past and present.
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AHMM, September 2008 Page 17
