Free Case with 4 Clowns by Leo Bruce

come and see them again, and the hope that we would enjoy their act. Beef thanked them, and climbing down the stepsof the wagon backwards, he set off in the direction of his next interview.
    In any case the next wagon, which belonged to Peter Ansell, who worked as lion-feeder for Herr Kurt, the trainer, was empty, so Beef made his way over to the enclosed zoo where Ansell was most likely to be at that time of the day. The zoo, which was attached to Jacobi’s circus, was actually a small enclosure of cages drawn round in a rough square and fenced round with canvas and rope to keep out prying eyes. Each of these cages was in reality the wagon or trailer in which the animals were towed from place to place on the tour, and became a cage when the front boards were taken down each day. Some of the animals behind these bars were those used in the ring, such as the lion and the seal, while the others were the more well-known “oddities” of the animal world which are always an attraction, and which were taken round as a side-show to the circus.
    Beside the three lions which Kurt showed in the ring, there were three cubs, which he was still training, a fourth lion which, although full-grown, had not been trained because “he’d never had time to get down to the job,” and a tiger and a jaguar, also untrained. The smaller animals, beside Eustace the seal, consisted of a hyena, a three-toed sloth, a fox, numerous monkeys, a porcupine, a kangaroo, a wolf, an owl, a vulture, and a skunk. It was, apparently, Ansell’s job to look after these animals. He had to feed them, clean out the cages, act as vet and nursemaid, should the need arise, and see that nothing went wrong while they were traveling from place to place.
    â€œFunny,” commented Beef, “having a fourth lion just like the others, and never using it.”
    I was a little bored with the number of things the Sergeant found “funny.” “I don’t see why,” I answered, and walked on ahead.
    We learned later that, for the most part, the village people who paid their tuppences to go into the zoo after the circus show had finished, had never until then seen any of the animals shown there. It is surprising how few people who live in the country have seen a fox more than fleetingly. The circus is often their only chance of seeing other animals than the most ordinary and common ones of the countryside.
    We discovered Peter Ansell digging just outside the zoo, with the slender gray kangaroo hopping slowly around him, nibbling here and there at a blade of grass. It crinkled its nostrils at Beef, but then appeared to forget him, and went on with its exploration. Ansell stood up when Beef greeted him, and sat on the edge of a wagon with his feet dangling over the side.
    He must have been about thirty-five or six, with a slow cultured voice and an appearance of frankness. It did not take many questions from Beef to start him talking about himself, and the information he revealed was astonishing.
    â€œHow did I come to work in the circus?” he said, repeating Beef’s question. “One drifts, I suppose. At least I’ve always drifted, and this simply happens to be another port. I ran away from home—or should I say school—at the age of fifteen and have only seen my parents once since then. My father was ‘something in the city,’ as Henry James says. Actually, he was a sugar-broker, whatever that may imply. Anyway, it was something extremely dull. I was sent to a public school and forgotten. Really, you can’t imagine what a public school is like unless you’ve been to one, Sergeant. Take the food, for example.”
    â€œBad, was it?” asked Beef hopefully.
    â€œHorrible. Nearly all the boys’ parents had estates, and during the Christmas term we had to eat partridges and pheasants for lunch every day. Sickening. I ran away.”
    â€œAnd then what did you do?” asked