The ponies had been tethered some distance from where the prize was tied, the dogs being placed with the ponies so that they might not be disturbed by the captive during the night and thus keep the camp awake with their barks and growls.

After a time all hands went to bed, crawling into their blankets, where they were soon fast asleep.  Late in the night Nance sat up.  He thought he had heard the lion growl.  Stepping to the door of the tent he listened.  Not a sound could be heard save the mysterious whisperings of the Canyon.  Jim went back to bed, not to awaken until the sun was up on the following morning.

Tad Butler, hearing the guide rise after daylight, turned out at the same time.  Tad stepped outside, his first thought being for the captive.  The Pony Rider boy’s eyes grew large as he gazed at the tree where the cat had been left the evening before.  There was no lion there.

“Hey, Mr. Nance, did you move the cat?”

“No.  Why?”

“He isn’t where we left him last night.”

“What?” Nance was out on the jump.  “Sure as you’re alive he’s gone.  Now doesn’t that beat all?”

Tad had hurried over to the place where he stood gloomily surveying the scene.

“I wonder where the rope and wire are?”

“That’s so.  He must have carried the whole business with him.”

“How could he?  How could he have untied the wire from the tree?  There is something peculiar about this affair, Dad.”

Whatever Dad’s opinion might have been, he did not express it at the moment.  Instead he got down on all fours, examining the ground carefully, going over every inch of it for several rods about the scene.

“Well this does git me,” he declared, standing up, scratching his head reflectively.

By that time the rest of the party had come out.

“The lion’s gone,” shouted Tad.

“What, my lion got away?” wailed Chunky.  “And he didn’t take a chunk out of me to carry away with him?”

“I had no idea we could hold him.  Of course he gnawed the rope in two,” nodded the Professor.

“He didn’t get loose of his own accord, sir,” replied the guide.

“Then you don’t mean to tell me that some person or persons liberated him?”

“I don’t mean to tell you anything, because I don’t know anything about it.  I never was so befuddled in my life.  I’m dead-beat, Professor.”

Tad was gloomy.  He had hoped to take the lion home with them, having already planned where he would keep the beast until the town, which he thought of presenting it to, had prepared a place for the gift.  Now his hopes had been dashed.  He had no idea that they would be able to get another lion.  It was not so easy as all that.  But how had the beast gotten away?  There was a mystery about it fully as perplexing as had been the loss of Stacy’s rifle.  Tad was beginning to think, with Dad, that mysterious forces were, indeed, at work in the Grand Canyon.