Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/160

 sorry heap and went tumbling and crashing this way and that. Three of the cars almost immediately burst into flames. This was the section that contained many of the best ring and trick horses, and also the large animals like the elephants and camels, It was also the section in which rode our two friends, Freckles and Dapples. Freckles himself was in the second sleeper from the locomotive, and Sir Wilton was about midway in the train.

The whistle on one of the wrecked locomotives, being turned on by the smash, set up a continuous shriek, while the other engine emitted a roaring stream of steam, that made more noise than the whistle.

If a combination to produce blood-curdling sounds had been planned, it could not have outdone the noise made by this medley of wild animals, many of them horribly mangled and some of them imprisoned in the burning cars.

There was the trumpeting and shrieking of elephants, the roaring of lions, the