Luis shouted for pliers to be brought — and fast — and helped Ruda force the rest of the cats back into their positions on the plinths.
The lions remained seated, with Mamon at the top of the pyramid, seeming to survey the situation. Luis kept up his commands as Ruda obeyed him. The clippers were brought and with Ruda moving in front of Luis to cover for him, he unclipped the wire caught in Sasha's claw. She was away fast, unharmed, lashing out a warning to the others not to come near her.
"Keep them in position, Ruda... Hold the positions, Ruda!"
She faced the cats, sweating, her whole body on fire with adrenaline. Sasha shook her head, became very vocal but moved back into position. The danger was over, and Luis at Ruda's side put his arm around her; he was smiling.
"Okay... you did okay...!"
That was the moment Mamon chose to make his attack. He sprang down from the twenty-foot-high plinth, his body seeming hardly to touch the ground as he sprang again. Both front paws caught Luis in the chest, he was thrown back against the railings, but he was up on his feet again fast. Mamon's right front paw ripped through Luis's shirt, cutting open his chest, before he dragged Luis forward. Luis's face was close to the massive jaws, and Ruda, clinging to Mamon's mane, screamed commands. She lashed out with the whip, and Mamon turned his attention to her, stalked her, but she commanded him to move off. Turning on her heels to keep the rest of the cats in her eyesight, she screamed out: "RED A-Gmamon... RED!"
Luis's hands clutched the open wound of his chest as he backed toward the trap gate. He managed to stay on his feet, still ordering Ruda to get the cats in line ready to be herded out, before he collapsed half in and half out of the trap gate. Mamon went for him again, Luis's own blood dripping down his jaws as, snarling, Mamon shook him like a rag doll, his teeth cutting through Luis's leather belt, ripping open his belly, trying to drag him like a piece of meat further into the arena. The boys got him out just in time.
When Ruda got the cats back down the traps to their cages, Luis was already aboard the ambulance and on his way to the emergency room. She arrived at the hospital shortly after he was brought out of the operating room. His wound had taken one hundred and eighty-four stitches: He had been ripped from his throat to his groin. He remained in intensive care for eight days, as the wound festered and he suffered blood poisoning.
Ruda was at his bedside when he regained consciousness. His voice was barely audible as he told her to shoot Mamon... that he had warned her that cat would do something like this. She had wept, promised she would get rid of him, had even lied to him at other visiting times, saying that Mamon was gone, that the most important thing was for Luis to get well.
Grimaldi had recovered slowly, very slowly; the wound constantly reopened and he suffered from persistent infections — caused by rancid meat caught between Mamon's claws. Luis's weight plummeted, he caught hepatitis, and then pneumonia put him back on the critical list. The hospital bills took every penny he had. Ruda worked as hard as she could, but nothing covered the costs of the feeding and winter quarters. Ruda began to sell off the cubs — sell anything she could lay her hands on; some of the cats were the prize of the Grimaldi act, but she had no choice. The bills kept on coming in, even though many of Grimaldi's friends rallied around and helped.
Grimaldi's chief assistant went to visit him in the hospital, and announced that he was quitting. It was a severe blow; they had been together for thirty years. It was not the fact that his wages had not been paid, that he could understand. What he could not deal with — and refused even to clean out his cage — was Mamon. Ruda, he told Luis, had never made any attempt to get rid of him — when buyers came, he was towed to the back of the quarters.
As sick as he was, Luis had ranted and raged at her: Why had she lied to him? Lost him a man he had worked with for all those years! Ruda had listened with eyes lowered so he couldn't see her expression, and then had said it was not Mamon's fault; he had been vicious because he had an abscess on his tooth, and since it had been removed he was as gentle as a lamb!
Grimaldi languished in the hospital as the bills mounted. Ruda came less often, claiming she was too busy trying to keep a roof over their heads. She did succeed in retaining nine of the cats — and Mamon, of course.
On his release from the hospital, she had driven Grimaldi back to the quarters. He was determined to see the cats, and with the aid of a cane he had walked from cage to cage.
"Where is he?... Where is he?"
She had stepped back, warning him, "Don't you touch him. I mean it, Luis, don't touch him."
He had pushed her aside, determined to find him, and she had stood guard over the cage, arms outstretched. "Please don't Luis... please, I have never asked you for anything in my life, but don't touch him."
Mamon was lying like a king, yawning, as Luis stared at him. Grimaldi turned away and limped to their trailer. Ruda called out that she would show him just what a sweetheart Mamon was, told him to watch from the trailer window. He got the shotgun then, could have shot him, but instead he had watched her, been afraid for her, loved her, and watched... until the fear crept up along the jagged scar, a fear that had crippled him since that time. He had never been in the ring since, and Mamon had proved him wrong. He had never mauled or attacked Ruda, but she had never forgotten Luis's words. She used everything he had ever taught her, and went beyond it, working out her own methods and her own commands. Even if Luis could make it back into the ring now, she would have to teach him a new act, the complete new set of commands she now used.
As for Mamon, he was both an obsession and a constant test of Ruda's capabilities. The controller and the controlled; theirs was a strange battle of wills that thrilled her beyond anything she could have imagined. Mamon was the lover she could never take, and they had achieved the perfect union, one of total respect. But she knew if she broke their bond, if she weakened, gave him an opening, he would attack her. She liked that.
Luis stared in the mirror at his bloodshot eyes, began to clean his teeth, angry at himself for drinking so much. He heard the trailer door bang, and he sighed, hoping it wasn't Tina again.
"Yeah! What is it?"
Mike's voice called out, and intuitively Grimaldi knew something was wrong, he ran out of the small bathroom. The boy was panting, waving his hat around. "You'd better come over to the arena, she's having a really tough time. It's those new plinths."
Grimaldi ran with Mike across to the big tent, Mike gasping out that it couldn't have come at a worse time, the big boss was in, up in the gallery looking over the rehearsals.
Hans Schmidt, wearing a fur-lined camel coat, sat back in his seat, his pudgy hands resting on a silver-topped cane. Below him, way below, he could see the main ring, the cages erected and the caged tunnel. The spotlights were on, and Ruda's figure seemed tiny as she turned, calling out to the cats.
Mr. Kelm eased into the vacant seat next to Hans Schmidt. "You wanted to see me, sir?"
"This Kellerman business, has it been cleared up?"
"I don't know, sir, the Polizei were here, I told you. I gave them every assistance possible, but I heard they asked Mrs. Grimaldi to identify him this afternoon!"
Schmidt nodded his jowled head, his eyes focused on the ring. "Very disturbing, bad publicity... very bad!"
"Yes, I know, but I'm sure it'll all be cleared up."
"It better be. This is the costliest show to date. What do you think of the Kellerman woman?"
"She's stunning, I've seen parts of her act in Italy and Austria, she is very special."
"Doesn't look so hot now..."