 Why was Gertrude continuously screaming?
The Blue Behemoth By LEIGH BRACKETT Shannon's Imperial Circus was a jinxed space-carny leased for a mysterious tour of the inner worlds. It made a one-night pitch on a Venusian swamp-town—to find that death stalked it from the jungle in a tiny ball of flame. [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. With Shannon's Imperial Circus, the Greatest Show in Space, plastered so thick with attachments...." I've wet-nursed Shannon's Imperial Circus around the Triangle for eleven years, and I know. It's lousy, it's mangy, it's broken-down! It was the most complete dead-pan I ever met, and you couldn't see into those innocent blue eyes any more than you could see through sheet metal. It has always been my desire to lighten the burden of life for those less fortunate...." "There are many towns along the Venusian frontiers where no entertainment of the— proper sort has been available. It was Gow, our zoo-man—a big, ugly son-of-a-gun from a Terran colony on Mercury. He said, "Boss, Gertrude's actin' up again." "Gertrude be blowed," growled Bucky. "I'm tellin' you, Boss, Gertrude ain't happy. Beamish cleared his throat and said, rather stiffly, "Gertrude?" The only other one on the Triangle belongs to Savitt Brothers, and she's much smaller than Gertrude." Gertrude may be a little creaky, but she's still pretty impressive. I only hoped she wouldn't die on us, because without her we'd have a sicker-looking circus than even I could stand. The extreme rarity of the animal...." It was pretty late when we got back to the broken-down spaceport where Shannon's Imperial Circus was crouching beneath its attachments. Late as it was, they were waiting for us. Bucky Shannon walked out into the glare of the light at the entrance to the roped-off space around the main lock. It grates on a man's pride to have to sneak in and out of his own property through the sewage lock. The freaks and the green girl from Tethys who could roll herself like a hoop, and Zurt the muscle man from Jupiter, and all the other assorted geeks and kinkers and joeys that make up the usual corny carnie were doing nip-ups in the passageways and drooling over the thought of steer and toppings. Gow was evidently holding Gertrude's hand.
 She was desperate for a mate
 She was cramped in a much too small space.  She missed her family.  She was near starving.  She was desperate for a mate