But they were up and rushing through the room in the direction of the Christmas tree.
There Santa Claus met them, and again they were bowled over.
Ted saw the slender, black-clothed figure of Farnsworth slip past him in the smoke.
Then followed the sharp hoofbeats of a pony on the wooden floor, a crash of glass, and the swift patter on the earth outside, and all was still.
Farnsworth had leaped upon the back of Ted's Christmas-gift pony and escaped.
CHAPTER XV.
THE THUGGEE CORD.
Several moments following the dramatic and sensational escape of the Christmas guest passed in silence, to be broken at last by Kit.
"That was about the smoothest get-away I ever saw," he said, with a grin, for he had assisted in it by deftly tripping the chief deputy while he was on the way to intercept the pony.