"Animal be blowed. You can't jolly me. Think I don't know a fake when I see one, I'll have him run in in half a tick."
Professor Thunder endeavoured to argue with Ivo, and hinted at compensation, but the injured man fled from the tent in a state of blind anger.
"Let him go." said the Missing Link, vindictively. "He won't come back,
He's had all the damages he wants."
But he did come back. Ivo returned in a quarter of an hour and he brought a policeman with him, and on their heels came quite a crowd, Professor Thunder, with business-like precision, charged a shilling a head to all seeking' admission.
"There he is!" cried Hobbs, "There he is!" He pointed to the Missing Link growling viciously and baring alarming fangs at the back of his cage. "I give him in charge for grievous assault and attempted murder."
"Come, what's all this, me friend?" asked Constable Dunne, addressing the
Professor.
Hobbs had evidently had a few more beers to restore his faculties. He was now courageous enough, but vague in his mind and unsteady on his legs.
"The man irritated my Missing Link, and the animal attacked him, as he deserved," said the celebrated showman.
"Animal be blowed!" yelled Hobbs. "He's 'a man, and I give him in charge."
"Nonsense!" laughed the Professor; "The fellow's drunk!"