Me and Swatty and Bony was just going to draw our heads in when we saw Jimmy and Annie. I was going to yell at them when I saw something that made me forget to yell. Swatty saw it, too.
There was a man standing by the ropes that made the narrow place people had to go through, but he was outside of the ropes on our side, and just when Jimmy came opposite him and got a step past him his hand went out like a flash and something dropped on the ground and the bum slid out his hand and grabbed what had dropped, and slid it under the coat and went on pretending he was asleep. The man by the ropes had picked Jimmy's wallet out of his pocket.
Well, I didn't know it, but Jimmy had all the money he was going to buy a farm with in that wallet. It was circus day, and he didn't dare leave it at home, because of thieves; so he brought it with him.
I didn't think of anything to do, and neither did Bony, but Swatty did. He looked down, and then slid one leg and then the other over the wall of the tent and hung there a second and looked down. He hand-over-handed a reach or two and then gave himself a sort of push and let go. He came down right on the bum's head, straddle of his neck, and yelled: “Police! Police!” Only he yelled it “Porlice! Porlice!” like he always says it. I guess the bum was surprised, but he reached up and grabbed Swatty.
It wasn't a fair fight, Swatty against a man, but it was a good one while it lasted. Everybody on the top seats stuck their heads out and yelled, and everybody down where Swatty was came running. One of the town cops was first—the cross-eyed one—and he leveled a lick at the bum with his club and caught Swatty across his breeches, and Swatty yelled and let go of the bum. He could fight one bum but he couldn't fight a cross-eyed policeman with a club, too.
The minute the bum got loose he dived under the tent. We saw him scutter along under the seats, and then we saw him come out away down the side of the tent and scoot. The cross-eyed cop started after him, but he never got him.
Swatty didn't run. He just stood on the bum's coat, with his feet spread out, and in a minute Jimmy and a lot of folks were crowded around him. Then he lifted up the coat. We could see it all. Under the coat was Jimmy's wallet and about six more. Jimmy just dropped on his wallet and hugged it. He sort of blubbered and didn't know what to do, so he kissed Swatty, and Swatty hit out at him and hit him in the chest.
By that time a circus man in uniform had come up. He had a big hickory club, peeled, and he pushed into the crowd. Behind him were four or five more circus men, but they had tent stakes.
“What's this row?” he asked.
Somebody started to tell him. The man that took the wallet from Jimmy was right there, and he turned away. So I shouted out: