P. S.—Keep your eyes peeled and you will see me some bright morning before long.
From St. Louis, where Billy Whiskers wrote to his home friends, the big show moved steadily eastward; by the latter part of October it was once more in Ohio and not so very far from Farmersville, near which, you will remember, Cloverleaf Farm is located.
On the night of the thirtieth, when the show train was running between Hamilton and Zanesville, a head-end collision took place which threw most of the cars containing the animals off the track and down an embankment, piling them up one on the other in the utmost confusion. The frightened and tortured beasts, as well as their keepers, made the most fearful outcry that was ever heard.
For a long time the people who came to the rescue were afraid to approach the wreck lest a lion or a tiger or some other man-eating animal might find his cage burst open and make his escape, killing and devouring everybody that came in his way.
Fortunately Billy Whiskers and the monkeys were not killed or badly injured, though terribly shaken up and frightened almost to death.
As soon as Billy collected his wits and began to look about, he discovered that not only was the car in which he was riding smashed open, but that the jar and up-set had shaken the pin fastening the door of the big monkey cage out of place so that it was easy for him to get out.
“Now is my time,” he quickly decided. “I can’t do any good here, and while this racket keeps up I can get away. The monkeys are too scared and dazed to see what I am up to, and they will not think of following me now anyway. As good luck will have it, I am not very far from Cloverleaf Farm, and I know I can find my way there.”
So he stole out of the overturned cage and car, picked his way as noiselessly and quickly as he could through the ruins, and started on a dead run for the protecting cover of a wood lot which he discovered not far off. It was not so dark but that he could make out its faint outline.
All unknown to Billy, there followed behind him a silent procession of dim and quiet figures, twelve in number. They were the monkeys pursuing their leader.
When he reached the wood, Billy stopped to rest and to take stock of his plight, whereabouts and plans.