"Tumbler, yes. Listen: I've found and caged Big Bob."
"What's that?—Say, where?"
Even over the wire Andy could discern that the man at the other end of the line was manifestly stirred up.
"Let me tell you," spoke Andy. "I've got the animal shut up in a cellar. For how long or how safe, I can't tell. You had better tell the trainer, and get some people here with the things to secure the bear."
"I'll do it," called back Brophy. "Try and keep those crazy farmers from finding him. There's a hundred of them out gunning."
"All right. Listen."
Andy described his present location. He wound up by saying he would stay within call—- telephone 26—until the capturing crew put in an appearance.
Andy sat down in an easy chair in the hall a good deal satisfied with himself. However, he felt a trifle squeamish at the thought of the tenant of the premises returning and finding him there.
A growling grunt came to his ears. Andy, tracing it, came to an open doorway leading down under the front stairs to the cellar.
This he closed and locked, although he saw that the stairs were too crooked and narrow to admit of Big Bob ascending to the upper portion of the house.