‘“A score of bricks,” suggested the third party.
‘“Wrong, cully,” said the Artful Dodger. “I couldn’t have smuggled bricks into the room without being observed; but a big screw went through the bottom of the box, and held it fast to the floor.”
‘Another of the stories I have alluded to relates to a man that used to look after an elephant in a circus, and put him through his performance. He got pretty deeply in debt—the man I mean—in a midland town where the circus had been staying some time, and his creditor, not being able to obtain payment, and finding that the company were about to remove to another town, determined to arrest him.
‘The cavalcade of horses, performing mules, camels, and other quadrupeds was just ready to start from the circus when the sheriff’s officer appeared on the scene, and tapped his man on the shoulder. He was recognized at a glance, and the man ran into the stables, with the sheriff’s officer after him. Running to the elephant, the debtor dived under its belly, and took up a safe position on the other side of the beast. The officer attempted a passage in the rear, but was cut off by a sudden movement of the elephant’s hind quarters. Then he screwed up his courage for a dive under the animal’s belly, but the beast turned its head, and fetched him a slap with its trunk.
‘“I’ll have you, if I wait here all day,” said he, as he drew back hastily.
‘“You had better not wait till I unfasten this chain,” says the elephant keeper, pretending to do what he threatened.
‘The officer growled, and went off to find the proprietor; but he didn’t succeed, and when he returned to the stables, his man was gone. That was as good a dodge as the lion-tamer’s, who, when the officers went to the circus to arrest him, took refuge in the cage containing the lions. They looked through the grating, and saw him in the midst of a group of lions and lionesses. They were philosophic enough to console themselves with the reflection that their man would come out when he wanted his dinner; but they had not waited long when the lions began to roar.
‘“The lions are getting hungry,” says the keeper. “If he lets them out of the cage, you will have to run.”
‘The officers exchanged frightened glances, and were out of the show in two minutes.
‘To return to my story; my late partner found himself in much the same fix as myself, and this discovery paved the way for a mutual friend to bridge over the gulf that had kept us apart. As soon as we had agreed to work together again, we got a twelve nights’ engagement at the Prince of Wales concert-hall at Wolverhampton. We found the other professionals engaged there very good people to pal with, and spent Christmas Day with the comic singer and his wife, two niggers also being of the party, and bringing their banjo and bones to promote its hilarity. While we were in Wolverhampton, we arranged for twelve nights, to follow, at the London Museum music-hall at Birmingham, which has received its name from the cases of stuffed birds and small animals of all kinds, which cover all the wall space of the front of the bar and the passage leading to the hall. After our twelve nights there, we were engaged for six nights longer; and then we went down to Oldham, for a twelve nights’ engagement at the Co-operative Hall. For all these engagements, and for all we made afterwards, the terms we obtained were four pounds ten a week.