“Rise up and cheer!” says Yuma joyful-like, holding up the sack. “You sure get banqueted, feller. In this sack is a ol’ diamond-back with sixteen rattles and a button. Fat as a fool and you gets him free gratis for nothing.”
“A-a-a-alive?” gasps Bosco.
“Betcha! Ain’t even bruised nor shy a button. Me and Big-Foot caught him under the sidewalk. He’s a humdinger. We’ll watch you eat him.”
“Wait!” yelps Magpie. “You fellers think I’m running a free show? This layout costs me money and I only lets Bosco eat snakes after you has paid one dollar per each to see the feeding. Sabe?”
“If we furnishes the eatables?” asks Yuma.
“You can’t noways furnish what you don’t own, Yuma,” states Magpie. “That snake is part and parcel of nature, and you can’t own one unless you raises same from your own stock. Sabe? That snake don’t belong to nobody, so you might as well give it to me.”
“This snake?” asks Yuma, holding up the sack. “This belongs to ——” Alcibiades has edged over close and when Yuma holds up the sack, he just reaches over, wraps his trunk around it and yanks it away. Alcibiades begins swinging that sack back and forth, playful-like.
“Look out!” yelps Magpie. “He’s going to throw it at somebody!”
Wick was wise enough to gallop straight away, but Yuma and Big-Foot seemed to think that height was salvation. They bounces straight for Cleopatra’s cage, being as that’s the highest thing at hand, and they begins to claw their way right up the bars.
That cage wasn’t built for no such a stunt, and when they’re about halfway up the side Cleopatra lets out a woful wail and slams herself up against the bars. The cage sways for a second and then over she comes off the wagon, and two perfectly unreliable horse-thieves and a antiquated tiger bite the dust together, with the horse-thieves underneath.