e
point of Red Hoss Shackleford's jaw. What Red Hoss saw resembled this:

* * * * * * *

Only they were all printed flashingly in bright primary colors, reds and
greens predominating.

As the last gay asterisk faded from before his blinking eyes Red Hoss
found himself sitting down on a hard concrete sidewalk. Coincidentally
other discoveries made themselves manifest to his understanding. One was
that the truth which often is stranger than fiction may also on occasion
be a more dangerous commodity to handle. Another was that abruptly he
had severed all business connections with Mr. Lee Farrell's industry.
His resignation had been accepted on the spot, and the spot was the
bulge of his left jaw.

Somewhat dazed, filled with an inarticulate but none the less sincere
conviction that there was neither right nor justice left in a misshapen
world, Red Hoss got up and went away from there. He deemed it the part
of prudence to go utterly and swiftly away from there. It seemed
probable that at any moment Mr. Farrell might emerge from his inner
office, whither, as might be noted through an open window, he had
retired to pour cold water on his bruised knuckles, and get violent
again. The language he was using so indicated.

Presently Red Hoss, with one side of his face slightly swollen and a
curious taste in his mouth, might have been seen boarding a Locust
Street car southbound. He was on his way to Mechanicsville. In the back
part of his brain lurked vaguely a project to seek out the man who owned
those elephants and plead for some fashion of redress for painful
injuries innocently sustained. Perhaps the show gentleman might incline
a charitable ear upon hearing Red Hoss' story. Just how the sufferer
would go about the formality of presenting himself to the consideration
of the visiting dignitary he did not yet know. It was all nebulous and
cloudy; a contingency to be shaped by circumstances as they might
develop. Really sympathy was the balm Red Hoss craved most.

He quit the car when the car quit him--at the end of the line where the
iron bridge across Island Creek marked the boundary between the
municipality and its principal suburb. Even at this hour
Mechanicsville's broadest highway abounded in fascinating sights and
alluring zoological aromas. The carnival formally would not open till
the afternoon, but by Powers Brothers' crews things already had been
prepared against the c