cholas Crips, and smote him hip and thigh.
He was not content to smite--he kicked. He kicked hard--and often. His
fury increased with the measures he took to wreak it.

"Jim! Jim!" pleaded Madame Marve, "you'll ruin the skin."

The Missing Link's skin was an expensive item, but the Professor forgot
his cupidity in vindicating himself as an outraged husband. He continued
to kick, and then, taking Nickie by the scruff and the back, he rushed
him from the tent, and pitched him headlong into the garish day.

There were a few youths and half a score of children loitering about.
Fortunately, the mask-like structure covering Nickie's nose, cheeks and
chin, had fallen into place, and what the loiterers saw was infuriated
man kicking a gigantic monkey, and assailing him with vehement profanity.
The sight was sufficiently amazing. The children fled, screaming, to
carry the astonishing news through the township. The youths stood off and
yelled.

The Missing Link rolled to some distance, and backed against a tree.

"Don't show your nose inside my show again, you dirty crawler!" said the
great entrepreneur. "If you do, by the Lord Harry, I'll break every bone
in your body."

People were coming from all directions, and a small crowd had already
gathered from the adjacent houses. The inhabitants of Catcat drew as near
as they dared, and gazed in open-mouthed amazement from Thunder to the
Missing Link.

"I'll teach you to come creepin' and sneakin' into a man's home, tryin'
t' ruin his happiness," the Professor roared, and he made another dash at
Nickie.

The Missing Link slipped round the tree, and Madame Marve caught her
husband, by the arm and dragged him hack.

"What's he done, mister?" asked a bystander.

"What's he done?" bellowed Thunder, the actor instinct in him coming out
strongly. "What's he done, sir? This infamous scoundrel has tried to
wreck my home, sir, to blight my peace of mind."

"What, th' bloomin' Missing Link?"

"Yes, sir, the perfidious Missing Link; the ungrateful Missing Link that
I warmed in this bosom, and that has turned and stung the hand that fed
him. But now I know all, the villain is unmasked, and if the slimy trail
of the serpent enters the abode of peace again, by Heaven! I'll beat the
life out of him."

A crowd had now collected, and when Madame Marve dragged her husband into
the tent all attention was turned upon Nickie, who cowered against the
tree, his mind busy on a way out of the