id not
seem to mind in the least.

"Open the door," she said.

"Madame, are you quite resolved to take this terrible risk?" said
Thunder, gravely, feeling keenly the approaching loss of a hard-earned
pound.

"Terrible pickles!" said the woman. "I've bin managin' men fer twenty
years, an' I ain't goin' t be stopped be no monkey."

"Very well, madam, the consequences be upon your own head." (Aside to
Nickie) "Roar, curse you, roar!"

The Missing Link crept to the back bars in an imploring attitude. "No,
no; for the love of heaven! don't let her in!" he whispered to Madame
Marve.

Professor Thunder burst into one of his frenzied street orations to drown
the voice of the Missing Link, and threw open the cage door. The crowd
huddled hack, horrified. One girl screamed, but the heroine from the
old-established lodging-house boldly entered the cage, swinging her gamp.

It was expected that the strange monster from the dim, damp jungles of
Darkest Africa would spring upon her, but he did nothing of the kind; he
rushed to the back of his cage, and cowered down, burying his face in the
straw.

The heroine butted Mahdi the Missing Link with her gamp. He gave no sign.
She kicked him. He bore it meekly, crouching lower. There was some
tittering in the crowd.

"Get up, you nasty brute!" said the woman, and prodded the horrid
monster.

Nickie didn't even growl. The woman kicked, she kicked with force. She
booted the terrible brute round the cage. She seemed to glory in her
triumph, and when Mahdi butted into a corner and refused to stir, she
took him by one leg, and towed him twice round the cage, and the
tittering the crowd swelled to yells of derisions and ribald laughter,
while Professor Thunder pranced about and cursed furiously. To save his
show from being ruined with ridicule, he rushed in, seized the woman, and
bundled her from the cage.

"I can't permit on to risk your life in this mad way," he blurted; "any
moment he might round on you, and then they'd pinch me for manslaughter.
Here is your pound, madam; go, and thank God you have been permitted to
live through this fearful experience." He paid with the grand air of a
hero of melodrama. His manner was so impressive it almost restored
confidence, but Mahdi, the monster, remained crouched at the back of his
cage, his face hidden in the straw, and nothing would induce him to come
out till closing time.

When the last patron was gone, and the doors were closed, P