constable.

The fat sides of Hans Snitzellbaum shook with jollity, and his merry eye
twinkled at the hint conveyed by Andy's staunch friend.

When Hans came inside the tent, a whispered word to Andy was sufficient
to make the young fugitive understand what was coming.

Hans removed the top head of his big bass drum. Andy snuggled along the
rounded woodwork of the instrument, and the drum head was replaced.

The double load was a pretty heavy one for the portly musician to
handle, but all went well.

He got away from the dressing tent without arousing the suspicions of
the constable's assistants. The drum was hoisted to the top of a moving
wagon at some distance. Andy was rather crowded and short of breath, but
he lay quiet and serene as the wagon started up.

They must have traveled four miles before the musician's welcome
invitation to "come oud" followed a second removal of the drum head.

Andy looked about him. They were slowly traversing the main road leading
from Centreville to Clifton.

There was bright moonlight, and the general view was interesting and
picturesque. Ahead and behind a seemingly interminable caravan was
in motion.

Chariots, cages, vehicles holding tent paraphernalia, a calliope, ticket
wagons, horses, mules, ponies, seemed in endless parade. Performers and
general circus employees thronged the various vehicles.

That in which Andy now found himself was a wagon with high, slatted
sides, piled full of trunks, mattresses, seat cushions and curtains.

The fat musician reclined in a dip in the soft bedding; his bulky body
had formed. Over beyond him lay a sad-faced man in an exhausted slumber,
looking so utterly done out and ill that Andy pitied him.

A boy about Andy's own age, and two men whose attire and general
appearance suggested side show "spielers," or those flashily dressed
fellows who announce the wonders on view inside the minor canvases, lay
half-buried among some gaudy draperies.

The two men lay with their high silk hats held softly by both hands
across their breasts. The circus tinge was everywhere. One of them in
his sleep was saying: "Ziripa, the Serpent Queen. Step up, gentlemen.
Eats snakes like you eat strawberry shortcake. Eats 'em alive! Bites
their heads off!"

As the wagon jolted on Hans comfortably smoked a pipe fully four feet
long. His twinkling little eyes fairly laughed at Andy as the latter
stepped out of the drum.

"Hey, you find him varm, hey?" he aske