ooks had taken that job. To his own surprise, he made an
excellent Wild Man. He was able to rattle his chains, dash up and down
the cage, gnaw the iron bars of the cage, eat raw meat, and howl as
no other Tasmanian Wild Man had ever done those things, and all would
have been well if an interloper had not entered the side-show.

The interloper was Mr. Winterberry, who had introduced the subject of
Ibsen's plays, and in a discussion of them the Tasmanian Wild Man and
Mr. Hoxie, the Strong Man, had quarreled, and Mr. Hoxie had threatened
to tear Mr. Snooks limb from limb.

"And he would have done so," said the Tasmanian Wild Man with emotion,
"if I had not fled. I dare not return. I mean to work my way back to
Boston and give up Tasmanian Wild Man-ing as a profession. But I
cannot without pants."

"I guess you can't," said Philo Gubb. "In any station of Boston life,
pants is expected to be worn."

"So the question is, old chap, where am I to be panted?" said Waldo
Emerson Snooks.

"I can't pant you," said Philo Gubb, "but I can overall you."

The late Tasmanian Wild Man was most grateful. When he was dressed in
the overalls and had wiped the grease-paint from his face on an old
rag, no one would have recognized him.

"And as for thanks," said Philo Gubb, "don't mention it. A deteckative
gent is obliged to keep up a set of disguises hitherto unsuspected by
the mortal world. This Tasmanian Wild Man outfit will do for a hermit
disguise. So you don't owe me no thanks."

As Philo Gubb watched Waldo Emerson Snooks start in the direction of
Boston--only some thirteen hundred miles away--he had no idea how soon
he would have occasion to use the Tasmanian Wild Man disguise, but
hardly had the Wild Man departed than a small boy came to summon Mr.
Gubb, and it was with a sense of elation and importance that he
appeared before the meeting of the Riverbank Ladies' Social Service
League.

"And so," said Mrs. Garthwaite, at the close of the interview, "you
understand us, Mr. Gubb?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Philo Gubb. "What you want me to do, is to find Mr.
Winterberry, ain't it?"

"Exactly," agreed Mrs. Garthwaite.

"And, when found," said Mr. Gubb, "the said stolen goods is to be
returned to you?"

"Just so."

"And the fiends in human form that stole him are to be given the full
limit of the law?"

"They certainly deserve it, abducting a nice little gentleman like Mr.
Winterberry," said Mrs. Garthwaite.

"They do, ind