camel coming down the line
behind the train with a remarkable turn of speed.

Tartarin resumed his seat and closed his eyes. After this disastrous
expedition he had counted on getting back home unrecognised, but the
presence of this confounded camel made it impossible. What a return
to make, Bon Dieu!... No money... No lions... Nothing but a camel!....
"Tarascon!... Tarascon!"... It was time to get out.

To Tartarin's utter astonishment, the heroic chechia had barely
appeared in the doorway, when it was greeted by a great cry of "Vive
Tartarin!... Vive Tartarin!" Which shook the glass vault of the station
roof. "Vive Tartarin!... Hurrah for the lion killer!" Then came fanfares
and a choir. Tartarin could have died, he thought this was a hoax: but
no, all Tarascon was there, tossing their hats in the air and shouting
his praises. There stood the brave Commandant Bravida, Costecalde the
gunsmith, the President Ladeveze, the chemist and all the noble body of
hat shooters, who pressed round their chief and carried him all the way
down the steps.

How remarkable are the effects of the "mirage". The skin of the blind
lion sent to the Commandant was the cause of all this tumult. At the
sight of this modest trophy, displayed at the club, Tarascon and beyond
Tarascon the whole of the Midi had worked themselves into a state of
excitement. "The Semaphore" had spoken. A complete scenario had been
invented. This was no longer one lion killed by Tartarin, it was ten
lions, twenty lions, a whole troop of lions. So Tartarin, when he
reached Marseilles was already famous, and an enthusiastic telegram had
warned his home town of his imminent arrival.

The excitement of the populace reached its peak when a fantastic animal,
covered in dust and sweat, stumbled down the station steps behind our
hero. For a moment they thought that the Tarasque had returned.

Tartarin reassured his fellow citizens, "It is my camel" He said, and
already under the influence of the Tarascon sun, that fine sun which
induces fanciful exaggeration, he stroked the camel's hump and added,
"It is a noble creature, it saw me kill all my lions." So saying,
he took the arm of the Commandant, who was blushing with pride, and
followed by his camel, surrounded by hat shooters and acclaimed by the
people, he proceeded peacefully toward the little house of the baobab;
and as he walked along he began the story of his great expedition.

"There was one particular evening