Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/205

 the time he was pointing dramatically at the bear. 'Kindly throw something at Murph. He's about to stand up.' I tossed a tent-peg, that didn't do the harp a bit of good, and his muttered curse was only drowned by Tib's addressing the bear.

"Well, sir, it was the most sweaty fifteen minutes I ever put in. You see, if the game was discovered, we were in as bad a box as the fugitives. And when the sight-seers began to file out I felt as limp as a rag.

"‘I shall come again when the whole menagerie is here,' declared the alcalde, on leaving. 'Wonderful and marvellous!'

"‘Scene first and curtain,' panted Tib, closing the tent-flaps leisurely, while I shoved bottles and fodder to the animals. In three seconds their disgusted faces were slipped free from the head-pieces and were busy with food and drink.

"Then we held a council of war and decided we would leave immediately while the alcalde and other citizens were having their siestas. And the way Collins and a dozen peons emulated the Arab in striking that tent was a caution. From the natives we learned the guards had got no trace of the fugitives, and that Chihuahua was being searched by inches. Tib accordingly decided to skirt the town and make for the Rio. "We got away from Quelta all right, and when-