Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/276

 convalescence. Now if I can get that concession and sell it—but what's the use. It's a hollow dream. Let's go back to the hotel and take a nap. Nothing so inexpensive, when you're out of a job, as slumber.'

"But as we turned our steps into the ranch where we were stopping, what should be presented to us but a big yellow envelope, having faintly etched all over its fat surface the familiar Big Tops and the snappy assertion it was the best ever.

"Tib smothered his agitation and calmly consumed fifteen seconds in opening it. Inside was an elegantly engraved draft calling for all kinds of money, and the brief proclamation: 'If Tiberius Smith will write home, all will be forgiven. Come to 'Frisco by the next boat and meet my manager. Sacred white apes in India. Does it sound good?'

"‘We will catch the steamer to-night, child!' cried Tib, as he fondly gloated on the eccentric signature of the circus boss. 'We are reprieved, and we must fetch him his dear old apes, or leave our bones for jade ornaments in Indian land.'

"Now the India jaunt would not have been worth the telling if Breusy hadn't stumbled in upon us at the last minute, and, in discussing our destination, asked us to look up an old pal of his if we should happen to wander into Burmah. The man's name was Danby, and by a coincidence Tib had already met him. He was passing through New York on a