didn't take him two minutes to work the shine darbies over his
hands. He then peeled off the ulster and the tuppeny trousers,
and throwing these and the Svengalis over the fence, he was home
again from the Bad Lands.

The transformation scene was made complete by the fact that Bunch
was now wearing my hat.

In answer to Bunch's question, the redoubtable Diggs smiled
indulgently and said with pride-choked tones, "A maleyfactor, sir,
caught in the meshes of the law and hauled before this here trybune
of Justice by these hands!"

The eagle eye of Diggs was now triumphantly sighted along the arm
and over the bony hand to where the criminal was supposed to be,
but when the gaze finally rested on an empty bench the expression
of pained surprise on the old man-hunter's map was calculated to
make a hen cackle.

Diggs rushed over to the bench, turned it upside down, looked
behind the chairs, and then, emitting a roar that rattled the
rafters, he hustled back to see if by any chance the prisoner had
locked himself up in a cell.

Bunch gave the old geezer the minnehaha and yelled, "Say! you with
the me-ya-ya's on the chin! Did somebody give you the hot-foot and
make a quick exit?"

Diggs was now in full eruption and heavy showers of Reub lava rose
from his vocal organs and fell all over the place, while he