rolled drunkenly into a wine shop.

In the wine shop a large mirror served as a door screen. Nickie saw his
grizzly shape reflected in this, and after surveying it in stupid
surprise for a few moments, smashed the glass with his bottle, and rolled
out again.

Amazed men assembled at the door, fell back in awe before the Missing
Link, and Mahdi crossed the road, carrying the neck of the broken bottle,
his quaint feet, like huge hands, flopping in the dust. Mahdi's make-up
did Professor Thunder great credit--it was grotesquely inhuman. The shape
of the costume demanded a stooping attitude and shambling gait. Only in a
good light and at close quarters could the deception be seen.

People came running from all directions. A cab horse backed in terror
before the monster, reared, plunged furiously and bolted into a peanut
stall.

Nickie waddled on, blissfully unconscious of the sensation he was
creating. He invaded a secondhand clothes shop.

"Shemima, mother of der brophet!" gasped Moses Aaronstein, throwing out
his palms in a gesture terror, and Moses bolted through a side door.

The Missing Link appropriated a spangled skirt and trailed it after him
down the street. The shouting crowd followed at a respectful distance. In
a small eating-house the Link encountered two men eating fried steak and
onions. They beheld him with indescribable emotion, glared for a moment
and fled. A girl coming in with a tureen of stew dropped the lot on the
floor, threw her apron over her head, and fainted amongst the broken