his Simian cheeks, and handed a shilling to Mat, the fat baby.

The show opened at Bunkers, a small Gippsland town. The Museum of Marvels
was conveyed in a two-horse caravan, and was displayed in a small circus
tent, Mahdi's cage, as usual, being thrown into shadow by an ingenious
device of the Professor's.

Professor Thunder was more at his ease in the bush towns. There patrons
are neither so inquisitive nor so exacting as in the metropolis. The
Museum of Marvels was opened to the public of Bunkers in the afternoon,
admission sixpence, children half-price, special concessions to schools
and other educational institutions.

Nickie found his sphere of usefulness enlarged in the country, since he
expected to assist in pitching the tent and striking it again, and had to
do his share of the camp work, cooking, &c. The quick changes prevented
outsiders from noticing that the absence of Nicholas Crips was always
coincident--with the appearance of Mahdi, the Missing Link; but, still,
nice judgment and caution had to be observed in effecting the
transformation.

Business at Bunkers was only moderate--for the first afternoon and
evening, but Professor Thunder had so worked his "splendid living
realisation of the Darwinian theory, the descent of man," as to induce
the proprietress of a local young ladies' school to bring her pupils on
the second afternoon.

There were twenty-five young ladies in all, daughters of the superior
families of Bunkers and the surrounding district. Miss Arnott, their
teacher, was a tall, bony spinster, with austere glasses and sharp elbows