him back to Tollbar, to its owner's stable, the township would be drawn
together by the extraordinary spectacle of a horse bolting through the
place mounted by a gigantic monkey, the fraud would be discovered, and
then the inhabitants would deal in their own gentle, characteristic way
with the man who had been party to Professor Thunder's shocking
imposition. Two days earlier Tollbar had patronised the museum.

These cheerful thoughts occupied Nickie's mind while the mare was
negotiating about five miles, and wearing much of the wool off Mahdi, and
not a little cuticle off Mr. Crips; but he was saved the dread ordeal he
anticipated by another disaster. The mare caught a hoof in a rut and came
down heavily, and presently Nickie recovered consciousness, lying on his
back, blinking at the blue sky, gratified to find that he was not dead.

The mare was out of sight, and the Missing Link was at large in the bush,
with a damaged head, a sprained ankle, a cracked rib, and a pain in every
limb. He arose and shook some, of the dust off himself, and then limped
from the road and sat in the shade of a tree, with his back to the butt,
to consider his lamentable situation and feel his injuries.

Nickie's position was certainly an unpleasant one. He could not walk back
to Bullfrog, because he would be certain to meet people by the way, and
the sight of a Missing Link prowling in the Australian hush might lead to
disaster. In any case, the sprained ankle made a five-mile walk
impossible. Nickie could not strip off his monkey make-up, because of the
very scanty undergarments he possessed.

"What the deuce am I to do now?" groaned the victim, gently chafing his
bruises.