"Let's go have a look at him, commandant."

"Here, here, I say! that's my gun -- my needle-gun you are carrying
off," timidly ventured the wary Costecalde; but Tartarin had already
got round the corner, with all the cap-poppers proudly lock-
stepping behind him.

When they arrived at the menagerie, they found a goodly number of
people there. Tarascon, heroic but too long deprived of sensational
shows, had rushed upon Mitaine's portable theatre, and had taken it
by storm. Hence the voluminous Madame Mitaine was highly
contented. In an Arab costume, her arms bare to the elbow, iron
anklets on, a whip in one hand and a plucked though live pullet in
the other, the noted lady was doing the honours of the booth to the
Tarasconians; and, as she also had "double muscles," her success
was almost as great as her animals.

The entrance of Tartarin with the gun on his shoulder was a
damper.

All our good Tarasconians, who had been quite tranquilly strolling
before the cages, unarmed and with no distrust, without even any
idea of danger, felt momentary apprehension, naturally enough, on
beholding their mighty Tartarin rush into the enclosure with his
formidable engine of war. There must be something to fear when a
hero like he was, came weaponed; so, in a twinkling, all the space
along the cage fronts was cleared. The youngsters burst out
squalling for fear, and the women looked round for the nearest way
out. The chemist Bezuquet made off altogether, alleging that he