before the cage, lightnings in his eyes, and on his lip that gruesome
grin with which all the town was familiar. In a moment's time,
when all the cap-poppers, some little fortified by his bearing and the
strength of the bars, re-approached their leader, they heard him
mutter, as he stared Leo out of countenance:

"Now, this is something like a hunt!"

All the rest of that day, never a word farther could they draw from
Tartarin of Tarascon.



IX.
Singular effects of Mental Mirage.


CONFINING his remarks to the sentence last recorded, Tartarin
had unfortunately still said overmuch.

On the morrow, there was nothing talked about through town but
the near-at-hand departure of Tartarin for Algeria and lion-hunting.
You are all witness, dear readers, that the honest fellow had not
breathed a word on that head; but, you know, the mirage had its
usual effect. In brief, all Tarascon spoke of nothing but the
departure.

On the Old Walk, at the club, in Costecalde's, friends accosted one
another with a startled aspect: