Beadle's Dime Library, No. 406 — page 26: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

— Old Pop Hicks, Showman. =" on | oe, 26 —_ Ee ' Some one called out: unless*he kept Philip out of the arena till he | in green velvet behind him, the one scream- 1 | ‘*By gosh! it’s Elephant Jim! Ki ! was through. ing, the other cursing, till they were close to | Who was i And here was the elephant, loose, close to him, without a soul near him. So Rabbetts thought, at least, in the few seconds, that seemed to him an age, during iP which he lay there, sweating and palsied with justifiable fear. \ Then he heard a rough voice say, in low, i guarded tones: : “Get on, you brute, get on!” --- Then came the thud of a goad, striking the elephant, and King Philip uttered a sulky " grunt, and went off at his usual sweeping trot, followed -by a man dressed in Jim Per- ___kins’s green velvet and gold-laced ring-suit. the tent, when such a racket arose that both the other man?” instinctively paused. King Philip had overturned several vans, and now was pursuing a white pony, which had broken loose and was running straight for the stables, from the van to which it had been tied. Into the tent ran the pony, and the ele- phant, with a wild scream of fury, rushed after it. Then came a demoniacal howling and yell- ing, inside the tent, as King Philip smashed the wild beasts’ cage all to pieces in his head- Jong rush, and the next moment rose the | | | ' | | ] It was indeed Elephant Jim, in all his splendor of rich clothing, of which he was as fond as a gambler. He had been on a terrible spree for two days, had been dead drunk at the afternoon show, and had been wakened up by the noise in the tent. Now he came tearing on, looking like @ maniac, his face pale as death, his wild eyes glaring, running so fast, with his long stride, that the man behind him could not come near him, though he was Lion Charley, who could run like a deer, as a general thing. Elephant Jim came running on, straight . Away they went down the road toward | cry: | as an arrow, toward the tent, and as he its Lovenville, the man running after the beast, “Run! Run! The lions are loose!” | drew near he shouted to the other men in his Ht and every time the elephant stopped the man | wild way: ' goaded him on. , CHAPTER XXXIV. | ‘“Whoop! Clear out of that! I’m Ele- | When they were fairly out of hearing, | -«~Rabbetts rose up, feeling very shaky, and he also saw that the man was not in full con- A DEMORALIZED SHOW. Tuk terrible clamor of the beasts had ac- you are not a villain. | | phant Jim, and [ kin whip any man in this show, by gosh! Whoop!” Help us part these | King Philip made his appearance, rushing | -—s rubbed his eyes, muttering: tually stilled the rage of the man in green | ‘“‘ Look to your beast then,” cried the pro- e ‘‘Good heavens, am I awake? Who was | velvet, who was chasing Rabbetts; and he fessor, in his loudest tones. “Don’t stand i that man? It was not Jim. Not big | turned to run away, when the little ring- | howling at us, but show if you're a man, | enough.”’ master shouted fearlessly: There he comes!” it So much he had seen in the moonlight, and “Come back, you wretch! Come back, if; There was a wild, angry trumpet, and trol over King Philip. ' «Every now and then the huge brute would wheel round on his pursuer, and threaten to animals! Are you a coward, too?” out of the show at another entrance, making The man hesitated and paused for an in- | straight for the group of men, who scattered | stant, when the noise inside was redoubled with great haste. charge, when the man assaulted him fiercely, | and aided by the shouts of the excited cir- | Elephant Jim saw his beast, and instantly ey: and always ended in driving the beast on- | cus men, who came running up, half-dress- | rushed forward, waving his arms wildly, and ‘ao ward, ed, from the hotels and vans, all yelling to- | roaring: ee Rabbetts watched them with great interest | gether. “ Back, ye old thief! Back! Don’t ye ' and anxiety, till, all of a sudden, his ears |. They roared to the man in velvet: know your master, gosh darn ye? Back, I | were saluted with a new sound. “Jim! Jim! Goin! Call him off!” say!” is It was the loud neigh of a horse, coming Then came a crashing and rushing inside To his horror and amazement, King ' from the opposite direction. the tent, and out rushed twenty or thirty | Philip, for answer to the shout, trumpeted | Looking round, he saw a yellow road-cart, _ which he recognized as Bownsse’s, that he | used for advance work, It was coming down the road, driven by a - man, whom he recognized, in the moonlight, as one of the stable hands at the Bownsse _ The cart was evidently following the ele- horses, squealing wildly with terror, in a a. stampede, blinded and frantic. hey dashed straight through the crowd of men, some perfectly free of harness, others with broken halter ropes trailing be- hind them, knocking down every one in their course, huddled close together in a | compact body, and rushed off down the road louder, and made for him with such despe- rate ferocity that Elephant Jim only escaped instant death by skipping to one side and running to the hindquarters of the furious but clumsy beast. The circus men, seeing Jim’s danger, raised a yell to divert Philip’s attention, and the next moment up came Lion Charley, who ' _-—phant at a respectful distance, in waiting for | at the wild speed of a stampede, the clatter of | ran past Perkins, crying: ee the driver. hoofs growing fainter and fainter as they ‘Get a fork, man! Ill help! Drive him 5 “Well, this 7s strange!” muttered the little _ ringmaster, as he instinctively got close to cart whipped up the horse and trotted on at - @ more rapid pace. _ Rabbetts instinctively turned to look the other way, and saw the man in green velvet coming back at a walk. « . eee Beyond him lay the white tents of Pop _. Hicks’s show, and the horrified ringmaster distinctly perceived the huge hulk of the ele- - phant, close to the tents, trotting round ae) them, with his trunk up, a sure sign of one of his ‘‘ tantrums.” | _ Then, on the silence of the night, in per- fect distinctness, came the well-known angry trumpet of the animal, to be followed in a ' moment by a pandemonium of noise, as the ' wild beasts inside heard it and scrambled up, ' roaring, while the terrified squeals of the horses showed that a regular panic was going on in the s‘ow. Forgetting all caution in his horror at the diabolical scheme to which he was a witness, the ringmaster ran out from the shelter of | the tree, as hard as he could go, toward the tents, screaming as he ran: —— ** Help! help! King Philip’s loose 1” A moment before, he had been sweating _ with fear; now the generous instinct of gaving others had overcome his fears, and he - ran into certain peril, without a thought of himself. _ His cries alarmed the man in the road-cart, who instantly turned round the vehicle and fled, while the man in green velvet came . tearing toward him, crying savagely: _. ** Shut up, curse ye, shut up!” |. Rabbetts was already cool enough to notice - that the tones of the man’s voice showed terror as well as anger, and the ringmaster _ Yan on, yelling louder than ever: . Help! Murder! Murver!!!” The man instantly rushed for him, and ' _Rabbetis saw he was a big fellow, with whom | he could not hope to cope. He continued his outcries louder than be- - fore, running straight for the show, which was now full of confusion, and the man - ¢ame up with him and leveled a tremendous blow at him. The ringmaster dodged and ran, the man , : : - § ‘ i 4 4 : ‘ > disappeared in the dim distance, ! The next moment out of the tent came the The poor beast staggered a few steps and fell, when another tiger came gliding stealth- ily forward, and both ferocious beasts stood snarling at each other over the dying horse. The tableau was broken almost instantly by the entrance of the four lions, and all the beasts stood growling and snarling at each other over the body, while the circus men recoiled in terror, and ran to secure some sort of weapons. Little Rabbetts afterward declared he would never forget the sight of that dark opening of the white tent in the mvonlight, with the savage brutes fighting over the poor ony. Ht trie terribly sublime, but particulariy uncomfortable for near spectators. They hung back, and then some one called out to Rabbetts: ‘‘Where’s Elephant Jim? He was here a moment ago. Where is he?” ; They all began to shout together: “Jim! Jim!” The man in green velvet had disappeared. Only Rabbetts had seen him sneak off, and the ringmaster had been too much absorbed to notice him much. And all this while King Philip, after his first burst of fury in the tent, had been si- lent, and no one could tell at what moment he would break out again, or from what quarter, Then a silence fell on the circus men as the beasts began to tear the pony into pieces | | and drag them away, growling and fighting | all the time. No one knew what todo. Pop Hicks and Liow Charley were in the hotel, a good qtar- ter of a mile away, and the canvas-men and drivers did not care to go near the beasts. Suddenly they heard a shouting down the street, and two men came up, running at full speed. The one ahead was in his shirt-sleeves, and the tt pee glittered on the big diamonds in front of his ruffles, though he was bare- Leer and had cast aside coat and vest as e ran. | j off, on your life!” Forks were plentiful enough round the ' the tree. ‘‘ What can it mean?” : white pony, trying to follow, with a tiger | show, and Elephant Jim, seeming well-nigh » +While he was wondering, the man in the | clawing at its haunches. | crazy with rage, yet accepted the advice and followed Licn Charley. Then was seen the singular spectacle of two men, in their shirt-sleeves, fighting an enraged elephant with nothing but pitch- forks, and facing him as boldly as if he were h,”. a calf. lephant Jim went at him, cursing and howling; Lion Charley made no noise, but exhibited the most activity and wickedness of the two men. When the elephant slapped at them with his trunk, both men met the blow with the point of the pitchforks held with creat strength and skill, so that King Philip roared aloud with baffled rage and pain, and held his trunk curled up over his head, to keep it out of harm’s way, while he charged with his tusks, Both men evaded the charge with seeming ease by leaping aside, and each was sure to jab King Philip in the soft skin of his belly as e rushed past in bis blind fury. The contest was so absorbing that none of the parties remembered they were near the carnivorous beasts, till King Philip, in one of his rushes, came tearing right into the midst of the growling group, and was at once set upon by tigers and lions alike, tearing and clawing. | Frantic with pain and demoralized by the surprise, the great brute wheeled round and went off at his best speed down the road from whence he had come, roaring all the way and shaking off lions and tigers like so many kit- tens as he went, when Lion Charley shouted to Elephant Jim: , ** Let him go, man, lethim go. We'll find him to-morrow. We'll have all we can do to cage the rest.” This was self-evident, as the animals shaken off by King Philip camé crouchin and gliding swiftly back to the pony, snarl- ing savagely at the bystanders, as much as to. say: f “me, with us at your peril.” Lion Charley did not intend to do any such thing. He knew better. He had, got rid of the disturbing elephant, and he knew that the lions and tigers would ‘S AMLUCE (E(0} ai, OO! . are fas + 3 > | = —_—