the celebrated showman.

"Animal be blowed!" yelled Hobbs. "He's 'a man, and I give him in
charge."

"Nonsense!" laughed the Professor; "The fellow's drunk!"

Constable Dunne peered at the Missing Link through the cage, and that
intelligent animal never looked more malignant.

"A man" said the officer, dubiously; "sure, he ain't lookin' it."

"Arrest him!" said Ivo Hobbs.

"Devil a wan o' me," answered Dunne. "You'd better proceed by summons, me
man. 'Tain't me juty to arrist monkeys, an 'twould not be becomin' t'
the' dignity iv an officer iv th' law, anyway, t' be seen draggin' a
baste iv thim proportions through the street."

Mr. Hobbs protested indignantly, and beerily, but the constable explained
that according to a strict reading of the Act, dogs were not liable to
arrest, "and in the oye iv th' law," he said, "monkeys is dogs."
Eventually, Ivo Hobbs went away in Constable Dunne's company to take out
a summons. The policeman endeavoured to persuade him to summon Professor
Thunder, as the Missing Link's next of kin, but Hobbs stood drunkenly to
his belief that the monkey was a man, and so the summons was made out
against Mahdi, and was solemnly delivered, citing the Missing Link to
appear at the Waddy Police Court on the following morning at 10 o'clock.

"Here's a pickle," growled the proprietor of the world-famous Museum of
Marvels.

The Missing Link scratched his head over the document. "I'm nothing of a
lawyer," he said, "but I've had a good deal of experience of police
courts, and never knew a monkey to be proceeded against for assault--in
fact, nothing lower in the animal kingdom than a Chinaman is amenable to
the law."

As a result of a long conference, Professor Thunder went out that evening
and cultivated the acquaintance of John Lidlow, J.P. John Lidlow, Esq.,
J.P., was the local butcher, and Professor Thunder found him a very
companionable man with an amiable weakness for raw whiskey.
Affectionately they made a night of it, and in the morning they had a
mutual pick-me-up. The pick-me-up was concocted of knock-me-down rum and
colonial beer, and ran into several editions.

John Lidlow, Esq., J.P., was uncommonly sleepy and preternaturally solemn
in court when the case of Hobbs versus Mahdi was called on for hearing.
Ivo Hobbs explained his grievance clearly, and when the defendant was
called upon, Professor Thunder stepped forward and explained:

"The defendant, Your Worship, is my justly-cel