me."

"Well, that's interesting--not the fact of your having brains, my son,
but what you tell me about Link's scandalous conduct. He's a slick one,
I assure you," the circus man went on to say, his face beaming with
satisfaction at thus striking a warm clue so early in the hunt.

"Yes," broke out Toby, anxious to get in the spotlight as well as
Steve; "and right this very morning, after I'd f-f-fished for f-f-frogs
over at the p-p-pond a half mile away, and left my h-b-basket full of
saddles under a tree, would you believe m-m-me, that old m-m-monk
slipped up and run away with the s-s-same? C-c-course we found it again,
'cause m-m-monkeys don't f-f-fancy f-f-fish; and we saw tracks as
p-p-plain as anything that looked like a b-b-baby'd been there, which
was his m-m-marks, you know."

"I wouldn't be a bit surprised, now!" declared Mr. Jenks, "but what you
boys will be after me to claim that two hundred yet. Link seems to have
taken a fancy to you in some way, and is hanging around your camp. Now,
my time is nearly up, and unless I gather him in this afternoon I'm
afraid I'll have to leave here. I'm meaning to let you write down where
the show'll be every day for two weeks; and you can reach me there if
you do happen to take the monkey in."

He looked meaningly at Toby when saying this. Somehow Mr. Jenks seemed
to have an idea that the boy who loved to collect wild animals must be
the leader of the little group of campers. This arose partly through his
having had former dealings with Toby Jucklin, whom he had at least found
to be fairly shrewd at making a bargain.

It quite tickled Toby to have this honor thrust upon him for once in his
life; and as Max could see no harm in the mistake he allowed it to go
on. After all it mattered very little, since they were all chums; and
what was one's business was the concern of all. And Toby seemed to be
enjoying the sensation so much that his face was fairly flushed.

"We'll t-t-try to d-d-do our best, sir," Toby went on to say, feeling
that it was up to him to act as spokesman, when his relations with Mr.
Jenks made him so pronounced a factor in the deal.

"He's so tricky, though," observed Steve, "that you mustn't count on our
being able to bring him to terms. Monkeys can bite and scratch
terrible, if they once get mad, can't they, Mr. Jenks?"

The two men were sitting down alongside, and each enjoying the contents
of a pannikin placed before them, containing a fair supp