ger 'anging on
to the door calling to it to stop.

"It came back at about a mile an' a 'alf an hour, an' the remarks of the
cabman was eggstrordinary. Even when he got back 'e wouldn't start till
'e'd got double fare paid in advance; but they got in at last and drove
off.

"There was a fine scene at Ted Reddish's door. Ginger said that if
there was a bit of a struggle it would be a good advertisement for Ted
Reddish, and they might p'r'aps get more than a 'undered, and all the
three of 'em could do, they couldn't get the wild man out o' that cab,
and the cabman was hopping about 'arf crazy. Every now and then they'd
get the wild man 'arf out, and then he'd get in agin and snarl. 'E
didn't seem to know when to leave off, and Ginger and the others got
almost as sick of it as the cabman. It must ha' taken two years' wear
out o' that cab, but they got 'im out at last, and Reddish's door being
open to see what the row was about, they went straight in.

"'Wot's all this?' ses Reddish, who was a tall, thin man, with a dark
moustache.

"It's a wild man o' Borneo,' ses Ginger, panting; 'we caught 'im in a
forest in Brazil, an' we've come 'ere to give you the fust offer.'

"Ted Reddish was so surprised 'e couldn't speak at fust. The wild man
seemed to take 'is breath away, and 'e looked in a 'elpless kind o' way
at 'is wife, who'd just come down. She was a nice-lookin' woman, fat,
with a lot o' yaller hair, and she smiled at 'em as though she'd known
'em all their lives.

"'Come into the parlour,' she ses, kindly, just as Ted was beginning to
get 'is breath.

"They followed 'em in, and the wild man was just going to make hisself
comfortable in a easy-chair, when Ginger give 'im a look, an' 'e curled
up on the 'earthrug instead.

"''E ain't a very fine specimen,' ses Ted Reddish, at last.

"'It's the red side-whiskers I don't like,' ses his wife. 'Besides, who
ever 'eard of a wild man in a collar an' necktie?'

"'You've got hold o' the wrong one,' ses Ted Reddish, afore Ginger Dick
could speak up for hisself.

"'Oh, I beg your pardin,' ses Mrs. Reddish to Ginger, very polite. 'I
thought it was funny a wild man should be wearing a collar. It's my
mistake. That's the wild man, I s'pose, on the 'earthrug?'

"That's 'im, mum,' ses old Sam, very short.

"'He don't look wild enough,' ses Reddish.

"'No; 'e's much too tame,' ses 'is wife, shaking her yaller curls.

"The chaps all looked at each other then, and the wild