Part 28 (2/2)

”You'll have to grow some first. No Rube with a bunch of whiskers on his face like that ever lived who could tie up a real circus man.”

Teddy had drawn nearer to impress his words upon the pilot, when all of a sudden the man's hands gripped the lad. The boy never had felt quite so strong a grip on his body. c.u.mmings had not handled a pilot wheel on the Mississippi for thirty years without acquiring some strength in hands and arms.

Teddy, failing to pull away, grappled with his antagonist, all in the best of humor, though his face bore its usual solemn expression.

”Gangway,” cried Teddy humorously. ”I'm going to give him a bath in the river.”

Then began a lively scrimmage. Back and forth the combatants struggled across the cabin floor, the growls of the pilot drowned in the shouts and jeers of the performers.

All at once, Teddy tripped his antagonist and the two went down into a heap, rolling under the main table on which the lunch had been spread.

”Look out for the table!” warned a voice.

”Sit on it, some of you fellows, and hold it down!”

The suggestion came too late. The table suddenly rose into the air, landing upside down with a crash, at one side of the cabin.

A moment more and the two combatants were wrestling on roast beef and ham sandwiches, potato salad and various other foods.

”I guess this has gone about far enough,” decided Mr. Miaco, the head clown. ”We'll have a fight on our hands, first thing we know. If Teddy really gets angry you'll think the 'Sweet Marie' is in the midst of a cyclone.”

”The 'Fat Marie,' you mean,” corrected a voice.

With the a.s.sistance of two others Miaco succeeded in separating the combatants, after which he untied the rope, releasing the pilot.

Teddy was grinning broadly, but c.u.mmings was not. The latter was glowering angrily at his little antagonist.

”Shake?” asked Teddy, extending a hand.

”No, I'm blest if I will! I'll not shake hands with anybody who has insulted me by b.u.t.tering my face,” growled the pilot.

”You'll be better bred if you are well b.u.t.tered,”

suggested Teddy.

”Oh, help!” moaned The Fattest Woman on Earth.

”Put him out! Put him out!” howled several voices in chorus.

”Yes, that's the thing! We can stand for some things some of the time, but we won't stand for everything all of the time,” added a clown wisely.

Half a dozen performers picked Teddy up bodily, bore him to one of the open windows and dumped him out on the deck.

”Here, what's all this commotion about?” commanded Phil, who, at that moment, came from his cabin to the deck.

”They threw me out,” wailed Teddy.

”What for?”

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