quietly, gagged and blindfolded him, tied his hands and feet, and flung him over his shoulder like a sack. Holding the boy in this way, old Grisly jogged on towards his hut.

Little Jollyman soon awoke, but when awake, he fancied he must still be dreaming—in a nightmare. He was being hurried along by some mysterious being through rough and sharp things that made the blood stream down his face, but he could not see, he could not speak, and could only twitch his legs and arms.

Not a word did old Grisly say to him until he had got him into his hut. There old Grisly tied little Jollyman's hands to the handle, and his feet to the bolt of a door, and went away to get something. He came back cracking a cart-whip, and then undid the bandage he had put round little Jollyman's

'eyes.

"You shall see who it is," he said, in a voice that made little Jollyman's flesh creep. "I'm goin' to flog the life out of ye-that's all. Yer fine friends

can't help ye now. I'm sorry I can't afford to hear ye howl, but it's safer even here, perhaps, to keep the gag in."

And then the brute began to lash the poor writhing little chap most fiendishly. The ninth or tenth lash had been given when little Jollyman heard, not very far off, the puzzled yelping of a dog. He knew the dog's voice, and making a tremendous effort, spat out his gag, gave a wild yell, and then a wild whistle like a curlew's, and a half-despairing shout for "Rover." In five seconds panting Rover and another of the menagerie dogs had leaped through the hut's window, whined and wagged their tails for an instant about little Jollyman, and then sprung at old Grisly's throat and laid him on his back. A minute or two later M. Sohier and Smith came up and forced the door of the hut.

"Les chiens ont raison," said M. Sohier, instinctively making out what had happened. "Ve vill keel him, M. Smit-keel him sur le champ. De

condemned scoondrelle-see you!-he die by my hand of de vengeance!"

Smith had great difficulty in keeping M. Sohier from lynching Grisly.

Smith at last got the villain consigned to his own custody and the dogs'. As Smith shoved the cruel old coward before him at arm's length towards Staghurst and its lock-up, M. Sohier called after them

"See you, M. Smit?-de scoondrelle go to de dogs sans phrase if he shall strive to form himself rare."

M. Sohier, who was very proud of his knowledge of English slang, meant "try to make himself scarce." To guard against this contingency, the ferocious Lion King, carrying tired, terrified, and tortured little Jollyman, sometimes pick-a-back and sometimes in his arms, as tenderly as a mother, strode out stoutly at the heels of the prisoner and his guards.

The issue to old Grisly was, that for accumu

lated misdeeds, he was sentenced to a long term of penal servitude; but this did not satisfy M. Sohier.

"De dogs had reason, my leetle Sholleeman," he said. "Dey have envy to keel de old scoondrelle, because dat dey save your life.”

The menagerie dogs, missing their playmate after a time, had tracked him to the bank on which he had lain down to sleep; and then, being at fault, they had gone back into the town, and whined and taken hold of the skirts of Smith and

M. Sohier's coats, and dragged them into the wood-with the result that has been already recorded.

CHAPTER VIII.

OLD CHUNY AND THE REBECCA RIOTS.

LD CHUNY, as well as M. Sohier, made

OLD

a pet of little Jollyman. Old Chuny was the biggest elephant in the show, a magnificent fellow from India, nearly eleven feet high. He would lift little Jollyman on to his back with his trunk, and minded him almost as much as the keepers. Sometimes little Jollyman put him through his performances.

He was a very accomplished old gentleman, was Chuny. He could make a bow, ring a bell, draw a cork, drink a glass of ale, and play on the piano. He used to come out of his cage in very gay caparison to perform these feats, and then at the word of command he would crouch down to have a double seat fastened on his back, and