Part 38 (1/2)
”Because we had a fight to get in free, and got the worst of it.”
”They must be main strong, then, those circus men.”
”Strong!” repeated Hayden, scornfully. ”Well, mayhap they are, but we'd have bested them but for the giant.”
”The giant! Is it the big man I saw in the parade?”
”Yes; he's as strong as three men. He flung me down as easily as I'd throw a boy.”
”Then he must have been strong, for you're a powerful man, father.”
”There isn't a man as works in the mine'll compare with me, la.s.s,” said Hayden, proudly; ”but all the same I'm no match for a monster.”
”Tell me about it, father,” said Janet, with natural curiosity.
d.i.c.k Hayden went on to describe the fight around the ticket stand, and how he had slipped away, intending to cut the ropes of the tent and let it down on the heads of the spectators gathered inside.
”I'd have done it, too,” he added, ”but for a kid.”
”I thought just now you said it was the giant.”
”And I stick to it, la.s.s; but this boy saw what I was doing, and brought the giant to the spot. I could do nothing after that. He threw me down, so that for a few minutes I was stunned.”
”And how did the fight come out at the ticket stand, father?”
”Our men had almost overpowered the circus men, when the giant rushed into the midst, and, seizing a club from Bob Stubbs, laid about him, till half a dozen of our strongest men lay on the ground with broken heads.”
What puzzled Janet was, that her father should have come home in such good humor after so disastrous a defeat. It was contrary to her experience of him. She would naturally have expected that he would be surly and quarrelsome. The mystery was soon made clear.
”But we've got even with them!” chuckled Hayden directly after.
”How is that, father?”
”We caught the kid.”
”You have?”
”Yes; he was goin' to the circus cars to turn in when Stubbs and I caught him.”
”You--you didn't kill him, father?” asked Janet in alarm.
”No, not yet.”
”Where is he?”
”Do you mind the deserted cabin on k.n.o.b Hill?”
”Yes, father.”
”He's locked up in that, tied hand and foot.”