Harry said, “Good night, Marshal Foch, and good luck to you. Just have a little patience.”
He was awfully nice, Harry was. That was just the way he talked.
Before we went into the house he said, “Suppose three or four of you kids go back and bring our stuff here and we’ll camp right here on the spot till we get through with this business.” So the Warner twins and Will Dawson went back by the road and the rest of us went in the house with Harry and Mr. Hasbrook.
When we got in the parlor, Harry looked over the paper and found a big ad. This is how it read:
COSTELLO’S MAMMOTH SHOW! THREE DAYS IN KINGSTON.
BEASTS OF THE JUNGLE. WORLD’S CONGRESS OF FREAKS. DARING ACROBATS.
JIB JAB, THE WORLD’S MYSTERY. SEE HIM! IS HE HUMAN? GRAND STREET PARADE TO-MORROW. AT THREE P. M. SEE THE ELEPHANTS. FREE! FREE! FREE!
GRANDEST COMBINATION OF WONDERS EVER GATHERED UNDER CANVAS. SUPERB SPECTACLE
Harry Donnelle said, “I rather like Mr. Costello already; he’s so modest. I bet he’s one of those quiet, retiring little ‘_after you, please_’ men that blushes when you speak to him. We’ll just drop him a line and one of you kids can hike it over to Saugerties and catch an early train down to Kingston and hand it to him.”
But he said, “No, you’ve had adventures enough and if they ever get you in a circus they’ll keep you there in the _congress of freaks_.” So it was decided that Dorry Benton would go.
While we were waiting for the fellows to come back with our stuff, Harry wrote the letter and this is what he said. It’s copied word for word out of our hike record:
Mr. Rinaldo Costello, Proprietor, Costello’s Mammoth Show. Kingston, N. Y.
This is to inform you that your leopard, Marshall Foch, has been captured by a boy scout and is alive and well, save that he is suffering from nervous shock and requires to have his face washed.
You may call in your armed posse. You are greatly mistaken in supposing that leopards may not be captured alive. It requires only the proper apparatus.
The bearer of this letter will give you any further information which you may require, and we shall be glad to see you here, as soon as it may be convenient for you to call.
In charge of Boy Scouts en route. Silver Fox Patrol, Bridgeboro, New Jersey. Stopping on farm of Mr. Silas Hasbrook, Bently Centre, N. Y.