Ensued a series of raps from somewhere in the folds of the cloth, and subdued cries of "Oh, dear, dear, dear! Judy, Judy, Judy! Where is she?" The familiar, hooked-nosed figure appeared on the little stage and John sighed in ecstasy. What mattered if Punch's complexion were sadly in need of renewal through his many quarrels--he was the same old Punch, and his audience greeted him as such. Judy followed. "He'll send her after the baby, now. You just see!" John whispered as the marionettes danced excitedly back and forth. "How do you know?" Louise's eyes were a-glisten. "Haven't you ever ever been to a Punch and Judy show before?" asked John in surprise. In one corner of the hall, a row of badly nourished colored children from the district just north of the "Jefferson Toughs," forgot the family struggle for three meals a day and rent money in their present bliss, grins appeared on the faces of the adults in the hall, and the rest of the audience swayed and shouted and giggled as Punch made away with first the baby, then friend wife, the policeman, the clown, and the judge, and hung their bodies over the edge of the stage in time-honored fashion. A prolonged groan came from the depths of the cabinet. "It's the devil," said John, squirming ecstatically on his hard chair. "There he is, in one corner where Punch can't see him." Punch lifted a victim from one side of the stage to the other. "That's one," he counted. The red-faced, lively little imp returned the corpse to its original resting place. Some minutes of this comedy followed. "Twenty-six," squawked the unsuspecting Punch in surprise, while the audience roared appreciatively. "Did I kill so many? Hello, who are you?" "I," came the preternaturally deep voice as Louise quaked at the make-belief reality of the scene, "am the devil!" "Now they'll fight," breathed John, watching intently. "It'll be the bulliest fight of all, and they'll throw each other down and hit each other over the head forty-'leven times. Then the devil'll win." But a puritanical mother had, on the tour preceding, written Professor O'Reilley, objecting to the devil's conquest of the unrepentant old reprobate, so that master of ventriloquism introduced a new character into the ancient tale, and the devil went the way of Punch's other victims. "H-m-m," puzzled John with wrinkled brow. "This isn't the same--What's that?" "Open," ordered Punch of the long, flat object which appeared beside the body of the devil. "It's an aggilator," shrilled Louise as the mystery disclosed two terrific rows of teeth and a long, red throat. "Shut," ordered Punch. The jaws closed with a snap. "Isn't it peachy?" whispered John. "Open," ordered Punch once more. Again the jaws swung slowly and impressively apart. "Close," repeated Punch, as he stooped dangerously near the yawning cavern.