Before the policeman could answer, the march of events made reply. Through the swinging doors of the station filed a dozen strange looking men. These men wore baggy red trousers, and on each man's head was the red fez which marked him as being a Potent Noble of the Mysterious Mecca. They descended upon the Wildcat. "Come on here, boy. Bring that goat. You and the mascot are due out on our special train twenty minutes from now. Here's your orders from the Pullman Company. You're on the payroll, and so is the mascot goat." "Cap'n, suh, you means me an' Lily is headed west wid de red fezant gen'men?" "That's it." "Hot dam! Lily, 'tenshun! Lady Luck, how come I doubt you?" CHAPTER IX The Wildcat expanded in the sunlight of Lady Luck's smile. "Lady Luck, how come I doubt you? Police folks, good-bye. Lily, 'tenshun! Come on heah. Us is a Pullman poteh. Ah craves mah rest. Le's go." Surrounded by an escort of Potent Nobles of the Mysterious Mecca, the Wildcat marched from the portals of the Chicago police station, headed for a west-bound train wherein he aimed to do the best he could in the role of porter for his carload of nobles. At the train gates the party was delayed five minutes to permit the entrance of a motley crew of manacled aliens. "How come them boys festooned with so much jinglin' hardware?" One of the Potent Nobles made reply. "Bad actors." "Cap'n, suh, who's dat black boy wid de straight hair and his head tied up in de white rag?" "Hindoo." "Some boy sho' must ob busted his head open, to need tyin' up so bad." Following the line of undesirables headed away from the land of the free, Lily, the Wildcat, and the Potent Nobles filtered through the gates into the train shed. They made their way down a long string of coaches, arriving finally at the Mazeppa. "Here's the car." "Car, howdy. Lily, git aboa'd." "Slip out and get me a box of cigars before we leave." A Potent Noble shoved a banknote at the Wildcat. "Cap'n, yessuh. Would you mind tyin' Lily on de front vegetable ob de car till I gits back?" Twelve minutes later, carrying in his hand a box of cigars, the Wildcat's second entrance was blocked by a ticket chopper who had a square jaw and a sense of duty. "Where's your ticket?" "Ain't got no ticket. I's de poteh wid de Mysterious Mecca gen'men. Le' me by." "Don't try to pull none o' that stuff around me." "Man, leave me by!" Armed with the conviction of authority and clad in a parade-leading Prince Albert whose brass buttons reassured him, the Wildcat violated one of the first principles of his life, which was never to oppose a white man. He slid past the ticket chopper, ducked into the gate, and boarded the train wherein rolled the Mazeppa. He caught a tourist Pullman three cars apart from the rolling residence of the Mysterious Mecca delegation and landed breathless in the open vestibule. "Fust thing old Backslid, what learned me de po'teh bizness, said to do was to close up de vegetable."