"They certainly deserve it, abducting a nice little gentleman like Mr. Winterberry," said Mrs. Garthwaite. "They do, indeed," said Philo Gubb, "and they shall be. I would only ask how far you want me to arrest. If the manager of the side-show stole him, my natural and professional deteckative instincts would tell me to arrest the manager; and if the whole side-show stole him I would make bold to arrest the whole side-show; but if the whole circus stole him, am I to arrest the whole circus, and if so ought I to include the menagerie? Ought I to arrest the elephants and the camels?" "Arrest only those in human form," said Mrs. Garthwaite. Philo Gubb sat straight and put his hands on his knees. "In referring to human form, ma'am," he asked, "do you include them oorangootangs and apes?" "I do," said Mrs. Garthwaite. "Association with criminals has probably inclined their poor minds to criminality." "Yes, ma'am," said Philo Gubb, rising. "I leave on this case by the first train." Mr. Gubb hastily packed the Tasmanian garment and six other disguises in a suitcase, put the fourteen dollars given him by Mrs. Garthwaite in his pocket, and hurried to catch the train for Bardville, where the World's Monster Combined Shows were to show the next day. With true detective caution Philo Gubb disguised even this simple act. Having packed his suitcase, Mr. Gubb wrapped it carefully in manila paper and inserted a laundry ticket under the twine. Thus, any one seeing him might well suppose he was returning from the laundry and not going to Bardville. To make this seem the more likely, he donned his Chinese disguise, Number Seventeen, consisting of a pink, skull-like wig with a long pigtail, a blue jumper, and a yellow complexion. Mr. Gubb rubbed his face with crude ochre powder, and his complexion was a little high, being more the hue of a pumpkin than the true Oriental skin tint. Those he met on his way to the station imagined he was in the last stages of yellow fever, and fled from him hastily. He reached the station just as the train's wheels began to move; and he was springing up the steps onto the platform of the last car when a hand grasped his arm. He turned his head and saw that the man grasping him was Jonas Medderbrook, one of Riverbank's wealthiest men. "Gubb! I want you!" shouted Mr. Medderbrook energetically, but Philo Gubb shook off the detaining arm. "Me no savvy Melican talkee," he jabbered, bunting Mr. Medderbrook off the car step. Bright and early next morning, Philo Gubb gave himself a healthy coat of tan, with rather high color on his cheek-bones. From his collection of beards and mustaches--carefully tagged from "Number One" to "Number Eighteen" in harmony with the types of disguise mentioned in the twelve lessons of the Rising Sun Detective Agency's Correspondence School of Detecting--he selected mustache Number Eight and inserted the spring wires in his nostrils.