“Jove! there he is, sure enough, and riding a camel too. What is come over Samson Cereal, the sedate king of the wheat pit? I am amazed!” declares the Canadian. “My dear fellow, you should be surprised at nothing here. I tell you it’s in the air. Haven’t I seen one of the most learned professors of Yale perched on the hump of a camel, grinning from ear to ear; while his companion, a preacher whose name is a household word from the Atlantic to the Pacific, whose sermons are weekly printed wherever the English language is spoken, trotted up and down this street on a diminutive donkey, his feet scraping the ground. I’d have given something for a snap-shot camera at that time. Look at our friend--he’s enjoying the lark as much as would a schoolboy.” “Very true, and under ordinary circumstances I can see how this might be; but to-night he is to face a crisis in his affairs, and carry out his own scheme for defeating Aroun Scutari.” “Just so, Aleck, and give him credit for appearing quite natural. His friends are here to take in the Street, and as a Chicagoan Samson has to join them in the frolic. Here they come up the aisle again. Did you ever see such a sight as when the camel runs, jolting them out of breath. It’s an hilarious old time the boys have in this place. Everybody grows young again.” “Let us descend. The time for action draws near.” “How about weapons?” asks Wycherley. “I have none save what nature gave me, and in times past have been taught to depend upon them in emergencies. I reckon I shall be able to render a good account of myself when the crisis comes. How about you, Claude?” “I’m a Western man, you know, and in my peregrinations I’ve learned to know the value of a cold deck. Trust a tramp for that. Besides, I’ve been in Texas in my time. They’ve got odd ideas down there. You can’t trust to appearances. I saw a man arrested once, the most innocent looking party imaginable, as meek as Moses, and at sight I’d swear he was an itinerant circuit rider, a 'saddlebags,’ as we call ’em; yet when they came to search him they found seven packs of cards on his person, and enough revolvers and bowie knives to fit out a whole regiment of Rangers. So you see when a fellow’s spent some time among such scenes, he naturally imbibes the same ideas.” “But I never knew you to go armed before.” “My dear man, that was because I had nothing to lose; in all probability my curiosities were in hock. Now that I’m a respectable member of society again, with silver jingling in my pocket, I stand a chance of being robbed. Someone may envy me this fine suit of clothes. One of my first acts was to redeem an old pet of mine--and here you are.” With that he unbuttons his loose sack coat. As he throws it open Aleck stares. A belt encircles Wycherley’s waist, and fastened in this is a revolver. Aleck is not a man of war, but at the same time something of a sportsman, and familiar with firearms.