He rose up in his stirrups and roared:
"Where does Doctor Caspar Arnery live?"
He was pulling at the reins.
He wore a pair of coarse leather gloves with flaring cuffs.
His question hit an old woman like a bolt of lightning. She waved her hand frantically in various directions.
"Where does he live?!" the captain repeated.
Now his voice sounded as if it could knock out not one but every tooth in a person's mouth.
"Here I am.
Who wants to see me?"
The crowd parted.
Doctor Caspar approached the carriage with small steps.
"Are you Doctor Caspar Arnery?"
"I am."
The door of the carriage opened.
"Get in!
You'll be taken to your house and told what to do."
A footman jumped off the backboard and gave the doctor a hand in.
The carriage door banged shut behind him.
The procession started off, raising a cloud of dust.
In another moment they had all disappeared round a corner.
Neither Captain Bonaventura nor his men noticed Tibul the Acrobat in the rear of the crowd.
And even if they had seen the Negro, they would not have recognised him to be the man they had been hunting for the night before.
It seemed all danger had passed.
But then there was a sound of loud hissing.
It was Lapitup the Strong Man, who had poked his head round the partition and was hissing:
''Wait! You just wait!" and he shook his tremendous fist at Tibul. "I'll catch up with the Guards and tell them you're here!"
And he tried to squeeze through an opening in the partition.
But it couldn't resist the weight of his huge pink body.
With a loud crash it collapsed.
The strong man freed his leg from a crack in the partition and pushing people out of his way, he raced off after the carriage.
"Stop!" he screamed, waving his thick arms frantically. "Stop!
I've found Tibul the Acrobat!
He's here!
I've got him!"
Things were beginning to look bad.
Then the Spaniard with the rolling eye joined in.
He had a pistol stuck in his belt and was waving another.
He pranced up and down the stage, shouting:
"Ladies and Gentlemen!
We must hand Tibul over to the Guards, or we'll get into a lot of trouble!
Listen, we can't go against the Three Fat Men!"
He was joined by the owner of the booth.
"He ruined my show!
He chased Lapitup the Strong Man away!
I don't want the Three Fat Men to be angry at me!"
The crowd closed in around Tibul to protect him.
The strong man couldn't catch up with the carriage.
He came back to the square.
He was coming full tilt towards Tibul.
The Spaniard hopped down off the stage and pulled his other pistol from his belt.