"Well, be careful," warned Jack. "This is no place for such jokes as you used to play on Pompey."
"Oh, nothing like that," Noddy a.s.sured him as he hurried off.
"Just the same I"m afraid of Noddy when he starts getting humorous,"
thought Jack.
He would have been still more afraid if he could have seen Noddy make his way to the hotel kitchen and bribe a kitchen maid to get him three large sugar cakes. Then he made his way to the dining-room, and boring tiny holes in the buns filled each of them with red pepper from the casters.
"Now for some fun," he chuckled.
"I just know that boy is up to some mischief by the look on his face,"
remarked an old lady as he hurried by.
Quite a big crowd was round the Italian when Noddy got back. Almost as soon as he arrived the man began pa.s.sing the hat, and taking advantage of this, Noddy proffered his buns to the animals. They accepted them greedily.
"Peep! Peep!" chattered the monkeys.
"You mean "pep," "pep"," chuckled Noddy to himself.
Both bear and monkeys tore into their buns as if they were half starved.
In their hunger they got a few mouthfuls down without appearing to notice that anything was wrong. Then suddenly one of the monkeys hurled his bun at the bear and the other leaped on the big hairy creature"s head. Apparently they thought the innocent bear had something to do with the trick that had been played on them.
"Da monk! da monk!" howled the Italian, "da monk go a da craz"."
"He says they are mad," exclaimed an old gentleman, and hurried away.
Just as he did so, the bear discovered something was wrong. He set up a roar of rage and broke loose from his keeper. The monkeys leaped away from the angry beast and sought refuge. One jumped on the head of an elderly damsel who was very much excited. The other made a dive for a fashionably dressed youth who was none other than Donald Judson.
"Help!" screamed the old maid. "Help! Will no one help me?"
"I will, madam," volunteered an old gentleman, coming forward. He seized the monkey and tugged at its hind legs, but it only clung the tighter to the elderly damsel"s hair.
Suddenly there came a piercing scream.
"Gracious, her hair"s come off!" cried a woman.
"She"s been scalped, poor creature!" declared another.
"Oh, you wretch, how dare you!" shrieked the monkey"s victim, rushing at the gallant old gentleman. She raised her parasol and brought it down on his head with a resounding crack. In the meantime the Italian was howling to "Garibaldi," as he called the monkey, to come to him.
But this the monkey had no intention of doing. Clutching the old maid"s wig in its hands, it leaped away in bounds and joined its brother on the person of Donald Judson.
"Ouch, take them off. They"ll bite me!" Donald was yelling.
The monkeys tore off his straw hat with its fancy ribbon and tore it to bits and flung them in the faces of the crowd. Then, suddenly, they both darted swiftly off and climbed a tree, where they sat chattering.
It was at that moment that the confused throng recollected the bear, which had not remained in the vicinity but had gone charging off across the lawn looking for water to drown the burning sensation within him.
Now, however, an angry roar reminded them of him. The beast was coming back across the lawn, roaring and showing his teeth.
"Look out for the bear!"
"Get a gun, quick."
"Oh, he"ll hug me," this last from the old maid, were some of the cries which the crowd sent up.
"He"s mad, shoot him!" cried somebody. The Italian set up a howl of protest.
"No, no, no shoota heem. Mika da gooda da bear. No shoota heem."
"If you don"t want him shot, catch him and get out of here. You"ll have my hotel turned into a sanitarium for nervous wrecks the first thing you know," cried the proprietor of the place.
"Somebody playa da treeck," protested the Italian. "Mika da nica da bear, da gooda da bear."
"I guess he"s like an Indian, only good when he"s dead," said the hotel man. "I"m off to get my gun."
Noddy watched the results of his joke with mixed feelings. He had not meant it to go as far as this. He looked about him apprehensively, but everybody was too frightened to notice him.
Suddenly the bear headed straight for Noddy. Perhaps his red head was a shining mark or perhaps the creature recollected the prank-playing youth as the one who had given him the peppered bun. At any rate he charged straight after the lad, who fled for his life.
"Help!" he called as he ran. "Help, help!"
"Noddy"s getting a dose of his own medicine," cried Jack to Billy.
"But we don"t want to let the bear get him," protested Billy.
"Of course not, but he"ll beat the bear into the hotel, see if he doesn"t."
The hotel front door was evidently Noddy"s objective point. It appeared he would reach it first, but suddenly he tripped on a croquet hoop and went sprawling. He was up in a minute, but the bear had gained on him.
As he rushed up the steps it was only a few inches behind him.
Noddy gave a wild yell and took the steps in three jumps. The next second he was at the door and swinging it shut with all his might. But just then an astonishing thing happened.
Just as Noddy swung the door shut the bear made a leap. The result surprised Noddy as much as Bruin.
The edge of the door caught the big creature"s neck and held him as fast as if he had been caught in a dead-fall. He was gripped as in a vise between the door and the frame. But poor Noddy was in the position of the man who caught the wild cat.
He didn"t know how to let go!
CHAPTER IX.
NODDY AND THE BEAR.
"I"ve got him!" yelled Noddy. "Help me, somebody!"
"Goodness, Noddy"s caught the bear," cried Jack, as he and Billy streaked across the lawn, followed by the less timid of the guests.