A charge led by an elephant was not in the martial calculations of the Viennese.  They broke and fled incontinently.

Perhaps Colonel Gideon Ward would have fled also, but the crowd that had gathered to watch the results of the hose-play was banked closely in the street.

“Make way!” bellowed Foreman Look.  “There’s only one man I want, and I’m goin’ to have him.  Keep out of my road and you won’t get hurt.  Now, Colonel Gideon Ward,” he shouted, from his grotesque mount, as that gentleman, held at bay partly by his pride and partly by the populace, came face to face with him, “I’ve been in the circus business long enough to know a fake when I see one.  You’ve been caught at it.  Own up!”

The Colonel snorted indignantly and scornfully.

“You don’t own up, then?” queried Hiram.

“I’ll give you five minutes to stop circusin’ and get your tub astraddle that reservoir,” snapped the referee.

“It occurs to me,” went on Hiram, “that you can spit farther if you’re up a tree.  We want you to do your best when you spit for us.”

Colonel Ward blinked without appearing to understand.

But the foreman of the Smyrna Ancients immediately made it evident that he had evolved a peculiar method of dealing with the case in hand.  He drove Imogene straight at the goggling referee.

“Up that tree!” roared Hiram.  “She’ll kill you if you don’t.”

Indeed, the elephant was brandishing her trunk in a ferocious manner.  A ladder was leaning against a near-by elm, and Colonel Ward, almost under the trudging feet of the huge beast, tossed dignity to the winds.  He ran up the ladder, and Imogene, responding to a cuff on her head, promptly dragged it away from the tree.

“Only three minutes left to get Hecla into position,” Hiram shouted.  “Referee says so.  Lively with her!”

Around and around in a circle he kept Imogene shambling, driving the crowd back from the tree.  The unhappy Colonel was marooned there in solitary state.

At first the Vienna company showed a hesitating inclination to interfere with the placing of Hecla, suspecting something untoward in the astonishing elevation of the referee.  But even Uncle Trufant was slow to assume the responsibility of interfering with a company’s right of contest.

The Ancients located their engine, coupled the hose, and ran it out with alacrity.

“Colonel Ward,” shouted Hiram, “you’ve tried to do it, but you can’t.  If it’s got to be dog eat dog, and no gents need apply at a firemen’s muster, then here’s where we have our part of the lunch.  Did you measure in twenty extry feet up to your spit mark?  Speak up!  A quick answer turneth away the hose!”

By this time the crew was gently working the brakes of old Hecla.  The hose quivered, and the four men at the nozzle felt it twitching as the water pressed at the closed valve.  They were grinning, for now they realized the nature of their foreman’s mode of persuasion.