For a moment or two Dutchy failed to realise the situation, and then, roaring like a bull, and swinging a bottle of stone gin, he went at the Professor.
The bottle took Thunder in the back of the head.

It ought to have killed him, but it didn't--it merely stretched him on the road unconscious.

When he recovered he was on a couch in the hotel, with his head wrapped in a tablecloth, and day was breaking.

No body knew what had become of Dutchy and the Missing Link, and the Professor returned to the tent, with a soul seething bitterness.

He found Nickie in his cage, sleeping soundly, and alongside him on the straw lay the bulky form of Schmitz, the publican, in whose hand was still clutched a bottle of stone gin.