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| Uh-oh; kitten has a WHIP. |
Elkins does not take kindly to Speed's rifling through his garbage for wire.
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| My interpretation of this panel is that Speed is warping space-time to prevent the whip from hitting him while simultaneously punching Elkins in the Animal Crotch. It's a real flex. |
Speed decides NOT to kill Elkins on the spot even though as a Detective Inspector Ace Investigator, he has every right to, of course.
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| Speed Fact: Speed himself is immune to trial by jury because he has no peers! |
Elkins is more prepared for immediate retaliation than you would expect from a man who had to steal two mammoth tusks from a museum to eliminate a rival.
But, say, isn't that Joe Samson The Circus Strongman, recognizable by his blue jodhpurs?
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| Not often you see someone save SPEED SAUNDERS, particularly someone whom Speed recently knocked on his patootie. |
Speed decides to arrest everyone in the immediate vicinity, for the sake of thoroughness.
Wow, Joe was being manipulated by the murderer into cooperating by threat of exposing previous financial crime? Are we quite sure "Fred Guardineer" wasn't just an Agatha Christie nom de plume?
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| They were NEVER seen TOGETHER, you know. |
And now: the Speedsplanation.
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| The Face of Judgement looks pretty darned sexy with whip marks. |
So... Elkins made Jumbo wear... silencers? Or tusk condoms, however you want to coin it. Instead of just... WASHING THE ELEPHANT'S tusks? Is it harder to wash an elephant's trunks than to unhook and dispose of bloodied mammoth tusks? Is Elkins simply too effete to wash the elephant's tusks, for fear of getting Bushland Bill's Gore And Blood-splash on his jodhpurs? As always, the Speedsplanation leaves me speechless.
Note that Rosita (did we ever even find out what she DID at the circus?) was dismissed from the plot as soon as she, having converted from an obstacle into a Useful Female Informant, conveyed the necessary background information ("Elkins The Animal Man was jealous of Bushland Bill Mercer, and possibly also of Bushland Bill's Hair And Mustache!"). I don't think that's her in the hat in the background because she's wearing a different outfit. I think that's just a random Observer of Justice or perhaps the character who will prompt Speed's next adventure. I can easily imagine that all of Speed's adventures can secretly be laid end-to-end in one big never-ending saga of dispensing judgement.
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| Just like the adventures of McBain or Kenneth Branagh's Hercule Poirot. |
