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+Project Gutenberg Etext of The Circus Boys On the Mississippi, Or
+Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River,  by Edgar B. P. Darlington
+
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+The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
+Or
+Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River
+
+by Edgar B. P. Darlington
+
+January, 2001  [Etext #2477]
+
+
+***Project Gutenberg Etext: The Circus Boys On the Mississippi, Or***
+Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River,  by Edgar B. P. Darlington
+*******This file should be named 2477.txt or 2477.zip*******
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+
+The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
+Or
+Afloat with the Big Show on the Big River
+
+By EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I      MAKING A LIVELY START
+II     JANUARY LENDS A FOOT
+III    A DAY OF MEMORIES
+IV     THEIR CURIOSITY AROUSED
+V      THE CIRCUS BOYS' SURPRISE
+VI     A BOLT FROM THE CLOUDS
+VII    IN NEW QUARTERS
+VIII   JANUARY ON THE RAMPAGE
+IX     PHIL FORREST TO THE RESCUE
+X      ALL ABOARD FOR THE GULF!
+XI     EGG, EGG, WHO'S GOT THE EGG?
+XII    TRYING OUT A NEW ACT
+XIII   A NARROW ESCAPE
+XIV    THE PILOT GETS A SURPRISE
+XV     AN UNWELCOME VISITOR
+XVI    BETRAYED BY A SNEEZE
+XVII   EAVESDROPPERS!
+XVIII  MAKING A CAPTURE
+XIX    TEDDY JOINS THE BAND
+XX     A CAPTURE IN THE AIR
+XXI    A CIRCUS BOY MISSING
+XXII   OVERBOARD INTO THE RIVER
+XXIII  THE ROMAN CHARIOT RACES
+XXIV   CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+The Circus Boys on the Mississippi
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MAKING A LIVELY START
+
+"Have you had any trouble with Diaz, Teddy?"
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"The new Spanish clown."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+Teddy Tucker's face grew serious.
+
+"What about him, Phil?"
+
+"That is what I am asking you.  Have you had any
+misunderstanding--angry words or anything of the sort with him?"
+persisted Phil Forrest, with a keen, inquiring glance into the
+face of his companion.
+
+"Well, maybe," admitted the Circus Boy, with evident reluctance.
+"What made you think I had?"
+
+"From the way he looked at you when you were standing in the
+paddock this afternoon, waiting for your cue to go on."
+
+"Huh!  How did he look at me?"
+
+"As if he had a grudge against you.  There was an expression in
+his eyes that said more plainly than words, 'I'll get even with
+you yet, young man, you see if I do not.'"
+
+"Wonderful!" breathed Teddy.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You must be a mind reader, Phil Forrest," grumbled Teddy,
+digging his heel into the soft turf of the circus lot.  "Can you
+read my mind?  If you can, what am I thinking about now?"
+
+"You are thinking," answered Phil slowly, "that you will make me
+forget the question I asked you just now.  You are thinking you
+would rather not answer my question."
+
+Teddy opened his eyes a little wider.
+
+"You ought to go into the business."
+
+"What business?"
+
+"Reading people's minds, at so much per read."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"I wish you'd read the mind of that donkey of mine, and find
+out what he's got up his sleeve, or rather his hoofs, for me
+this evening."
+
+"Do you know of what else you are thinking?"
+
+"Of course I do.  Think I don't know what I am thinking about?
+Well!  What am I thinking about?"
+
+"At the present moment you are thinking that you will do to Diaz
+what he hopes to do to you some of these days--get even with him
+for some fancied wrong.  Am I right?"
+
+"I'll hand him a good stiff punch, one of these fine spring
+mornings, that's what I'll do," growled Tucker, his face
+flushing angrily.
+
+"Teddy Tucker, listen to me!"
+
+"I'm listening."
+
+"You will do nothing of the sort."
+
+"I won't?"
+
+"No."
+
+"You just wait and see."
+
+"Since we started out on our fourth season with the Sparling
+Combined Shows this spring, you have behaved yourself
+remarkably well.  I know it must have pained you to do so.
+I give you full credit, but don't spoil it all now, please."
+
+"Spoil it?"
+
+"Yes.  You must remember that this is now a Big show--larger this
+season than ever before, and you must not expect Mr. Sparling to
+excuse your shortcomings as he did in the old days."
+
+"I'm not afraid of Boss Sparling."
+
+"You have no occasion to be, as long as you do your duty and
+attend to business.  We owe him a heavy debt of gratitude,
+both of us.  You know that, don't you, Teddy?"
+
+"I--I guess so."
+
+"What is the trouble between you and Diaz?" persisted
+Phil Forrest, returning to his original inquiry.
+
+"Well," drawled Teddy, "you know their act?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Throwing those peaked hats clear across the arena and catching
+the hats on their heads, just like a couple of monkeys."
+
+"I didn't know monkeys ever did that," smiled Phil.
+
+"Well, maybe they don't.  The trained seals do, anyhow."
+
+Phil nodded.
+
+"They--the Spaniards--were doing that the other day when I was
+going out after my clown act.  I had picked up the ringmaster's
+whip, and as one of the hats went sailing over my head I just
+took a shot at it."
+
+"Took a shot at it?"
+
+"Yes.  I fired at it on the wing, as it were.  Don't you
+understand?" demanded the lad somewhat impatiently.
+
+Phil shook his head.
+
+"I hit it a crack with the ringmaster's whip and I hit the mark
+the first shot.  Down came the hat and it caught me on the nose."
+
+"Then what did you do?"
+
+"Knocked it on the ground, then kicked it out of the ring,"
+grinned Teddy.
+
+"Of course you spoiled their act," commented Phil.
+
+"I--I guess I did."
+
+"That was an ungentlemanly thing to do, to say the least.
+It is lucky for you that Mr. Sparling did not happen to see you.
+Do you know what would have happened to you if he had?"
+
+"He would have fined me, I suppose."
+
+"No.  You would have closed right there.  He would have had you
+sent back home by the first train if he had seen you do a thing
+like that."
+
+"I don't care.  I can get a job with the Yankee Robinson show any
+time, now."
+
+"Not if you were to be discharged from this outfit for
+bad conduct.  I don't wonder Diaz is angry.  Did he say
+anything to you at the time?"
+
+Teddy nodded.
+
+"What did he say?"
+
+"I didn't understand all he said.  Some of it was in Spanish,
+but what I did understand was enough," grinned the boy.
+
+"Strong language, eh?"
+
+"Phil, he can beat the boss canvasman in that line."
+
+"I am surprised, Teddy Tucker."
+
+"So was I."
+
+"I don't mean that.  I am surprised that you should so far forget
+yourself as to do such a thing.  I don't blame Diaz for being
+angry, and I warn you that you had better look out for him.
+Some of those foreigners have very violent tempers."
+
+"Well, he didn't tell the boss, at any rate."
+
+"No.  Perhaps in the long run it might have been better for you
+if he had.  Diaz is awaiting his opportunity to get even with you
+in his own way.  Look out for him, Teddy."
+
+"He had better look out for me."
+
+"Don't irritate him.  Were I in your place I should go to the
+clown and apologize.  Tell him it was a thoughtless act on your
+part and that you are sorry you did it--"
+
+"I won't."
+
+"As you please, but that is what I would do."
+
+"You--you would do that?"
+
+"I certainly would."
+
+"And let him give you the laugh?"
+
+"That would make no difference to me.  I should be doing what is
+right, and that would be satisfaction enough, no matter what he
+said or did after that."
+
+Teddy reflected for a moment.
+
+"Well, maybe that would be a good idea.  And if he won't accept
+my apology, what then--shall I hand him a--"
+
+"Smile and leave him.  You will have done the best you could to
+make amends."
+
+"All right, I'll apologize," nodded the Circus Boy.  "I'll shed a
+tear or two to show him how sorry I am.  Want to see me do it?"
+
+"I should say not.  You will do it better provided I am not
+looking on, but for goodness' sake don't make a mess of the
+whole business.  It would be too bad to make an enemy of one of
+your associates so early in the season.  Think how uncomfortable
+it would be for you all through the summer.  He has not been
+with us long enough to become used to your practical jokes.
+Perhaps after he gets better acquainted with you, he may not
+mind your peculiar ways so much," added Phil, with a
+short laugh.  "Now run along and be good."
+
+Teddy turned away and slipped through the paddock opening, in
+front of which the lads had been standing just outside the tent,
+leaving Phil looking after him with a half smile on his face.
+
+The Circus Boys were again on the road with the Great Sparling
+Combined Shows.  This was their fourth season out, and the
+readers will remember them as the same lads who in "THE CIRCUS
+BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS," had made their humble start in the
+circus world.  During that first season both lads had
+distinguished themselves--Phil for his bravery and cool
+headedness, Teddy for getting himself into trouble under all
+circumstances and conditions.  They had quickly risen, however,
+to the grade of real circus performers, the owner of the show
+recognizing in each, the making of a fine performer.
+
+In "THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT," it will be recalled
+how Phil and his companion won new laurels in the sawdust arena,
+and how the former ran down and captured a bad man who had been a
+thorn in the side of the circus itself for many weeks through his
+efforts to avenge a fancied wrong.  By this time the boys had
+become full-fledged circus performers, each playing an important
+part in the performance.
+
+It will be recalled, too, how Phil and Teddy in "THE CIRCUS BOYS
+IN DIXIE LAND," advanced rapidly in their calling; how Phil was
+captured by a rival show, held prisoner on the owner's private
+car, and later was obliged to become a performer in the ring of
+the rival show.  His escape, his long tramp to rejoin his own
+show, followed by the battle of the elephants--will be well
+remembered by all the readers of the previous volumes in
+this series.
+
+During the winter just passed, the lads had been attending the
+high school at Edmeston, where they made their home, working hard
+after school hours to keep themselves in good physical condition
+for the next season's work.
+
+Spring came.  The lads passed their final examinations, and, with
+their diplomas in their pockets, set out one bright May morning
+to join the show which, by this time, had come to be looked upon
+by them as a real home.
+
+They had been on the road less than two weeks now, and were
+looking forward with keen anticipation to their summer under the
+billowing canvas of the Great Sparling Shows.
+
+"I think I _will_ take a peep to see how Teddy is getting
+along with his apology," decided Phil, turning and entering
+the paddock.  Then he stepped quietly into the dressing tent.
+
+He saw Teddy approach the clown, Diaz, who sat on his trunk
+making up his face before a hand mirror.
+
+Teddy halted a few feet from the clown, waiting until the latter
+should have observed him.  The clown glanced up, glowered, and
+slowly placed the mirror on the trunk beside him.  He seemed
+astonished that the boy should have the courage to face him.
+
+Then Teddy, solemn-faced, made his apology.  To Phil Forrest's
+listening ears it was the most amazing apology he ever had
+listened to.
+
+"I'm sorry I made a monkey of you," said Teddy.
+
+"What!" fairly exploded the clown.
+
+"I'm sorry I made a monkey of you," repeated the Circus Boy in a
+slightly louder tone.  "Maybe I wouldn't have done so if I had
+had time to think about it."
+
+"You make apology to me--to me?" questioned Diaz, tapping his own
+chest significantly.
+
+"Yes; to whom did you think I was making an apology--to the hyena
+out under the menagerie top, eh?"
+
+"Bah!"
+
+"I am sorry I made a fool of you, Mr. Diaz."
+
+"Me--fool?"
+
+"Yes, I guess you are about right.  You certainly look the
+part, and--"
+
+Diaz sprang up with a growl of rage, Tucker giving ground a
+little as he observed the anger in the painted face before him.
+Before the lad could raise his hands to protect himself Diaz had
+grasped Teddy and hurled him across the dressing tent, where he
+landed in a pail of water.
+
+He was up in a twinkling.  His face was flushed and his hands
+were clenched.
+
+No sooner had he gotten to his feet than he observed that the
+clown had started for him again.  Teddy squared off, prepared
+for fight.  At that moment, however, there came an interruption
+that turned the attention of the enraged clown in
+another direction.
+
+Phil Forrest quickly stepped between them facing Diaz.
+
+"What are you going to do?" demanded the Circus Boy in a
+quiet voice.
+
+"Do?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I punish the monkey-face--"
+
+"You will, eh?" howled Teddy, starting forward.
+
+Phil thrust his companion aside.
+
+"Go away.  I will see if I can explain to him," cautioned Phil,
+turning to the clown again, just as the latter was making a rush
+at Teddy.
+
+"One moment, Mr. Diaz.  My friend Teddy is not very diplomatic,
+but he means well.  He apologized to you for what he had done,
+did he not?"
+
+"Yes," growled the clown.
+
+"Then why not call it square and--"
+
+"I punish him.  I fix him!" roared Diaz, making a leap for Teddy,
+who had managed to edge up nearer to them.
+
+"You will do nothing of the sort," answered Phil Forrest firmly,
+again stepping between them.
+
+An angry light glowed in the eyes of the clown.  For an instant
+he glared into Phil's steady gray eyes, then all of a sudden
+launched a vicious blow at the boy.
+
+The blow failed to reach the mark.  Phil dodged and stepped back
+a couple of feet.
+
+Another, as swift as the first was sent straight for his head.
+This blow the Circus Boy skillfully parried, but made no effort
+to return.
+
+"Mr. Diaz!  Mr. Diaz!" warned Phil.  "You forget yourself.
+Please don't do anything you will be sorry for afterwards."
+
+"I fix you!" snarled the clown.
+
+"I don't want to hit you, sir, but you may force me to do so."
+
+Phil had no time to warn the fellow further, for the clown
+began to rain blows upon him, though with no great exhibition
+of boxing skill.  Phil could have landed effectively anywhere
+on the clown's body had he chosen to do so.
+
+Instead, the boy slowly gave ground, defending himself cleverly.
+Not one single blow from the powerful fist of Diaz reached him,
+Phil exhibiting the wonderful self-control that was
+characteristic of him.  He even found opportunity to warn Teddy
+to get out of the tent until the tempest had blown over.
+
+Teddy, however, stood with hands thrust in his trousers pockets,
+shoulders hunched forward, glaring at Diaz.
+
+"Don't you get in this now," breathed Phil.  "Keep away!
+Keep away!  I'll--"
+
+At that moment Phil stumbled over a trunk, landing on his head
+and shoulders.  Quick as he was he found himself unable to turn
+over and roll away soon enough to get beyond reach of the
+angry clown.
+
+Diaz hurled himself upon the slender, though athletic figure of
+the Circus Boy, almost knocking the breath out of Phil.
+
+No sooner had he done so than something else happened.  A body
+launched itself through the air.  The body belonged to Tucker.
+Teddy landed with great force on the head and shoulders of the
+enraged clown, flattening the latter down upon Phil with crushing
+weight, and nearly knocking Forrest senseless.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JANUARY LENDS A FOOT
+
+"Stop it!" roared a voice.  "We don't allow 'roughhouse' in the
+dressing tent."
+
+"Yes," added another; "go out on the lot if you want to settle
+your differences."
+
+Mr. Miaco, the head clown, who had been a true friend to the
+boys from the beginning of their circus career, had discovered
+what was going on about the time Teddy decided to mix in in
+the disagreement.  Mr. Miaco sprang up and ran to the
+struggling heap.  Grasping Teddy firmly by the shoulder he
+tossed the lad aside.
+
+"Now, you stay out of this, unless you want a thrashing from me,"
+the head clown warned.
+
+The next to feel the grip of his powerful hand was the clown,
+Diaz, and when Mr. Miaco discovered that the clown had Phil
+Forrest down, he could scarcely restrain himself from severely
+punishing the fellow.  However, Miaco satisfied himself with
+hauling Diaz from his victim with little ceremony.  Then he
+jerked the angry clown to his feet.
+
+"Well, sir, what have you to say for yourself?" demanded Miaco,
+gazing at the other sternly.
+
+"This no business of yours," growled Diaz.
+
+"That remains to be seen.  I'll decide whether it is any of my
+affair or not.  Phil, what does this mean?"
+
+"Just a little matter between ourselves.  Thank you for helping
+me out."
+
+"Did he attack you, Phil?"
+
+"He did, but he no doubt thought he had sufficient provocation.
+Perhaps we should not be too hard on Mr. Diaz."
+
+"Then the best thing to do is to tell Mr. Sparling.  I--"
+
+"Please don't do anything of the sort," begged Phil.  "In the
+first place, Diaz's anger was directed against Teddy, and I had
+to mix myself in their quarrel.  Teddy did something to him a
+few weeks ago that made the clown very angry, and I don't
+blame Diaz."
+
+"Was there any excuse for his pitching into you in this manner?"
+
+"Well," laughed Phil, "perhaps the situation did not demand
+exactly that sort of treatment."
+
+"How did you come to let him get you so easily?"
+
+"I fell over something."
+
+"Oh, that's it?"
+
+"Yes.  I wasn't trying to hit him.  I could have done so easily,
+but I felt that I was in the wrong."
+
+"Humph!" grunted the head clown.  Then he turned to Diaz.
+
+"See here, you fellow!"
+
+"What you want?" demanded Diaz in a surly tone.
+
+"I want to advise you to let those boys alone in the future.
+They have been with this show a long time, and they are highly
+thought of by Mr. Sparling.  Were he to hear what you have done
+tonight I rather think you would pack your trunk and quit
+right here.  I shall not tell him.  Next time I see you doing
+any such thing you will have to answer to me.  I'm the head
+clown here, and I won't stand for one of my men pitching
+on a boy."
+
+Teddy was chuckling to himself over the severe rebuke that Miaco
+was administering to his clown.
+
+"Do you boys intend going on tonight?" Miaco demanded suddenly,
+turning on Teddy.
+
+"Certainly," answered Phil.
+
+"Then I should advise you to be getting into your makeups."
+
+"Why, what time is it?"
+
+"A quarter to eight."
+
+"Whew!  Come on, Teddy."
+
+A few moments more and peace had been restored in the dressing
+tent, though Diaz was muttering to himself as he laid the powder
+over his face, preparatory to his first entry into the ring.
+
+"I am afraid we have not heard the last of Diaz, Teddy,"
+confided Phil to his companion.  "You see what your moment
+of thoughtlessness has brought upon us, don't you?"
+
+"You didn't have to mix in the row.  I could have handled him."
+
+"I am forced to admit that you are right.  I sought to avoid
+trouble and I was the direct cause of a lot of it.  There goes
+the first call.  Hurry up!"
+
+The Circus Boys had, indeed, made an enemy.  It was noticed,
+however, that Manuel, the assistant of Diaz, had taken no part in
+the row.  The young man had calmly proceeded with his making up
+without appearing to take the slightest interest in the affair.
+Whether or not his apparent indifference was merely assumed was
+not known.
+
+The two boys were not performing on the flying rings this season.
+They had retained all their other acts, however, though the star
+act was the flying trapeze, in which Phil Forrest was now one of
+the leading performers.
+
+Teddy rode his donkey, January, took part in the ground tumbling,
+acted as shadow again for the clown Shivers, besides making
+himself generally useful in some of the other acts.
+
+As for Phil's bareback riding, he occupied the center ring in
+this act, as he had done the season before.  He had come to be
+perhaps the most useful man with the Sparling show.
+
+"I advise you to look out for that fellow.  He is a dangerous
+customer," warned Miaco under his breath, as Phil sat down on his
+horse during a rest in the performance.
+
+The Circus Boy nodded his understanding, but appeared little
+disturbed at Miaco's warning.  Like the seasoned circus man that
+he was, he had learned to take things as they came, making the
+best of every situation when he came face to face with it.
+
+Diaz and his assistant were entering the ring as Phil left it.
+They began throwing their hats, winning great applause, for their
+act was a clever one of its kind.  At about the same time, Teddy
+Tucker and January came on, the Circus Boy howling, January
+braying and bucking, beating the air with his heels, for he had
+been taught some entirely new tricks during the winter.
+
+The ringmaster held up his hand for silence.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, January.
+As January is the first month of the year, so is this January
+first in the donkey world.  You will observe how docile and kind
+he appears.  Yet, ladies and gentlemen, the management of this
+show will give a hundred dollars to any person who can stick
+on his back for a full minute--only sixty seconds, ladies
+and gentlemen.  Do you know of any easier or faster way to
+make money?  Six thousand dollars an hour if you stay that long.
+Who will be the first to earn the money?"
+
+It was the first time the announcement had been made from
+the ring.  Mr. Sparling had given his consent, even though
+he had not seen the act.  He had, however, observed Teddy
+engaged in a tussle with the beast that afternoon, and could
+readily understand that what Teddy told him about January's
+contrariness was not overdrawn.
+
+A colored man came down from the audience, and, throwing off his
+coat, announced his intention of riding the mule.
+
+January appeared to have no objection, permitting the colored
+man to get on his back without offering the least opposition.
+To Teddy, who stood in front of the animal, grinning, there was
+a glint in the eye of the mule that spelled trouble for the
+colored man.
+
+Suddenly January reared, then as quickly tipped the other way
+until it appeared to the spectators as if he were standing on
+his head.
+
+The rider suddenly landed on his back in the sawdust.
+
+"The gentleman loses," announced the ringmaster.  "Is there any
+other gentleman in the audience who thinks he can earn one
+hundred dollars a minute--six thousand dollars an hour?"
+
+No one appeared to be anxious to make the attempt.
+
+Manuel, in the meantime, had drawn closer, paying strict
+attention to the words of the ringmaster.
+
+"You give money for riding the burro?" questioned the
+little Spaniard.
+
+"Burro?  This is no Mexican burro, this is a donkey!" sniffed
+Teddy contemptuously.
+
+The ringmaster instantly scented an opportunity to have some fun,
+and at the same time make the audience laugh.  He glanced about
+to see if Mr. Sparling were under the big top, and not seeing
+him, instantly decided to take a long chance.
+
+"Do you think you can ride January, sir?"
+
+"I ride burro."
+
+"Very well, it is your privilege to do so if you can.  Ladies and
+gentlemen, this clown has never before attempted this feat.
+He thinks he can ride the donkey.  If he succeeds he will receive
+the reward offered by the management of the show, just the same
+as you would have done had you performed the feat."
+
+Teddy stroked January's nose, then leaning over, the Circus Boy
+whispered in the animal's ear.
+
+"January," he said, "you've got a solemn duty to perform.
+If you shirk it you are no longer a friend of mine, and you
+get no more candy--understand?  No more candy."
+
+January curled his upper lip ever so little and brayed dismally.
+
+"That's right; I knew you would agree to the sentiment."
+
+"Get away from his head, Master Teddy.  The Spanish clown is
+about to distinguish himself," announced the ringmaster.
+
+Manuel was an agile little fellow.  While the announcement was
+being made he had been taking mental measurement of the beast
+and deciding upon his course of action.
+
+Ere Teddy had stepped back the Spaniard took a running start,
+and, with a leap, landed fairly on the back of the donkey.
+
+The latter, taken by surprise, cleared the ground with all
+four feet and bucked, but the rider had flung his arms about
+the donkey's neck, clinging with both feet to the beast's
+body, grimly determined to win that hundred dollars or die
+in the attempt.
+
+"Go it, January," encouraged Teddy.  "Give it to him!
+Soak him hard!"
+
+January stood on his hind feet, then on his head, as it were,
+but still the Spaniard clung doggedly.
+
+By this time the donkey had begun to get angry.  He had been
+taken an unfair advantage of and he did not like it.  Suddenly he
+launched into a perfect volley of kicks, each kick giving the
+rider such a violent jolt that he was rapidly losing his hold.
+
+"Keep it up!  Keep it up!  You've got him!" exulted the
+Circus Boy.
+
+The audience was howling with delight.
+
+"There he goes!" shrieked Teddy.
+
+Manuel, now as helpless as a ship without a rudder, was being
+buffeted over the back of the plunging animal.
+
+Manuel was yelling in his native language, but if anyone
+understood what he was saying, that one gave no heed.  Teddy, on
+the other hand, was urging January with taunt and prod of the
+ringmaster's whip.
+
+Suddenly the Spanish clown was bounced over the donkey's rump,
+landing on the animal's hocks.  It was January's moment--the
+moment he had been cunningly waiting and planning for.
+The donkey's hoofs shot up into the air with the clown on them.
+The hoofs were quickly drawn back, but the Spanish clown
+continued right on, sailing through the air like a great
+gaudy projectile.
+
+The audience yelled its approval.
+
+Manuel landed with a crash in the midst of the lower
+grandstand seats.  A second later there was a mix-up that
+required the united services of a dozen ring attendants to
+straighten out.
+
+In the meantime, Teddy Tucker was rolling on the ground near the
+center pole, howling with delight, while January, with lowered
+head, was trotting innocently toward the paddock.
+
+The ringmaster's whistle trilled for the next act, and the show
+went on with its characteristic dash and sprightliness.
+
+However, Teddy Tucker's plan to get one of the Spanish
+hat-throwing clowns into trouble had been an entire success.
+He had succeeded, also, in making another bitter enemy for
+the Circus Boys.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A DAY OF MEMORIES
+
+Mr. Sparling, the owner of the show, had been a witness of
+the latter part of Teddy's act.  The showman was standing
+over near the entrance to the menagerie tent when Manuel took
+his unexpected flight, and the proprietor sat down on the
+grass, laughing until the tears started from his eyes.
+
+The act had been a breach of discipline, so Mr. Sparling
+prudently kept himself out of sight until the show had
+progressed further.
+
+Later in the evening he chanced to pass Teddy out in the paddock.
+
+"Well, my lad, how is January working tonight?" he asked, with a
+twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"Never better, sir, thank you."
+
+"I presume he obeys your commands perfectly, eh?"
+
+"Does everything I tell him to, Mr. Sparling.  I can do anything
+with that donkey.  Why, I could wink at him and make him kick
+your head off.  I--"
+
+"I'll take your word for it, young man--I'll take your word
+for it.  Let me warn you to be careful that you do not tell
+him to do anything that will interfere with the programme.
+We must have our acts clean cut, and embodying nothing that
+has not been arranged for in advance.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Teddy, giving the owner a keen,
+inquiring glance.
+
+"I'll bet he saw that," mused the lad.  "He's letting me off
+easy because he had to laugh, just the same as the rest of the
+people did."
+
+"What did Mr. Sparling have to say?" questioned Phil, who had
+emerged from the dressing tent just as Teddy was walking away
+from the showman.
+
+Teddy told him.
+
+"You got off pretty easy, I must say.  It is a wonder he did not
+discipline you for that."
+
+"Do you think he saw Manuel fly?"
+
+"He did, or else someone told him.  Be careful, Teddy!  You are
+laying up trouble for all of us," warned Phil.
+
+"I got even with Mr. Hat Thrower, just the same," grinned Tucker.
+
+Teddy was the happiest boy in the show that night, and he went to
+his sleeping quarters chuckling all the way.
+
+The show, this season, had opened in Chicago, and was now working
+its way across the state of Illinois.  The route had caused
+considerable comment among the show people.  They did not
+understand what the plans of the owner might be.
+
+Ordinarily, give a showman the first week or two of the show's
+route and he will tell you just what parts of the country the
+show will visit during that particular season.  The performers
+were unable to do so in this instance.  Phil Forrest was as much
+perplexed as the others, but he made no mention of this to
+Mr. Sparling.
+
+"He has some surprise up his sleeve, I am sure," decided
+Phil shrewdly.
+
+The next morning Phil asked Mr. Miaco, the head clown,
+if he knew where they were going.
+
+"I do not," answered the clown.  "This route has kept
+me guessing.  Boss Sparling may be headed for Australia
+for all I know.  He's just as likely to go there as
+anywhere else.  Has the Spaniard bothered you since
+that mix-up?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, keep away from him.  That is my advice."
+
+"I shall not bother him.  You may depend upon that, Mr. Miaco.
+I can't say as much for Teddy."
+
+"Teddy put up that job with January last night, didn't he?"
+
+"He hasn't said so."
+
+"Not necessary.  I saw the whole thing.  Lucky for Teddy that
+Mr. Sparling did not happen to be about."
+
+"I am not so sure that he was not."
+
+"What?"
+
+Phil explained what Mr. Sparling had said to Teddy out in
+the paddock.
+
+"Yes, he saw it all right, but I guess he doesn't know about the
+trouble in the dressing tent yesterday."
+
+"No, I think not.  I hope he does not hear of it, either.
+I do not wish Mr. Sparling to think that I am a troublemaker,
+or that I was mixed up in an unseemly row in the dressing tent.
+I should feel very much humiliated were I to be called to
+account for a thing like that.  What are all those flags flying
+for in town today?"
+
+"Don't you know?"
+
+"No, I don't."
+
+"You don't know what day this is?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"This is Decoration Day."
+
+"Oh, that's so."
+
+"We lose all track of days in the show business.  I'll wager you
+do not even know what town we are performing in today," laughed
+the clown.
+
+"I shall have to confess that I do not."
+
+"I thought so.  Of course you know we are in the state
+of Illinois?"
+
+"Yes, I think I have heard something to that effect,"
+grinned Phil.
+
+By the time the boys had eaten their breakfast, and had strolled
+over toward the tents, they found the dressing tents in place and
+the performers busily engaged in unpacking their belongings,
+hanging their costumes on lines stretched across the dressing
+tent, and making such repairs in the costumes as were found to be
+necessary, for a showman must be handy with the needle as well as
+with bar and trapeze.
+
+Phil's trunk was next to that of Diaz.  The Circus Boy did not
+mind this at all, but the clown appeared to feel a continual
+resentment at the fact.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Diaz," greeted the lad, with a sunny smile.
+"Shall we shake hands and be friends?"
+
+Diaz glared at him, but made no reply.  He did not even appear to
+have observed the hand that was extended toward him.
+
+"I am sorry you feel that way about it, sir.  If I was hasty I
+beg you will forgive me," urged Phil.
+
+Diaz turned his back on him.
+
+"Very well, sir," said the Circus Boy, a little proudly and with
+slightly heightened color, "I shall not trouble you again."
+
+Phil turned away and began unpacking his trunk, giving no further
+heed to the sullen clown.
+
+"The Honorable Mr. Diaz says 'nix,'" laughed Teddy, who had been
+an amused witness to the one-sided conversation, the word "nix"
+being the circus man's comprehensive way of saying, "I refuse."
+
+"Don't stir him up, Teddy," warned Phil.
+
+"Say, what's going on over in the women's dressing tent?"
+
+"I did not know that anything out of the ordinary was happening
+there," said Phil.  "Why?"
+
+"I see a lot of folks going in and out."
+
+"Nothing unusual about that, I guess."
+
+"Yes, there is."
+
+"What makes you think so?"
+
+" 'Cause they're carrying flowers in and making a great fuss.
+I'm going over to find out.  Come along?"
+
+"No, thank you.  You had better keep out.  You know you are not
+supposed to go in the other dressing tent."
+
+Teddy was not disturbed by the warning.  He turned and started
+for the women's dressing tent, where he saw several of the other
+performers passing through the entrance.  Phil, who had stepped
+to the door of his own dressing tent, observed the same thing.
+
+"I guess there must be something going on over there.  I shall
+have to find out what it means," he thought.
+
+"May I come in, Mrs. Waite?" called Phil from the entrance.
+
+"Sure.  Come in Phil," smiled the wardrobe woman.
+
+Teddy had not wasted the breath to ask permission to enter, but
+the moment he stepped inside something caught his eyes, causing
+them to open a little wider.
+
+Two trunks had been drawn up in the center; over them was thrown
+an American flag.  At one end a flag on a standard had been
+planted, and on the trunks, flowers and wreaths had been placed.
+
+"What's that thing?" asked Teddy.
+
+"That is my grave, Master Teddy," answered Mrs. Waite in a
+low tone.
+
+"Your grave?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Pshaw!  That's a funny kind of grave.  What's buried there--your
+pet poodle?"
+
+"Teddy!  Teddy!" whispered Phil reprovingly.
+
+"Go 'way.  This is some kind of a joke," growled Teddy.
+
+"It is not a joke, though I do not understand the meaning of it
+just yet.  You say this is your grave, Mrs. Waite?" asked Phil.
+
+"Yes, Phil.  You know my husband was a soldier?"
+
+"No, I did not know that, Mrs. Waite.  Will you tell me all
+about it?"
+
+Phil was deeply interested now.
+
+"My husband was killed at the battle of Gettysburg.  He lies in
+Woodlawn Cemetery.  I am never at home on Decoration Day.  I am
+always on the road with the circus, so I cannot decorate the
+real grave."
+
+"I understand," breathed the Circus Boy.
+
+"Being unable to decorate my husband's real grave, I carry my
+grave with me.  Each Memorial Day morning I prepare my grave
+here in the dressing tent, and decorate it as you see here,
+and all my friends of the circus are very good and thoughtful
+on that occasion."
+
+"How long have you been with the show--how many years have
+you been decorating this little property grave, Mrs. Waite?"
+asked Phil.
+
+"Thirty years, Phil."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"Yes, and it seems no more than two."
+
+"Do you intend remaining with the show much longer--aren't you
+ever going to retire?"
+
+"Yes.  I am going to retire.  I am getting old.  I have laid up
+enough money to keep me for the rest of my life, and I am going
+to take a rest after two years more with this outfit."
+
+"I am afraid you will miss the show," smiled the lad.
+
+"I know I shall.  I shall miss the life, the color, and I shall
+miss my boys and my girls.  I love them all very much."
+
+One after another, the women of the circus had come in to the
+dressing tent, depositing their little floral remembrances on the
+property grave while Mrs. Waite was talking.
+
+Teddy, as soon as he fully comprehended the meaning of the scene,
+had slipped out.  In a little while he returned.  He brought with
+him a bunch of daisies that he had gathered on the circus lot.
+These he had tied with a soiled pink ribbon that he had ripped
+from one of his ring costumes.
+
+Phil saw the daisies, and, noting their significance,
+smiled approvingly.
+
+"Teddy has a heart, after all," was his mental comment.
+
+Teddy Tucker proceeded to the flag-draped grave, gently placed
+his offering upon it, then turned away.
+
+As he did so, he was observed to brush a hand across his eyes as
+if something there were blurring his sight.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THEIR CURIOSITY AROUSED
+
+"Phil, I have an idea that you are wondering where we are bound
+for?" said Mr. Sparling, with a merry twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"I will confess that I have been somewhat curious," smiled
+the boy.  "From the route I could not imagine where you
+were heading."
+
+"You are not the only one who has been guessing.  Our rivals are
+positively nervous over the movements of this show.  They think
+we are going to jump into the Mississippi River, or something of
+the sort--"
+
+"Or float on it," added Phil.
+
+Mr. Sparling eyed him keenly.
+
+They were in the owner's private tent, discussing the business
+of the show itself, as these two did every day of the season, for
+Mr. Sparling had come to place no little reliance on the judgment
+of his young Circus Boy.
+
+"What made you say that, Phil?"
+
+"I had no particular reason.  Perhaps I thought I was saying
+something funny."
+
+"Nothing very funny about that," answered the showman.
+
+"I agree with you."
+
+"I thought perhaps you might ask me where we were routed for
+this season."
+
+"And I thought you would tell me when you wished me to know,"
+answered the boy.
+
+"It was not because I did not wish you to know our route, Phil.
+I rather thought I should like to give you a surprise."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"We are going to surprise the show world at the same time, so you
+see you are not the only one who will be surprised."
+
+"You arouse my curiosity, Mr. Sparling."
+
+"Still you refuse to ask where we are going," replied the
+showman, laughing heartily.  "I have made my arrangements with
+the utmost secrecy because I did not wish any of the opposition
+shows to get a line on my plans.  Not one of them has done so
+thus far.  Tomorrow they will know.  Or at least by the day
+after tomorrow.  I am not going to let you in on my little
+secret today either.  Do you think you can possess your soul
+in patience until then?"
+
+"I think there will be no trouble about that.  If I have
+restrained my curiosity so far I surely can control it
+until tomorrow.  We show at Milledgeville tomorrow, do
+we not?"
+
+"That's what the route card says and I guess the route card
+is right."
+
+"Small town, is it not?"
+
+"Yes, one of the little river towns.  Do you know much about
+the river?"
+
+"Nothing except what I observed when we played the southern
+states last season.  I should like to take a trip down the river,
+and hope I may have an opportunity to do so one of these days."
+
+"You'll have the opportunity, all right."
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I said you would have the opportunity."
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"Perhaps sooner than you think, too.  How is your friend, Tucker,
+getting along?"
+
+"Pretty well, thank you.  I guess he is working better this
+season than he did last.  His acts are much more finished, don't
+you think so?"
+
+"Yes.  I noticed that he nearly finished a clown with one of
+his acts the other night," answered Mr. Sparling dryly, whereat
+both laughed heartily.  "Have you had any trouble, with any of
+the men?"
+
+"Do you mean myself, personally?"
+
+"Either or both of you?"
+
+"Some slight disagreements.  What trouble we have had has been
+due wholly to our own fault," answered Phil manfully.
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"I would rather not say anything about it, if you will permit me
+to remain silent."
+
+"You are a queer boy, Phil."
+
+"So I have been told before," answered the lad, laughing.
+
+"And your friend Teddy is a confounded sight more so.  I'm afraid
+he would have a hard time with most any other show in spite of
+the fact that he is an excellent performer."
+
+"I have told him as much."
+
+"Oh, you have?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"What does he say?"
+
+"He doesn't take my advice very seriously, I am afraid.  Teddy is
+all right at heart, however."
+
+"I agree with you."
+
+Phil then related to Mr. Sparling the incident of the dressing
+tent, when Teddy gathered the daisies to place on the "grave" in
+memory of Mrs. Waite's soldier dead, to all of which the showman
+listened with thoughtful face.  Mr. Sparling rose, walked to the
+door of the tent, then returned and sat down.
+
+"You never knew that I was a soldier, too, did you, Phil?"
+
+"No, sir.  Were you really?"
+
+"Yes.  I fought with the South.  I was a drummer boy in a Georgia
+regiment," said the showman reminiscently.  "Perhaps had I been
+older I might have done differently, but I loved my Sunny South
+and I love it now."
+
+"So do I," added Phil Forrest fervently.
+
+"But the war is over.  It is the show business that concerns us
+most intimately at the present moment.  I want to say that you
+are doing excellent work on the flying trapeze this season."
+
+"Thank you.  I am doing my best."
+
+"You always do.  Whatever you attempt you go at with all the
+force you possess, and that is no slight factor, either.  I have
+been waiting to talk seriously with you for sometime.  You have
+finished your studies, have you not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What are your plans for the future?"
+
+"I have no immediate plans beyond continuing in the
+show business.  I am trying to lay up some money so I
+can go into business some of these days."
+
+"What business?"
+
+"Circus business, of course.  It is the only business I know
+anything about, and I know very little about that, it seems
+to me."
+
+"Let me tell you something, Phil.  Nine-tenths of the men who
+have been in it nearly all their lives know no more about the
+circus business than you do.  Many of them not so much.  You are
+a born showman.  Take my word for it, you have a very brilliant
+career before you.  You spoke, sometime ago, about wishing to go
+to college."
+
+"I should like to go."
+
+"Under the circumstances I would advise against it, though I am a
+thorough believer in the value of an education.  You have a good
+start now.  Were you to go to college you would spend four years
+there and when you finished, you would find that the show world
+had been moving right along just the same.  You would be out of
+it, so to speak.  You would have been standing still so far as
+the circus was concerned, for four full years.  Think it over and
+some of these days we will have another talk."
+
+"What would you advise, Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"I don't advise.  I am simply pointing out the facts for you to
+consider, that's all."
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Sparling.  I already owe you a debt
+of gratitude.  I shall never forget all you have done for
+Teddy and myself, and I am sure Teddy also appreciates it."
+
+"You owe me nothing."
+
+"Oh, yes, I do!  I shall never be able wholly to pay the
+debt, either."
+
+"We will drop that side of the case, my boy.  You will want to
+pack all your things for moving tonight."
+
+"You mean my dressing-room trunk?"
+
+"I mean all your belongings."
+
+Phil looked his surprise.
+
+"I have special reference to your stuff in the sleeper."
+
+"May I ask why, Mr. Sparling."
+
+"Because tonight will be the last night you will spend on the
+sleeping car for sometime, in all probability."
+
+"I don't understand.  Am I to leave the show?"
+
+"Leave the show?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I should say not.  You leave the show?  I would rather lose any
+ten men in it than to have you go away.  I trust you never will
+leave it for any length of time--at least not while I am in
+the business.  No, you are going on a little trip--the show is
+going on a little trip.  That is the surprise I have in store
+for you.  You will know tomorrow morning.  Not another word now,
+Phil Forrest.  Run along and get ready for the performance."
+
+The Circus Boy hurried over to the dressing tent, full of
+curiosity and anticipation of what awaited him on the morrow.
+Strange to say, Phil had not the least idea what the plan of the
+owner of the show might be.
+
+The surprise was to be a complete one.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE CIRCUS BOYS' SURPRISE
+
+"Come, Phil and Teddy.  I want you to take a little walk with
+me," called Mr. Sparling early next morning after they had
+finished their breakfast.
+
+That morning orders had been given in each of the sleeping cars,
+for the performers to pack their belongings, ready to be moved
+from the cars.
+
+The show people could not understand it, and gossip was rife
+among them as to the meaning of the unusual order.
+
+Orders also had been given to the various heads of departments to
+prepare to desert the train, bag and baggage.
+
+"Where are we going?" demanded Teddy suspiciously.
+
+"For a walk.  You need not go along, unless you wish to," added
+the showman.
+
+"Of course I wish to go.  Do you think I want to stay on the lot
+when anything is going on somewhere else, eh?"
+
+"There would be plenty going on, if you remained.  I am
+sure of that," replied Mr. Sparling, with a short laugh.
+"Come along, boys."
+
+Still wondering what it was all about, Phil and Teddy
+walked along with their employer.  They passed on through
+the business street of the town, then turned off sharply,
+heading for the north.  A few moments of this and they
+turned to the left again.
+
+"Hello, there's the river," announced Teddy.
+
+"Yes, that is the river."
+
+"I wish I could take a boat ride."
+
+"You shall have one tonight."
+
+"Good!"
+
+Phil glanced at Mr. Sparling inquiringly.
+
+"Oh, look at that funny boat!" cried Teddy.  "It's yellow.
+I've heard of a yellow dog, but I can't say that I ever heard
+of a yellow boat.  And it has a paddle wheel on behind.
+Well, if that isn't the limit!  Why, there are three of them.
+What are they, Mr. Sparling?"
+
+Phil's eyes already were widening.  He had caught sight of
+something that shed a flood of light on the mystery--the surprise
+that Mr. Sparling had in store for them.  But he was not positive
+enough to commit himself.
+
+A moment more, and he knew he was not wrong.
+
+"Teddy, if you will read the words on the side of that boat
+nearest to us, you will understand, I think."
+
+"T-h-e," spelled Teddy.
+
+"The," finished Phil.
+
+"S-p-a-r-l-i-n-g, Sparling.  C-o-m-b-i-n-e-d Shows.  Well, what
+do you think of _that?_"
+
+"I hardly know what to think, yet," answered Phil Forrest.
+"The Sparling Combined Shows.  Do you mean to say--?"
+
+"I haven't said a word," answered Mr. Sparling, with a merry
+twinkle in his eyes.  "I am waiting for you to say something."
+
+"I--I am afraid I am too much astonished to say much.  Do you
+mean we are going to take to the river?"
+
+"Exactly."
+
+"With the show?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Hooray!"
+
+"What's that?" demanded Teddy.
+
+"Didn't you hear?"
+
+"I heard, but I don't understand.  What's it all about?  What is
+it about those yellow boats over there?"
+
+"The Sparling Circus is going down the Mississippi," Mr. Sparling
+informed him.
+
+"On those things?"
+
+"On those boats."
+
+"Then I think I'll walk.  You don't catch me riding on any
+boat that has to have a wheel on behind to help push it along.
+No, siree, not for mine!"
+
+"But, Teddy, they are fine boats," said Phil.
+
+"They are among the few typical Mississippi River steamers,"
+broke in Mr. Sparling.  "I got them far up the river last winter.
+When I first conceived the plan of sending my show down the
+river, on the river itself, I took a trip out here to look over
+the ground--"
+
+"You mean the water," corrected Teddy innocently.
+
+"A little of both, my boy.  I found that no show since the early
+days of the barnstorming outfits had ever attempted the feat.
+I learned a number of things that made me all the more anxious
+to try it.  The next question was a boat.  I heard of some of
+the old broad-beamed river craft that were out of commission
+up stream.  I found them exactly suited to our requirements, and
+I rented them for the season.  It cost quite a sum to have them
+fixed up, but you will find them just the thing for our work.
+What do you think of the idea?"
+
+"Great!" breathed Phil.  "It fairly takes my breath away."
+
+"When--when do we move in?" asked Teddy Tucker wonderingly.
+
+"We begin moving in this morning.  I have given the
+orders to have the property removed from the trains and
+brought here, now--that is, all that will not be needed
+for today's performances.  Tonight all hands will sleep
+on the boats.  How will you like that, boys?"
+
+"Fine!" answered Phil, with glowing eyes.
+
+"I'll tell you after I try it," added Teddy prudently.
+
+Across the sides of each boat, in big black letters, were the
+words, "The Sparling Combined Shows."  Below this lettering
+appeared the names of the boats.  The "River Queen" was the name
+emblazoned on one, several shades more yellow than the other two.
+
+"I guess we shall have to call her the 'Yellow Peril,'"
+laughed Phil.  "Don't you think that would be an
+appropriate name?"
+
+Mr. Sparling laughed good-naturedly.
+
+The companion boat to the "Queen" was named the "Mary Jane."
+Teddy promptly renamed her the "Fat Marie," in honor of The
+Fattest Woman on Earth, much to the amusement of Phil and
+Mr. Sparling.
+
+The "Nemah" was the third boat of the fleet, a much smaller
+craft than either of the others.  The owner intended to use
+the "Nemah" as the Flying Squadron of the show, the boat that
+went ahead of the main body of the show, bearing the cook
+tent, kitchen equipment and as much other property as could
+be loaded on it.
+
+"Well, Teddy," said Mr. Sparling, "in view of the fact that you
+and Phil have renamed the 'River Queen' and the 'Mary Jane,'
+I suppose you will not be satisfied until you have rechristened
+the 'Nemah.'  What will you call her?"
+
+"'Little Nemo,'" answered the lad promptly.
+
+"You boys beat anything I ever came across in all my circus
+experience," remarked Mr. Sparling.
+
+"Where do we sleep?" asked Phil.
+
+"The cabins are all on the upper decks.  The lower decks will be
+used wholly for the equipment.  I have had all the partitions
+ripped out, down there, and the deck flooring lowered a little
+so that the elephants will have room to stand.  I have also had
+smaller wheels put on all the wagons.  Had I not done so the
+wagons would not have gone in through the openings on the sides."
+
+"What about the tent poles?" asked Phil.  "You never will be able
+to drive a pole wagon on board."
+
+"You have an eye to business, I see.  Have you noticed that the
+center poles are spliced this season?"
+
+"Yes, I did observe that."
+
+"It was for the purpose of easier handling.  The poles will
+all be swung to the upper decks in bundles.  In the morning
+they will be lowered to the wagons, which can be done
+without much difficulty.  All the poles, except those
+belonging to the big top, will go out on the 'Little Nemo,'
+as you have named her.  At first, handling the show will be
+a little awkward, but we shall soon get the hang of it and
+fit into the new arrangement just as if we had been always
+traveling on boats.  Traveling on the water, you see, we
+shall be able to show on both sides of the river all the way
+down, which we could not do were we traveling by train.
+That will give us a long season, short runs overnight and a
+fine outing.  Everybody will be delighted with the change,
+don't you think so?"
+
+"If not, they will be pretty hard to please, I should say,"
+rejoined Phil.  "Why, it will be a regular vacation--all summer!"
+
+"How far do we go?" asked Teddy.
+
+"The length of the river."
+
+"To the Gulf of Mexico?"
+
+"Yes.  New Orleans probably will be our last stand of the season.
+That is, if we do not get wrecked on the big river."
+
+"We can swim out if we do," suggested Teddy.
+
+"I hope nothing of the sort will occur.  I think our new plans
+will make a great hit along the river."
+
+"They cannot help but do so.  We shall have a fine business,
+I know," smiled Phil," and our rivals will be green with envy."
+
+"May we go on board?"
+
+"I hardly think you will have time this morning, Teddy.  You boys
+had better get back to the lot now.  I will let you run the show,
+Phil, as I shall be busy most of the day arranging for the
+transfer to our new quarters.  I chose Saturday for the purpose,
+as it will give us plenty of time.  We probably shall not get
+away from here much before daylight."
+
+"What boat do we berth on?"
+
+"The 'Fat Marie,'" answered the showman, with a laugh.
+"I believe I'll have these new names of yours painted
+on the boats.  They certainly make a hit with me.
+Skip along, now!"
+
+Almost too full of the new plans to talk, the Circus Boys hurried
+back to the circus lot.  Mr. Sparling's surprise had been a
+surprise, indeed.
+
+By the time they reached the lot the news had been circulated
+that the show was to take to the river, and the show people were
+discussing excitedly the new plan.
+
+All was bustle and excitement, and the occupants of the dressing
+tent, who were preparing for the parade, crowded about the boys
+to hear of the new boats.
+
+The Sparling show had never gone along with the snap and
+enthusiasm that it did that afternoon.  The performers were on
+their mettle and the little town was treated to a performance
+such as it had never seen before.
+
+Teddy distinguished himself by landing on his head on the
+somersaulting mat, narrowly escaping breaking his neck, and
+Phil took an unexpected header into the big net during his
+trapeze act, getting a jolt that made his head ache for an
+hour afterwards.  Nothing else of an exciting nature occurred
+during the afternoon performance, but at the evening show the
+circus people were not so fortunate.
+
+At that performance they met with excitement enough to last them
+for a long time.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A BOLT FROM THE CLOUDS
+
+"The old hen has laid an egg!  The old hen has laid an egg!"
+
+The performance was moving merrily on, the gasoline lamps
+shedding a bright glow over the golden haze of the circus tent,
+when a diminutive clown rushed into the arena bearing something
+in his arms.
+
+To the spectators it was just another clownish act, and they
+laughed uproariously.  The circus people, however, realized at
+once that something not down on the bills was taking place, and
+they cast wondering glances at the little clown, who was dancing
+about in high glee.
+
+"Get out of here!" growled the ringmaster angrily.  "What do you
+mean by breaking into the performance in this way.  Out of here,
+I say!"
+
+"The old hen has laid an egg!" repeated the clown, holding aloft
+the object that all might see.
+
+Teddy Tucker, for it was he, cared nothing for the crowds
+occupying the seats.  In fact, it is doubtful that he gave
+any thought to them at all.
+
+"What do you mean?" demanded the ringmaster.
+
+"The ostrich.  Don't you see?"
+
+"The ostrich?"
+
+"Yes, she's laid an egg."
+
+Quick to appreciate the value of the clown's interruption, the
+ringmaster took the great egg that Teddy had brought in, and held
+it aloft.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," he announced, as the band suddenly ceased
+playing, "wonders never cease in the Great Sparling Shows.
+You have been treated to startling feats of skill upon the lofty
+flying swings; you have witnessed desperately dangerous displays
+of unrivaled aerialism, and you are about to observe the
+thundering, furious Roman chariot races three times about
+the arena--"
+
+"Say, what are you trying to get at?" growled Teddy Tucker.
+"Give me back that egg."
+
+"But a sensation greater than all of these is in store for you,
+though you did not know it.  The tallest hen in the world has
+laid an egg for your instruction and amusement--the ostrich has
+immortalized the town of Milledgeville by laying an egg within
+its sacred precincts, and my friend, Teddy Tucker, in discovering
+it, has accomplished an achievement beside which the discovery of
+the north or south pole is a cheap side show."
+
+The audience yelled its approval and appreciation.
+
+"Young man, what do you intend to do with this wonderful and
+rare specimen?"
+
+"What do I intend to do with it?"
+
+"Yes.  Is it your purpose to present it to this beautiful little
+city, to be placed among its other treasures in the city hall?"
+
+"Well, I guess not!"
+
+"What, then?"
+
+"I'm going to eat it.  That's what I'm going to do with it,"
+answered Teddy in a voice loud enough to be heard all over
+the big top.
+
+The people shouted.
+
+"Give me that egg!" demanded the Circus Boy, grabbing the big
+white ball and marching off toward the paddock with it, to the
+accompaniment of the laughter and applause of the audience.
+
+"Now that we have seen this remarkable Easter achievement, the
+performance will proceed," announced the ringmaster, blowing his
+whistle and waving his hand.
+
+The band struck up; the performers, grinning broadly, took up
+their work where they had left off upon the entrance of Teddy
+Tucker with the giant egg.
+
+The incident had served to put both performers and audience in
+high good humor.  Mr. Sparling was not present to witness it.
+He was busy down by the docks, attending to the loading of such
+of the show's equipment as was ready to be packed away for
+shipment on the Sparling fleet.
+
+Perhaps it was just as well for Teddy, that the owner of the show
+was not present, as he might have objected to the Circus Boy's
+interruption of the performance.
+
+Teddy was irrepressible.  He stood in awe of no one except
+the Lady Snake Charmer, and did pretty much as he pleased all
+the time.  Yet, beneath the surface, there was the making of a
+manly man, a resolute, sturdy character of whom great things
+might be expected in the not far distant future.
+
+As the performance proceeded an ominous rumbling was
+suddenly heard.
+
+"I think it is going to storm," Phil confided to his working mate
+on the flying trapeze.
+
+"Sounds that way.  Is that thunder I hear?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Guess it won't amount to much.  Just a spring shower.  You will
+find a lot of them along the river for the next month or so."
+
+"I have always heard that rivers were wet," replied Phil
+humorously, swinging off into space, landing surely and
+gracefully in the arms of the catcher in the trapeze act.
+
+"I think we had better cut the act short."
+
+"Oh, no, let's go on with it," answered Phil.  "I am not afraid
+if you are not."
+
+"Afraid nothing.  I remember still what a narrow escape we had
+last season just before that blow-down, when Wallace, the big
+lion, made his escape.  That was a lively time, wasn't it?"
+
+"Rather," agreed Phil.
+
+The ringmaster motioned to them to bring their act to a close,
+and the band leader, catching the significance of the movement,
+urged his musicians to play louder.  The crash of cymbals and the
+boom of the bass drum and the big horns almost drowned out the
+rumbling of the thunder.
+
+Those up near the dome of the tent, still going through their
+acts, now heard the patter of heavy rain drops on the canvas top.
+The lights throughout the tent flickered a little under the
+draught that sucked in through the openings in the tent and
+the open space at the top of the side walls.
+
+The audience showed signs of restlessness.
+
+"It is only a spring shower, ladies and gentlemen," announced
+the ringmaster.  "You have no cause for alarm.  The hats of the
+ladies are perfectly safe.  This tent is waterproof.  You could
+soak it in the Mississippi without getting a drop of water
+through it.  That's the way the Sparling show looks out for
+its patrons.  Nothing cheap about the Sparling outfit!"
+
+A laugh greeted his remarks.
+
+A blinding flash faded the gasoline lamps to a ghostly flame.
+A few seconds later a crash that shook the earth followed,
+causing the audience to shiver with nervous apprehension.
+
+Teddy had come out and was gazing aloft.  He grinned at Phil,
+noting at the same time that all the lofty performers were
+preparing to come down.
+
+"Hello, fraid-cats up there!" jeered the Circus Boy.
+
+"You get out of here!" snapped the ringmaster.  "What are you
+doing here, anyway?"
+
+"I'm working."
+
+"Yes, I see you working.  Go on about your business and don't
+bother me.  Don't you think I have anything else to do except to
+watch you, in order to prevent your breaking up the performance?"
+
+"You ought to thank me for keeping you busy," chuckled Teddy,
+making a lively jump to get out of the way of the long lash that
+snapped at his heels.
+
+Perhaps there was method in Teddy Tucker's movements.
+He strolled out into the concourse, gazing up at the crowded
+seats, winking and making wry faces at the people, as he moved
+slowly along, causing them to laugh and shout flippant remarks
+at him.
+
+This was exactly what he wanted them to do.  It gave Teddy an
+opportunity to talk back, and many a keen-pointed shaft did he
+hurl at the unwary who had been imprudent enough to try to make
+sport of him.
+
+While this impromptu act was going on the minds of the people
+were so occupied that they forgot all about the storm.
+
+The rain was now beating down on the big top in a deluge, and
+despite the ringmaster's assurance that the canvas would not
+leak, a fine spray was filling the tent like a thin fog, through
+which the lights glowed in pale circles.
+
+"Even the lamps have halos," Teddy informed the people.  "I had
+one once, but the ringmaster borrowed it and forgot to return it.
+But I don't care.  He needs a halo more than I do."
+
+A howl greeted this sally.
+
+Teddy was about to say something else, after the first wave of
+laughter had swept over the audience, but no one heard him speak.
+
+Another flash, more brilliant, more blinding than any that had
+gone before it, lighted up the tent.  The big top seemed suddenly
+to have been filled with fire.  Thin threads of it ran down
+quarter and center pole; circles of it raced about the iron rings
+used in various parts of the tent, then jumped into the rigging,
+running up and down the iron braces and wire ropes used to brace
+the apparatus.
+
+The flash was accompanied by a report that was terrifying.
+At that instant a great ball of fire descended from the damp
+top of the tent, dropping straight toward the concourse.
+Teddy Tucker chanced to be standing just beneath it.  He had
+glanced up when the report came, to see if any damage had
+been done aloft.
+
+"Wow!" breathed Teddy.
+
+Just then the ball burst only a few feet above his head,
+scattering fire in all directions.
+
+Teddy fell flat to the ground.
+
+He was up almost at once.
+
+"I'm all right!  How's the rest of the family?" he howled.
+
+The rest of the family were too much concerned with what was
+taking place in the big top to notice the Circus Boy's humor.
+
+Then Teddy observed that the center pole was split from end
+to end.  The lightning bolt had followed it from its peak to
+the ground.  Several of the side poles had already given way,
+and the lad saw the dome of the tent slowly settling.
+
+"Hitch it!  Anchor it!" he bellowed.
+
+The attendants were too frightened to give heed to his words.
+
+Phil Forrest was coming down a rope, hand under hand, as rapidly
+as he could travel.
+
+"Snub the rope or you'll have the tent down on you!" he shouted.
+
+Teddy darted forward, throwing himself upon the heavy rope that
+held the dome in place.
+
+At that instant the rope on which Phil Forrest was descending
+gave way, and Phil came straight down.
+
+He landed on Teddy Tucker's head and shoulders, knocking Teddy
+flat on the ground, where the little Circus Boy lay still.
+Yet he had, with rare presence of mind, snubbed the heavy rope
+around a tent stake, keeping the free end of the rope in hand,
+and holding desperately to it.
+
+Nor did Teddy release his grip on the rope, now that he had been
+knocked unconscious.  He held it in place, the strands wound
+firmly about his arm, though inch by inch he was slipping toward
+the heavy tent stake.  Phil had received a severe shaking-up,
+but he was on his feet quickly, looking about to see on whom he
+had fallen.
+
+When he discovered that Teddy had been the victim, Phil groaned.
+
+"I'm afraid I have finished him!"
+
+Teddy had now been drawn along by the rope until his head was
+against the tent stake.
+
+"Quick!  Lend a hand here!" shouted Phil.
+
+He wrenched the rope loose from Tucker's hands, taking a twist
+about his own arms and holding on with all his might.
+
+Several ring attendants came to their senses about that time and
+rushed to his assistance.
+
+"Take care of Teddy!" cried Phil.
+
+The ringmaster turned Teddy over and looked into the lad's face.
+At that, Teddy opened his eyes and winked.  The ringmaster jerked
+him to his feet and shook him vigorously.
+
+This restored the boy to his normal condition.
+
+"Hello, folks!" howled Teddy, turning a handspring, falling over
+a ring curbing as he did so.
+
+The people forgot their fear and greeted Teddy with
+wild applause.  The Circus Boy had saved a blow-down
+and perhaps many lives as well.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+IN NEW QUARTERS
+
+Though the center pole had been struck by lightning, repairs
+were soon sufficiently advanced to enable the show to go on
+and complete the performance.  The pole itself was
+practically ruined.
+
+Fortunately, the show had another one, and the wrecked pole was
+left on the lot that night as worthless.
+
+After the Roman races the people stood up in their seats and gave
+three cheers for the boy who had saved many of them from perhaps
+serious injury or death.
+
+Teddy heard the cheer.  He was in his dressing tent changing
+his clothes, having thus far gotten on only his trousers
+and undershirt.
+
+He could not restrain his curiosity, so trotting to the entrance
+he inquired the cause of the commotion.
+
+"They're cheering for you," a canvasman informed him.
+
+"For me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Teddy needed no more.  Without an instant's hesitation he ran out
+into the ring, where he stood smiling, bowing and throwing kisses
+to them.
+
+"Come and see us again!" yelled the Circus Boy.
+
+"We will that!" answered a chorus of voices.
+
+"I'll have the big hen lay another egg for you.  I--"  His voice
+was drowned in the roar of laughter that followed this sally.
+
+Already the attendants were ripping up the seats, loading them
+into the wagons, with a rattle and bang.  Men were shouting,
+horses neighing; here and there an animal uttered a hoarse-voiced
+protest at something, it knew not what.
+
+Circus animals often scent a change, perhaps more quickly than do
+the people about them.
+
+Performers and others, whose duties did not keep them on the lot,
+were hurrying to get to the dock where the circus boats were
+waiting, and where Mr. Sparling was attending to the loading.
+
+Phil and Teddy were in no less haste.  Quickly getting their
+trunks packed, they started off for the river.  The moon had come
+out after the storm and the air was fresh and fragrant, though
+underfoot the evidences of the storm were still present.
+
+"Did I hurt you much when I fell on you tonight, Teddy?"
+
+"Hurt me?"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You knocked the breath out of me.  But don't let a little thing
+like that worry you.  I thought the tent had fallen on me, or at
+least a center pole.  Lucky I was there, wasn't it?"
+
+"It was."
+
+"You might have received a bump that you wouldn't have gotten
+over right away."
+
+"I might have done so."
+
+"I saved your life, didn't I?"
+
+"Perhaps you did.  I had only a few feet to drop, you know.
+I was ready to drop on all fours lightly when you happened
+to get in the way--"
+
+"When I happened to get in the way?"
+
+"Yes.  Didn't you?"
+
+"Well, I like that," growled Teddy indignantly.  "Here I run in
+and save your life, willing to sacrifice my own for you and you
+say when I 'happened to get in the way.'"
+
+Phil laughed heartily.
+
+"Of course, I appreciate your wonderful self-sacrifice.  It was
+very kind of you to get in the way and let me fall on you.
+Nothing like having a soft place to fall, is there, old chap?"
+
+Teddy uttered an unintelligible growl.
+
+"That's right; insult me.  I'm only a clown and--and
+a life-saver--"
+
+"And one of the best fellows a chap could have for his
+friend, eh?  I was only joking, Teddy."
+
+"I accept your apology.  My hand on it," answered
+Teddy condescendingly.  "Next time you can fall
+on the ground or any old place.  I don't care.
+I shan't try to catch you."
+
+"If I remember correctly, you could not very well help yourself
+in this instance.  You did not catch me.  I caught you--caught
+you unawares.  There is Mr. Sparling and there are the boats.
+Don't they look fine, all lighted up inside, their signal lights
+burning on the outside?"
+
+"They look wet to me."
+
+Thin wisps of smoke were curling lazily from the funnels of the
+three boats, for the stokers had not yet started to get up steam.
+Some hours would elapse before the fleet would be ready to begin
+its journey down the big river.
+
+"There goes the 'Little Nemo,'" cried Teddy.
+
+The smaller of the three steamboats moved slowly out into the
+stream, and there came to anchor to await the other boats.
+The "Fat Marie" was already alongside the long dock, but she now
+moved up a little further to make room for her companion boat,
+the "River Queen," which latter Phil had nicknamed the
+"Yellow Peril."
+
+"Let's see, where do we stow our belongings, Phil?"
+
+"On the 'Fat Marie.'"
+
+"If that name don't sink her, nothing will," said Teddy, with a
+broad grin.  "I hope the boat floats better than Fat Marie did
+when she fell in the creek last season.  If not, we're lost.
+Let's go on board and find out where we are going to live."
+
+"After we speak to Mr. Sparling.  Is there anything we can do to
+help you, Mr. Sparling?" asked Phil, stepping up to the owner of
+the show, who, hatless, coatless, his hair looking as if it had
+not been combed in days, was giving orders in sharp, short
+sentences, answering questions and shouting directions almost in
+the same breath.
+
+"Oh, is that you, Phil?"
+
+"It is myself, sir," smiled the lad.  "How are you
+getting along?"
+
+"Much better than I had hoped.  You see the 'Little Nemo' is
+already loaded.  The 'Fat Marie' is well loaded and the 'Queen'
+is taking stuff on board at a two-forty gait."
+
+"I see you haven't driven the bulls on yet," meaning
+the elephants.
+
+The elephants were standing off beyond the docks, huge shadowy
+figures, swaying silently in the faint light, for there was a
+slight haze in the air that even the brilliant moonlight could
+not wholly pierce.
+
+"No; I thought it best to load the bulls and the ring stock
+later on.  The bulls might get frightened with all the unusual
+noises around them.  After they become more used to this method
+of traveling they will be all right."
+
+"What time do we pull out?"
+
+"It will be three o'clock, I think.  Perhaps a little later
+than that."
+
+"You mean earlier," suggested Teddy.
+
+The showman turned on him sharply.
+
+"Why, hello, Teddy.  Really, you are so small that I did not
+see you."
+
+Teddy winced.
+
+"I guess I'm some, even if I am little," protested the
+lad warmly.
+
+"You are right.  You are not only some, but _much._
+What's this I hear about trouble on the lot?  Some of the
+men said they heard there had been an accident, but they
+guessed it didn't amount to much."
+
+"It was not very serious," said Phil.
+
+"Oh, no; nothing of any consequence," jeered Teddy.  "I was
+struck by lightning, that's all."
+
+"What!"
+
+"Hit by balls of fire--and the big hen laid an egg."
+
+"See here, what are you driving at--"
+
+"And crushed, utterly crushed by my best friend, Phil Forrest.
+Now, what do you think of that?"
+
+"Teddy, please hitch your tongue to the roof of your mouth for
+a moment.  Now, Phil, tell me what happened.  I get so dizzy when
+Teddy is talking that I almost imagine I am going to be seasick."
+
+"Pshaw!" growled Teddy.
+
+"We did have a little trouble."
+
+"Tell me about it."
+
+"The storm came up while the aerial acts were on.  We all
+shortened our acts at the direction of the ringmaster, and it
+was well we did so.  We had not all gotten down when a bolt of
+lightning struck the main center pole."
+
+"You don't say!  Here, men, stow those canvas wagons forward!
+You must learn to trim the boat, giving her an even load
+all over!  Did the bolt do any damage?"
+
+"Slivered the pole."
+
+"Wreck it?"
+
+"Yes.  Not worth carrying off the lot."
+
+"What else?"
+
+"Some excitement--"
+
+"Panic?"
+
+"No, but I think there would have been had it not been for my
+friend, Teddy Tucker.  He amused the audience while things were
+happening up above."
+
+"Good for you, Teddy Tucker," said the showman, slapping the
+Circus Boy on the back.
+
+"Ouch!" howled Teddy.
+
+"I was congratulating you, that's all," laughed Mr. Sparling.
+
+"If it is all the same to you, please use a club when you
+congratulate me.  I won't feel it so much."
+
+Phil next went on to relate how Teddy had, by his quickness, made
+fast the rope and probably saved the top from falling in on them,
+and how he, Phil, had fallen on the boy and knocked him out.
+
+Mr. Sparling surveyed the flushed face of Teddy approvingly.
+
+"Thank you, Teddy," he said.  "I'll give you a day off to go
+fishing, sometime, for that."
+
+"I don't want to go fishing."
+
+"Then you are the first showman I ever knew who did not.
+They are simply crazy over fishing.  You'll see every one
+of them hanging over the rails in the early morning trying
+to catch fish."
+
+"I won't.  You'll see me asleep about that time, if you look in
+the right place," answered Teddy very promptly.
+
+"Teddy deserves your praise, Mr. Sparling."
+
+"He does, and he has it.  I will show my appreciation more fully
+when I get all this rush out of the way.  The loss of the center
+pole doesn't amount to much, but the rest does."
+
+"And the hen laid an egg," reiterated Teddy.
+
+"Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you.  The big ostrich hen laid an egg
+this evening."
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"Yes; Teddy found it in the hay behind the concert platform."
+
+The showman's eyes twinkled.
+
+"What were you doing back there?"
+
+"Looking for a place to take a catnap between acts."
+
+Mr. Sparling laughed heartily.
+
+"There's only one Teddy in the whole wide world!"
+
+"I hope not," added the boy quickly.
+
+"Where is the egg--what did you do with it?"
+
+"Got it in my bag here, want to see it?"
+
+He handed the egg to Mr. Sparling who turned it over, glancing at
+it curiously.
+
+"Look out!  You'll drop it!"
+
+"And what are you going to do with it, may I ask?"
+
+"Eat it."
+
+"What, eat up my property?"
+
+"Eggs belongs to the finder, and--"
+
+"You mean eggs _belong_ to the finder," corrected Phil.
+
+"Yes, I guess so.  Any way, so you say it.  I'm going to eat this
+egg, even if it does give me indigestion all the rest of my life.
+How do you cook ostrich eggs?"
+
+"I never cooked any, my boy.  You will have to consult the cook
+on that point.  Perhaps he may consent to cook it for you."
+
+"I'll give you a slice off the white when it's cooked."
+
+"Thank you.  You are welcome to the whole egg.  Better go up and
+locate yourselves, boys."
+
+"What number is our room, Mr. Sparling?" asked Phil.
+
+"Number twenty-four, on the upper deck.  I have given you a nice,
+roomy, light and airy cabin that I think will please you.  It is
+one of the best on the ship and you should be very
+comfortable there."
+
+"I am sure we shall be, and thank you very much," said Phil.
+"Come along, Teddy."
+
+Together they made their way to the boat and through the crowded,
+bustling lower deck, where the big canvas-covered wagons were
+being warped into place, a sort of orderly confusion reigning
+over everything, the scene lighted by lanterns swinging from
+hooks all about the deck.
+
+The lads found their cabin, and after lighting the lamp, uttered
+exclamations of surprise.  Instead of the narrow berths they had
+expected to see, there were white enameled iron bedsteads, a
+washstand with the same neat finish, and several pictures on
+the walls.
+
+The cabin was a large one.  In the center of it stood a table on
+which lay a large portfolio and inscribed in gold letters on the
+outside they read the words, "For the Circus Boys."
+
+The portfolio was filled with writing materials.
+
+"Oh, isn't that fine?" exclaimed Phil.
+
+"Yes, it's a fine egg.  I'm going to have the feast of my life
+when I get it baked--"
+
+"Teddy Tucker!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"What do you think I am talking about?"
+
+"Eggs."
+
+"I am not.  I am talking about this beautiful cabin that
+Mr. Sparling has fixed for us.  Look at it--look at
+this portfolio.  I am afraid you don't appreciate how
+good our employer is to us.  There is an easy chair for
+each of us, too.  Why, we ought to be very happy."
+
+"I am happy.  So would you be if a hen had laid a five pound egg
+for you," retorted Teddy.
+
+"Hopeless, hopeless," groaned Phil.
+
+Teddy, muttering to himself, carefully laid the egg away in his
+trunk, first wrapping it up in an old silk ring shirt, then
+locking the trunk and putting the key in his pocket.
+
+The lad then made a personal and critical examination of the
+room, tried the springs of the bed, nodded approvingly, sat down
+in one of the easy chairs and put his feet on the table.
+
+Phil promptly pushed the feet off.
+
+"Here, what are you doing?"
+
+"This is not the dressing room of a circus, Teddy.  This is
+the living room of a couple of young gentlemen.  Let's not
+forget that.  Let us try to keep our cabin looking nice and
+shipshape, else Mr. Sparling will think we do not appreciate
+his kindness."
+
+"Say, Phil!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do!"
+
+"I am listening."
+
+"We'll have a spread up here all by ourselves, tomorrow night,
+after the show.  We'll eat the egg.  I'll get the cook to boil it
+all day tomorrow--does it take a day to boil an ostrich egg?"
+
+"I should think it might take a month," laughed Phil.  "Yes; I'll
+make a martyr of myself and help you eat the egg.  I shall never
+have any peace until that egg is finally disposed of--"
+
+"What's going on downstairs?" interrupted Teddy.
+
+A commotion was heard out on the dock.  There was the tramping of
+many feet, mingled with loud, angry shouts and sharp commands.
+
+"It sounds to me as if something has been let loose," said Teddy
+Tucker wisely.
+
+Something had been "let loose."
+
+With one accord the Circus Boys sprang up.  Rushing out into the
+corridor they leaped down the after companionway four steps at
+a jump.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+JANUARY ON THE RAMPAGE
+
+"What's the row?  What's the row?" bellowed Teddy, who, bolting
+under a cage and, leaving his hat under the wagon, dashed out to
+the dock, where their vessel was moored.
+
+The two boys saw an object leaping into the air, performing
+strange and grotesque antics.
+
+"It's January!" yelled Teddy.  "Whoa, January!"
+
+But January refused to "whoa." The donkey had objected to going
+aboard the boat.  When the workmen tried to force him, he
+protested vigorously, biting those in front and kicking those
+behind him.
+
+"Teddy, get that fool donkey out of here or I'll throw him in the
+river," bawled the owner of the show.
+
+Perhaps January understood the threat.  At least he started for
+Mr. Sparling, snorting.
+
+The showman ducked under a canvas wagon and climbed up the
+other side of it, giving his orders from the top of the wagon.
+He knew January.  He had had business dealings with the donkey
+on other occasions.
+
+"Get him out of here, I tell you!"
+
+"Drive him in yourself," answered a groom.  "I wouldn't try it
+for a present of the whole confounded show."
+
+Up to this point those who had not left the dock willingly
+January had assisted with his ever ready hoofs, and, by the
+time Teddy reached the scene the donkey had kicked every man off
+and into the street, excepting the owner of the show himself.
+As already related, Mr. Sparling had seen fit to leave in haste
+when January directed his attention to him.
+
+"Whoa, January!" commanded Teddy in a soothing tone.
+
+The donkey, at sound of the Circus Boy's voice, reared and came
+down facing Teddy.
+
+"Come here, you beast.  Don't you know you're going to have a
+ride on the river?  You don't know enough to know when you are
+well off.  Come, Jany, Jany, Jany.  Wow!"
+
+January had responded with a rush.  Teddy stepped aside just in
+time to save himself from being bowled over.  But as the donkey
+ran by him the boy threw both arms about the animal's neck.
+
+Then began the liveliest scrimmage that the spectators had
+ever witnessed.  Kicking and bucking, the donkey raced from
+side to side, varying his performance now and then by making
+a dive toward the crowd, which quickly gave gangway as the
+people sought for safety.
+
+"Whoa, January!  I--I'll break your neck for this, hang you!
+Some other donkey has taught you these tricks.  You never knew
+anything about them way back in Edmeston.  You--"
+
+Bang!
+
+Teddy was slapped against the side of the "Fat Marie."
+
+By this time Tucker's temper was beginning to rise.  His first
+inclination was to hit the donkey on the nose with his free hand,
+but he caught himself in time.  He was too fond of animals, even
+donkeys, to strike one on the head.  It was a rule too, in the
+Sparling shows, that any man who so far forgot himself as to
+strike a horse over the head closed with the show then and there.
+
+Now Teddy thought of a new plan.  He watched his opportunity.
+Suddenly, Teddy put his plan into operation.
+
+It must be remembered that the Circus Boy was strong and agile,
+and that his work in the ring had given him added quickness.
+
+He therefore applied the trick he had thought of; then something
+happened to January.  The donkey struck the planking of the pier
+flat on his back, his feet beating the air viciously.
+
+"Whoa, January!"
+
+Teddy flopped the animal on its side, then calmly sat down on the
+donkey's head.  He had thrown the beast as prettily as ever had a
+wrestler an adversary.
+
+The Circus Boy began mopping the perspiration from his brow.
+
+"Warm, isn't it?" he said, tilting his eyes up to where
+Mr. Sparling had been watching the proceedings from the
+top of a wagon.
+
+"You certainly look the part.  Now, what are you going to do with
+that fool donkey?"
+
+"I'm going to sit on his head until I get ready to get up.
+Then, if somebody will lend me a whip, I'll tan his jacket
+to my own taste."
+
+January uttered a loud bray.
+
+"Well, do something," shouted a canvasman.  "We can't wait all
+night on the gait of that donkey."
+
+"All right; if any of you fellows think you know the inside
+workings of a donkey's mind better than I do, just come and
+lead this angelic creature on board the 'Fat Marie.'"
+
+"No, no; we don't know anything about donkeys," came a chorus
+of voices.  "We don't want to know anything about
+donkeys, either."
+
+"Somebody bring me a bridle, then.  Don't be afraid of him, he
+is as gentle as a lamb.  You wouldn't hurt a fly, would you,
+dear January?"
+
+January elevated both hind feet, narrowly missing the groom who
+had brought the bridle.
+
+After some difficulty the bystanders succeeded in getting the bit
+between his teeth and the bridle over his head.
+
+"Now, take tight hold of the bridle and lead him.  I'll use
+persuasive measures at the other end," directed Teddy.
+
+January fairly hurled himself forward, jerking the groom off his
+feet at once.  But the man hung on stubbornly.
+
+A moment more, and Teddy had fastened a firm grip on January's
+tail, not appearing to be in the least afraid of the flying hoofs
+that were beating a tattoo in the air.
+
+How Teddy did twist that tail!  Finally January, in sheer
+desperation, was forced to give ground.  One leap carried him
+over the gangplank and into the boat.  Once within, there was
+a repetition of the scenes enacted on the dock, except that
+this time it was the groom who was getting the worst of it,
+while Teddy sat on the gangway, howling with delight.
+
+At last the donkey was subdued and led to the place where he was
+to spend the night.  But they had to rope him in to prevent his
+kicking the other stock through the side of the boat.
+
+Fat Marie herself came waddling along about this time, blowing
+like a miniature steam engine.
+
+"Gangway!  Gangway!" shrieked Marie, in a high-pitched,
+shrill voice.
+
+Teddy was nearly crowded off the gangplank.
+
+"See here, where are you going?  Don't you know there's a crazy
+donkey in there?"
+
+"Going to my cabin to seek sweet repose," squeaked Marie.
+
+"What!  Are you going to live on this boat?"
+
+"That's what.  If I can get up to the sky parlor where my
+'boodwah' is.  Come, help me up the stairs; that's a
+good boy, Teddy."
+
+"I helped you once.  That was enough for me.  Say, Marie?"
+
+"What is it, my lad?"
+
+"If the boat should be wrecked in one of the terrible storms
+that sweep this raging river you had better grab the anchor the
+first thing."
+
+"Why grab the anchor?"
+
+"You'll sink quicker," laughed the Circus Boy, darting out to the
+dock and leaning against a wagon wheel.
+
+By this time Mr. Sparling had descended from his haven of safety,
+and began issuing orders again.
+
+"Get the bulls in now.  No more nonsense.  Teddy, you did a good
+job, but it took you a long time to do it."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Do you think anybody else could have done
+it quicker?"
+
+"I know they could not.  Where is Phil?"
+
+"Guess he went back to his cabin after I finished off January.
+Going to load the elephants, did you say?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Aren't you afraid they will sink the boat?"
+
+"Don't bother us now.  You know we did not bother you when you
+were trying to get your livestock in."
+
+"I noticed that you didn't," answered Teddy, humorously, which
+remark brought a shout of laughter from everyone within hearing
+of his voice.
+
+Mr. Kennedy, the elephant-trainer, now ranged his charges in
+line, with Jupiter, the ill-tempered member of the herd, in
+the lead.  He wanted to get Jupiter in ahead, knowing that the
+others would follow willingly enough after him.  Emperor, the
+great beast that had such a warm regard for Phil, was third in
+the line.
+
+"Everybody keep away and don't make a racket or they will
+get nervous.  I expect to have a little trouble with those
+bulls the first time.  After that they will go one board as
+meek as a flock of spring mutton," declared Kennedy.
+Teddy was close at hand.  If there was any prospect of
+trouble or excitement he wanted to be near enough not to
+miss a single feature of it.
+
+Mr. Kennedy gave the command for attention.
+
+Each of the elephants to the rear of Jupiter stretched forth a
+trunk and grasped the tail of the elephant directly in front
+of him.
+
+"Forward, march!"
+
+"Hip!  Hip!" began Teddy.
+
+"That will do, young man," warned Mr. Sparling.
+
+The line moved slowly forward, Jupiter offering no objection to
+going where he was ordered.
+
+Just as he reached the gangplank, however, Jupiter halted.
+
+"Forward!"
+
+The elephant's trunk curled upward and a mighty trumpeting sent
+the villagers scurrying for places of safety.
+
+Mr. Kennedy prodded the elephant with the sharp point of
+his hook.  The act forced Jupiter to place one foot on the
+gang plank, throwing his weight upon the planking to test
+its stability.  He felt it give ever so little beneath his
+feet, and quickly withdrew the foot.
+
+Once more the prod was brought into use.  Jupiter waxed angry.
+With a great cough, he curled his trunk about the heavy
+gangplank, wrenching it free from its resting place.
+
+Raising the planking high above his head he hurled it into
+the river.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," announced Teddy Tucker, in a loud voice,
+"you have witnessed a most satisfying, edifying, gratifying,
+ennobling, superb and sublime spectacular prelude, as our press
+agent would say.  But, if you know what's good for you, you will
+now hasten to the high places, for there's going to be something
+doing around here in about a minute."
+
+Teddy was no false prophet in this instance.
+
+Strutting up to the angry Jupiter the Circus Boy slapped him
+playfully on the trunk.
+
+"You bad boy.  I thought January was the limit, but I have
+changed my mind.  You--"
+
+Suddenly Jupiter's trunk curled about the lad.  The angry
+elephant raised the boy far above his head and hurled him up
+into the air as he had done with the gangway, except that he
+threw Teddy in another direction.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PHIL FORREST TO THE RESCUE
+
+"Catch Teddy!  Catch him!" shouted Mr. Sparling.
+
+"The boy has gone into the river!" cried half a dozen voices
+at once.
+
+"No; the bull threw him toward the boat.  He may have shot right
+on over and into the water or he may still be on the upper deck,"
+answered Mr. Kennedy, as he plied his prod industriously,
+shouting his orders to the other elephants that already were
+showing signs of restlessness.
+
+By this time a boat had been launched from the dock, and half a
+dozen men had gone in search of the lost gangway that was now
+floating slowly down the river some distance away.
+
+"Ahoy, boat!" bellowed Mr. Sparling.  "Row around to the other
+side and see if Tucker is in the river."
+
+At the same time the owner of the show was running toward
+the "Marie."  He plunged into the mass of equipment on
+the lower deck, lost his footing and went rolling under a
+lion's cage.  He was on his feet and bounding up the stairs
+almost in the next second.
+
+Just as he reached the upper deck he met Phil Forrest emerging
+from the cabin, attracted by the uproar.
+
+"What's the matter, sir?"
+
+"Teddy," answered the showman shortly.
+
+"Oh, that boy again!  What is it?"
+
+"Jupiter tossed him."
+
+"Where is he?"
+
+"Maybe in the river.  Help me look for him up here.  They are
+searching for him on the other side of the boat."
+
+Phil started on a run along one side of the deck, Mr. Sparling
+taking the other side.
+
+"Here he is.  Ahoy, boat!  Go and get the gangway.  I have the
+boy here," called Mr. Sparling.
+
+Phil hurried over to where Mr. Sparling was bending over Teddy,
+who lay doubled up against the pilot house.
+
+"Is he hurt?"
+
+"I don't know.  I'll tell you when I get him untangled.  He seems
+to be standing on his head.  Lucky if his neck isn't broken."
+
+"Teddy's neck is too tough to be easily broken.  I think he is
+merely stunned," said Phil.
+
+The showman straightened the Circus Boy out, and Teddy suddenly
+sat up, rubbing his head and neck gingerly.
+
+"Did January kick me?" he demanded wonderingly.
+
+"No; Jupiter threw you up here.  Are you hurt?"
+
+"Hurt?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'm worse than that.  I'm like the carpenter who swallowed a
+tape measure.  I'm dying by inches."
+
+Mr. Sparling uttered an impatient exclamation.
+
+"Take care of him, Phil.  I must get back.  There is trouble
+down there."
+
+The showman hurried away, and Phil saw at once that his companion
+had sustained a severe shock, but nothing of a serious nature.
+
+"You're all right, Teddy.  What is the trouble down there?"
+
+Teddy, still rubbing himself, explained what had happened.
+
+Just then there came a call from below.
+
+"Oh, Phil!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Can you come down here?"
+
+"Of course.  What is it?"
+
+"Mr. Sparling wants you."
+
+"I'll be right there."
+
+The lad, instead of taking the time to go down the companionway,
+swung over the side of the boat and dropped lightly to the wharf.
+Such is the advantage of being a showman.
+
+"Mr. Kennedy is having trouble with the bulls, Phil," explained
+Mr. Sparling.
+
+"Yes; so Teddy told me."
+
+"He thinks you may be able to suggest some way out of
+our difficulty.  Mr. Kennedy has great confidence in
+your resourcefulness."
+
+"What have you done thus far?"
+
+Mr. Sparling explained briefly, Phil giving close attention.
+
+"Have they found the gangplank yet?"
+
+"Yes; they are towing it up to the dock now."
+
+Phil waited until they had hauled the gangway up and put it
+in place.
+
+"Will you try her, so that I can see how she works, Mr. Kennedy?"
+asked the lad after the gangway had been chained down so securely
+that the elephant would have difficulty in ripping it loose.
+
+Jupiter was just as stubborn as he had been before.
+Phil observed three or four showmen standing near him
+on the other side.
+
+"Please step back, all of you," he said.  "Mr. Sparling, will
+you see that no one comes near the elephants?  I'll see what I
+can do.  Back him off, Mr. Kennedy."
+
+This done, Phil stepped back along the line until he came to the
+big elephant Emperor.
+
+"Good old Emperor," cried the Circus Boy soothingly.  "Here's a
+lump of sugar."
+
+Emperor tucked the sugar far back in his pink mouth.  Then Phil,
+taking hold of the trunk, petted it affectionately, next tucking
+it under his arm.
+
+"Come along, old fellow.  You need not be afraid," he said,
+starting toward the ship, with Emperor following meekly
+and obediently.  At the gangway he stopped and examined the
+passageway carefully.
+
+"Are you sure it is strong enough to support them, Mr. Kennedy?"
+
+"Yes, it will hold two at once."
+
+"Very well."
+
+Once more Phil took hold of the trunk and led Emperor across and
+into the boat, the elephant making no protest; though, knowing
+him as he did, Phil saw that the animal was timid.  The beast's
+confidence in the little Circus Boy overcame his fears, however.
+
+Emperor got another lump of sugar as the result of his obedience.
+
+"See if Jupiter will follow," called Phil.
+
+Jupiter would not.
+
+Observing this, Phil swung Emperor around and led him to
+the dock.
+
+"What are you going to do?" asked Mr. Sparling.
+
+"Perhaps nothing at all.  If Mr. Kennedy failed I do not see how
+I shall be able to accomplish anything.  Get Jupiter up to the
+gangway, please."
+
+This was done.
+
+"When I say the word, you give Jupiter the hook good and hard
+and quick.  I'll promise you that something will happen.
+See here; didn't I tell you fellows to keep away from
+those elephants?" demanded the boy, observing two figures
+edging up toward Emperor.
+
+"Clear the dock!" roared Mr. Sparling.
+
+A sudden thought seemed to strike Phil.  He left Emperor and
+stepped around to the other side of the animal walking about and
+peering into the faces of the people who now were standing back
+at a respectful distance.  Most of them proved to be villagers,
+with a few circus people sprinkled among them.
+
+"Did you notice who those two men were who were standing on the
+other side, Mr. Sparling?" he asked in a low tone.
+
+"No; why?"
+
+"I wanted to know."
+
+"Why do you ask that question?"
+
+"Because I am suspicious of them, that's all."
+
+Making sure that the dock was clear, Phil led Emperor up to
+Jupiter, placing the former's head against the hips of the
+stubborn elephant.
+
+"Now!" he shouted, at the same time giving Emperor the signal
+to push.
+
+The big elephant threw all his great strength into a
+forward movement.  Jupiter, taken off his guard, plunged
+across the gangplank, with Emperor pushing him along, the former
+trumpeting wildly in his fear and rage.  Another minute, and
+Jupiter was landed safely on the lower deck of the "Fat Marie."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ALL ABOARD FOR THE GULF!
+
+Day was breaking.
+
+Clouds of dense black smoke were rolling from the funnels
+of the Sparling fleet, while steam was hissing from the
+overburdened safety valves.
+
+The show was ready for its start down the river.
+The "Little Nemo" had already hoisted anchor and
+was drifting with the current awaiting the signal
+to start her engines.
+
+"All ashore that's going," sang a voice on each of
+the two boats lying at the dock.
+
+The boats' whistles broke out in three deafening,
+prolonged blasts each.
+
+"Cast off!" bellowed the pilots.
+
+Hawsers were hauled in and the distance between the dock and
+the boats slowly widened.
+
+"We're off," shouted Teddy, waving his hat joyously.
+
+"We will be more so, unless we get some sleep," warned Phil.
+"I would suggest that you and I turn in for a few hours.  We both
+need a beauty sleep."
+
+"I don't," answered Teddy promptly.
+
+"Think not?"
+
+"No, sir.  I'm handsome enough as it is.  Even the fool
+donkey stands aghast when he comes face to face with my
+surpassing beauty."
+
+"How about the elephants?" twinkled Phil.
+
+"Elephants don't count, at least not after twelve o'clock
+at night."
+
+"I move that we turn in just the same.  We will sleep until
+sometime before noon, then we can get up and enjoy the ride.
+I understand we shall not reach the next stand until sometime
+this evening.  This is going to be a great trip, Teddy."
+
+"It has been," nodded the other boy.  "Where do we show first?"
+
+"Milroy, I believe is the name of the place.  I never heard of
+it before."
+
+"And probably you never will want to again, after you have
+been there.  That is the case with most of these little
+tank towns.  A fellow wonders where all the people come
+from who go to the show."
+
+The lads went to their cabin and were soon sound asleep.
+They realized how tired they were when first they got into bed.
+
+"This is great!" muttered Phil, as, lying in his bed, he felt the
+cool air drifting in over him.
+
+When they awakened the sun was at its zenith.
+
+Phil consulted his watch.
+
+"Wake up, Teddy.  It is twelve o'clock."
+
+Teddy sleepily dragged himself from his bed, pulled himself
+wearily to the window and threw open the blinds.
+
+"Where are we?" asked Phil.
+
+"Ask the pilot," grumbled Teddy.  "How do you suppose I know?
+This water looks like a big mud puddle.  I'm hungry; aren't you?"
+
+"Yes, I am.  What are we going to do for breakfast?  I never
+thought to bring along a lunch."
+
+"I've got an egg," chuckled Teddy.
+
+"You are welcome to it.  I don't care for any, thank you."
+
+Just then there came a rap on their door.
+
+Phil opened it and looked out.
+
+"Mr. Sparling wishes to know if you are ready for breakfast?"
+asked the man, whom they recognized as the showman's
+personal servant.
+
+"Am I ready for breakfast?" shouted Teddy.  "Tell Mr. Sparling
+he ought to know better than to ask a question like that.
+What's this, a joke?  We can't get any breakfast on this
+old tub."
+
+"Mr. Sparling directs me to ask you to join him in his cabin for
+breakfast in ten minutes."
+
+"Thank you.  Tell him we shall be on hand," smiled Phil.
+
+"I hope it isn't a joke," grumbled Teddy, pulling on
+his trousers.
+
+"Now, isn't that fine of Mr. Sparling, old fellow?" asked Phil,
+with glowing eyes.
+
+"Tell you better after I sample the breakfast.  I'm suspicious."
+
+"You need not be.  Mr. Sparling would not be so unkind as to
+invite us to eat breakfast with him unless he had some breakfast
+to offer us."
+
+"Well, I hope it's straight," muttered the doubting Teddy.  A few
+minutes later the lads presented themselves at the door of the
+owner's cabin.
+
+"Good morning, boys; how did you sleep last night?" he greeted
+them, with a cordial smile and a handshake for each.
+
+"I was dead to the world," answered Teddy, with his customary
+bluntness of speech.
+
+"I guess we all were," smiled the showman.  "All day and all
+night was rather trying, but we shall not have the same trouble
+after this; at least not after the next stand.  Everything should
+be in excellent working order after Monday.  Sit down and have
+some breakfast with me."
+
+An appetizing meal had been spread in the cabin.  Teddy surveyed
+the table with wistful eyes.
+
+"I did not know you were going to serve meals on board,"
+said Phil.
+
+"I am not, generally speaking.  This is different.  I would not
+ask our people to go all day without anything to eat.  I have had
+a cold meal prepared in the main cabin, with hot coffee to wash
+it down.  I thought you boys might like to join me here for a
+real meal.  Having a real meal is one of the privileges of the
+owner of the show, you know," replied Mr. Sparling, with a hearty
+laugh, in which the boys joined.
+
+"I was going to eat my egg," said Teddy humorously.
+
+"It is very kind of you, Mr. Sparling," said Phil.  "We were just
+wondering what we should do for breakfast, and Teddy, as he has
+just told you, was thinking of eating the ostrich egg."
+
+"Raw?"
+
+"I presume so," replied Phil, with a short laugh.
+
+"It would make a fellow strong," declared Teddy in defense of
+his egg.
+
+"I agree with you, my boy.  I ate a piece of one once, and it was
+quite the strongest thing I ever tackled."
+
+"That's a joke.  Ha, ha!" replied Teddy, with serious face.
+
+The lads were, by this time, on such terms of intimacy with their
+employer that they felt free to talk with him as they would to
+each other.  At least Phil did, and in all probability Tucker
+would have done so at any rate.
+
+"Do we unload tonight, Mr. Sparling?" questioned Phil.
+
+"No, I think not.  Tomorrow morning will be time enough.  I never
+like to do any more work on Sunday than is absolutely necessary."
+
+Phil nodded his approval.
+
+"I believe in observing the day, and besides, our people need
+the rest and the relaxation.  That reminds me of what I wanted
+to say.  You did a very clever piece of work last night, both
+of you."
+
+Teddy glanced up in surprise.
+
+"Yes; I got a roughhouse from the donkey and the elephant.
+I'm a sort of a good thing all around.  When the fool donkey
+gets through wiping up a whole county with me, the elephant
+takes a hand--a trunk, I mean--and lands me high and dry on
+the roof of the 'Fat Marie.'"
+
+"You mean the deck," corrected Phil.
+
+"I don't know what you call it, but it was hard enough when I
+struck it.  Next time I'm going to have a net spread to catch me.
+I'll bet I would have made a hit in the ring with that donkey
+wrestling bout.  I guess I will try it on some of these times,
+providing I can get the donkey to work the way he did
+last night."
+
+"As I said before, there is something I want to ask you, Phil,"
+repeated the showman.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Did it not strike you that Jupiter acted very peculiarly
+last night?"
+
+"Yes.  I did not see the first of it, but I saw enough."
+
+"What did you think about it?"
+
+"I did not know what to think."
+
+The showman shot a keen glance at the Circus Boy's thoughtful,
+serious face.
+
+"What do you think today?"
+
+"That it was perfectly natural for Jupiter to balk going across
+the gangplank."
+
+"How about him having hurled Teddy to the deck of the
+'Fat Marie'?"
+
+"That is different."
+
+"Did it arouse any suspicions in your mind, my boy?"
+
+Phil reflected for a moment, toying absently with his fork.
+
+"Candidly, it did, Mr. Sparling.  It struck me as peculiar at
+the time, and, as I thought it over, I became more and more
+convinced that there was some reason for Jupiter's action
+beyond what we saw."
+
+The showman nodded, as if Phil's suggestion agreed with his
+own ideas.
+
+"What do you think happened?" he asked.
+
+"What do you think?"
+
+"I will confess that I don't know, Phil.  You had some reason
+for driving everyone away from the bulls there on the dock,
+did you not?"
+
+"Yes, I did not want anyone to bother them while we were trying
+to get them on board."
+
+"I understand," said Mr. Sparling, with a nod.
+
+"Did you notice who was there on the dock at the time,
+Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"No, not particularly."
+
+"Was it some of the show people?"
+
+"I am unable to say.  I saw you drive two men off in particular,
+but I did not look at them closely.  Did you know them?"
+
+"Perhaps.  They got away rather too quickly for me to make sure."
+
+"Who do you think they were?"
+
+Phil did not answer at once.
+
+"Come, who were they, Phil?"
+
+"I don't know, Mr. Sparling."
+
+"I did not mean it exactly that way.  You think you recognized
+them, and as I said before, I want to know who you think the
+men were?"
+
+"I would rather not say, Mr. Sparling," answered the Circus Boy,
+looking his employer squarely in the eye.
+
+"It is your duty to tell me."
+
+"Not unless I am sure.  It would be unjust to do so, and I know
+you would not wish to force me to be unjust."
+
+"You are a queer boy, Phil Forrest," said the showman, gazing at
+the lad intently.
+
+"I wish I knew who I thought they were, if they had anything to
+do with my aerial flight last night," growled Teddy.  "They would
+have reason to think a Kansas cyclone had struck them."
+
+No one paid any attention to Teddy's remark.
+
+"I will tell you what I think, however, Mr. Sparling,"
+continued Phil.
+
+"That's what I am trying to get you to do."
+
+"I think some person with evil intent did something to Jupiter
+to anger him, thus causing him to turn on Teddy.  And it is my
+opinion that if you will examine the animal you will find the
+evidences on the animal himself," declared the Circus Boy boldly.
+
+Mr. Sparling uttered an angry exclamation.
+
+Teddy, who had tilted back in his chair as he listened to the
+conversation, went crashing to the floor, overturning table,
+dishes and all.
+
+That broke up the conference of the morning.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+EGG, EGG, WHO'S GOT THE EGG?
+
+"I've lost my egg!  I've lost my egg!"
+
+Teddy Tucker's shrill voice was heard from one end to the other
+of the "Fat Marie."  An hour had elapsed since his mishap in
+Mr. Sparling's cabin, during which time the lads had been sitting
+on the after deck of the boat.
+
+Phil had been very thoughtful.  Perhaps he had not done right in
+keeping his real suspicions from Mr. Sparling.  Yet he was firm
+in his purpose not to say who he thought the men were.  He was
+not at all certain, in his own mind, that his eyes had not
+deceived him.
+
+There could be no doubt, however, that some person or persons
+had pricked Jupiter on a tender part of his anatomy just as
+Teddy Tucker was patting the trunk of the great beast.
+
+Teddy had gone to his cabin for a moment, and no sooner had he
+opened the door than he discovered that all was not as it should
+be there.
+
+"What's this?  What's all this fuss about?" questioned Phil.
+
+"My egg!  My egg!"
+
+"What about your egg?"
+
+"It's gone, it's gone!"
+
+"Gone?"
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"But I thought you locked it in your trunk?"
+
+"That's what I did."
+
+"Then how can it be gone?"
+
+"It is, I tell you.  Come and see, if you don't believe me."
+
+"Of course I believe you, but I do not see how it would be
+possible for your egg to be taken when it was locked in your
+trunk," objected Phil.
+
+Teddy grasped his companion by the arm and rushed him to
+the cabin.
+
+"There, look!" exclaimed Teddy, pushing Phil into the room.
+
+Teddy's trunk was open, most of its contents lying in a confused
+heap on the cabin floor.
+
+Phil's face grew serious.
+
+"Now, let's understand this.  Was your trunk in that condition
+when you came in here a little while ago?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Well, some of the stuff was sticking out, but the cover
+was down."
+
+"The trunk was unlocked?"
+
+"Sure it was."
+
+"You are positive that you locked it?"
+
+"I know it was locked."
+
+"Is anything missing--have you looked to make sure?"
+
+"I tell you my egg has been taken."
+
+"I know.  Has anything else been taken?"
+
+"I was so excited that I didn't look."
+
+"Then, do so now."
+
+Teddy dropped down beside his trunk, and began going over his
+belongings, most of which were lying heaped on the floor.
+He examined everything closely.
+
+"How about it?"
+
+"I--I guess it is all here--but my egg is not, Phil."
+
+"So I heard you say before."
+
+"Where is it--where is it?"
+
+"How do you suppose I know?  You are lucky that nothing else
+was taken.  Is the lock broken?"
+
+"No.  Somebody had a key."
+
+"Almost any key made for an ordinary trunk will fit these
+steamer trunks."  Phil proved this by selecting and trying
+three keys on his own key ring, each of which locked and
+unlooked Teddy's steamer trunk with ease.
+
+"I'll bet you took my egg for a joke."
+
+"Teddy Tucker, how can you say so," demanded Phil indignantly.
+"Did I ever do a thing like that?"
+
+"No, I guess you didn't," admitted the boy.  "But it's gone."
+
+"It is evident that we have a thief on board.  Mr. Sparling must
+be informed of this at once," decided Phil firmly.  "You remain
+here and I will go and fetch him."
+
+In a few moments the Circus Boy returned with Mr. Sparling.
+The showman made a careful examination of the room and the trunk
+on his own account.  His face was flushed and angry.
+
+He went over the same ground with his questions that Phil already
+had done.
+
+"Do you suspect anyone, Phil?"
+
+"I do not.  Whom should I suspect?  Nothing like this has
+ever happened in the Sparling show since I have been
+connected with it."
+
+"You are right.  It won't be healthful for the man who is
+responsible for this, if I catch him," growled the showman.
+"Somebody must be unusually fond of ostrich eggs to go to this
+length for one.  If anyone in this show chances to dine on
+ostrich egg in the next twenty-four hours we shall know whom to
+accuse of the theft."
+
+"I do not think you will get the opportunity," said Phil, with a
+peculiar smile.
+
+"What do you mean by that remark?"
+
+"That it was not taken because the thief wanted to eat it.
+He would not be foolish enough to do that."
+
+"Then why?"
+
+"Probably to get even with Teddy."
+
+Mr. Sparling eyed him sternly.
+
+"You mean somebody had a grudge against Teddy?"
+
+Phil nodded.
+
+"Who?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Teddy, who is it in this show who has a grudge against you?"
+
+Teddy pondered.
+
+"I don't know of anybody unless it's January," he made
+solemn reply.
+
+"The fool donkey?  Bah!"
+
+"I guess the donkey did not unlock your trunk and steal your egg,
+Teddy," answered Phil, a half smile curling his lips.
+
+"I am not going to ask you again whom you suspect.  I take it for
+granted that you will keep your eyes open from now on."
+
+"I certainly shall, Mr. Sparling."
+
+"If you are unable to find out who is responsible for certain
+things I am sure there is no use in my trying to do so."
+
+"I do not know about that, Sir.  I shall try.  If I find out
+anything worthwhile I shall come to you and tell you."
+
+"I shall expect you to do so.  And, Teddy!"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You are to say nothing of this occurrence to anyone on the boat.
+Do not mention that your precious egg has been lost or stolen,
+nor appear as if anything out of the ordinary had occurred."
+
+Teddy nodded his understanding.
+
+Mr. Sparling understood his boys better than they knew.  He was
+confident that Phil Forrest had a shrewd idea as to who had
+aroused the anger of the elephant, Jupiter, as well as to the
+identity of the person who had stolen the egg from
+Teddy Tucker's trunk.
+
+The Circus Boy, however, kept his own counsel.
+
+He made a trip down to the lower deck and had a long conversation
+with Mr. Kennedy, the elephant trainer, while Teddy Tucker moped
+in his cabin, mourning over the loss of his egg.
+
+The show reached Milroy shortly before dark that evening, after
+a most delightful trip down the river.  The horse tents were
+unloaded and pitched on the circus lot and the stock stabled in
+them so the animals could get their rest and food.
+
+Some of the show people strolled out through the little town,
+while others remained on board the boat and went to bed.
+All hands slept aboard that night.  Bright and early, on the
+following morning, the boats were unloaded and the tents pitched,
+the men working much better for their day on the river.
+
+Everyone appeared to be in high good humor and the wisdom of
+Mr. Sparling's methods was apparent.  The tents went up more
+quickly that morning than at any time that season.
+
+Breakfast under the cook tent was a jolly meal.  Teddy had nearly
+forgotten the loss of the ostrich egg, but Phil Forrest had not.
+Phil, while not appearing to do so, was watching certain persons
+in the dressing tent, among them being Diaz, the Spanish clown.
+
+During the dressing hour before the afternoon performance the
+clown had his trunk open to get out some costumes which were
+at the bottom, beneath the lower tray.
+
+Phil's trunk, it will be remembered, was close by that
+of the clown's.  The Circus Boy took advantage of the
+opportunity to peep into the open trunk while Diaz was
+rummaging over its contents.  So absorbed did Phil become
+in his own investigation that he forgot for the moment
+that the owner of the trunk might resent such curiosity.
+
+All at once Phil glanced down at the clown.  He found the
+dark eyes of Diaz fixed upon him, and the lad flushed in
+spite of himself.
+
+Diaz slowly rose to his feet.  Thrusting his face close to that
+of the lad he peered into the boy's face.
+
+"What you want?"
+
+"Nothing, thank you."
+
+"You look for something in the trunk of Diaz, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"What for you look?"
+
+"Maybe I was looking for an egg.  Maybe I thought the clown
+Diaz carried a supply of freshly laid eggs in his dressing-room
+trunk," said Phil in a tone too low for the others to catch, all
+the time holding the eyes of the clown in a steady gaze.
+
+The eyes of the clown expressed surprise, but there was so much
+grease paint and powder on his face that the boy could not tell
+whether the fellow had flushed or not.
+
+That Diaz was angry, however, was clear.
+
+"What you mean?" demanded the clown, with a threatening gesture.
+
+"If you do not know, I don't believe I care to explain just now."
+
+"What you mean?" repeated the clown, his voice rising to a
+higher pitch.  "You--you think I a thief?"
+
+"If I thought so I might be too courteous to say so," was the
+calm retort.  "What makes you imagine that I think you a thief?
+You must have some reason--you must believe there is some truth
+in your self-accusation, or you would not be so quick to
+resent it."
+
+"I--I--"
+
+"Remember, I have not accused you of anything.  You have
+accused yourself."
+
+Perhaps there was method in Phil's nagging--perhaps he was
+trying to goad the Spaniard into an admission that could be
+used against him.  If that were his purpose he had only
+partly succeeded.
+
+Diaz, who had closed the cover of his trunk with a bang, now
+sprang to the trunk again, jerking up the cover with such force
+as to nearly wrench it from its hinges.
+
+Two trays came out and were hurled to the ground as the owner
+dived deeper and deeper into the chest.
+
+"What's the matter?  Have you gone crazy?" questioned Phil,
+laughing in spite of himself.  "Come on, now; don't lose
+your temper.  If you will stop to consider, you will recall
+that I have said nothing at which you might possibly
+take offence."
+
+To this the clown made no reply.
+
+All at once he straightened up with a snarl that reminded Phil of
+the cough of the tiger out in the menagerie as the beast struck
+viciously at its keeper when the latter chanced to step too close
+to the bars of the cage.
+
+Diaz stood all a-quiver.
+
+"This looks like trouble of some sort," muttered Phil Forrest.
+"But I don't quite understand what he could have been hunting for
+in the trunk."
+
+Phil's question was answered a few seconds later.
+
+>From the folds of the clown's costume his hand suddenly
+shot upward.  The hand held a knife.  The hand shook from
+rage as the knife was brandished aloft.
+
+"Hello, so that's the game, is it?"
+
+The Circus Boy stood his ground unflinchingly.  He did not appear
+to be disturbed in the least, though his situation at that moment
+was a critical one.
+
+"Diaz!  Diaz!  Drop that knife!" ordered Phil sternly.
+
+Instead of obeying the command the clown leaped upon him, or upon
+the spot where Phil had been standing a second before.  The lad
+had sprung back far enough so that the descending knife cut only
+the empty air.
+
+Again the knife flashed up.  Just as it was being raised, the boy
+leaped again.  This time he sprang toward the enraged clown,
+rather than away from him.
+
+Ere the knife could be brought down, Phil gripped the wrist
+holding the weapon, giving the wrist a quick, sharp twist that
+brought a roar of pain from Diaz.
+
+The knife dropped to the ground.  Phil calmly stooped and picked
+it up, while the clown was nursing his wrist and groaning.
+
+Several performers, realizing that something out of the ordinary
+was going on in that corner of the tent, hurried over.
+
+"What's the matter here?"
+
+"Diaz was showing me his knife.  It's a beauty, isn't it?"
+answered Phil, with a pleasant smile.  "I think, however, it is
+a little too pretty for a circus.  Were I in your place, Diaz,
+I should keep it in my trunk else someone may steal it."
+
+The lad coolly raised the lid of the trunk, dropping the
+knife in.  The others, not noting that the clown was hurt,
+and that his wrist had been twisted by the Circus Boy almost
+to the breaking point, turned back to their own corners and
+continued their labors preparatory to entering the ring.
+
+"Mr. Diaz," said Phil in a low voice, bending over the clown,
+"your temper is going to get you into serious trouble one of
+these fine days.  I am sorry I had to hurt you.  But let me tell
+you one thing.  If you attack me again I shall be compelled to
+give you the worst licking you ever had in your life.  Put that
+in one of your fool caps that you throw around the arena, so you
+won't forget it.  Behave yourself and you will find that I am a
+pretty good friend."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+TRYING OUT A NEW ACT
+
+"Well, Dimples, I hope you and I do not make sad exhibitions of
+ourselves this evening."
+
+"I hope not, Phil.  I am sure you will not, but I am not so sure
+of myself."
+
+The afternoon performance had passed off without incident, save
+that the performers had given a much better show than usual.
+Everyone felt fresh and strong after his Sunday rest.
+
+It was now evening.  The band was playing its loudest, the clowns
+were fast and furious in their fun, and the animals out in the
+menagerie tent were doing their part toward raising a din that
+might have been heard at least half a mile away.
+
+Phil Forrest had already been in for his trapeze act, and
+after changing his costume had come out again for the
+bareback riding number, to which he always looked forward
+with pleasurable anticipation.
+
+At the same time Little Dimples, the star female bareback rider,
+had come up and joined him and the two fell to talking, as they
+always did whenever the opportunity presented itself.
+
+Long ago the circus woman had constituted herself the "mother of
+the Circus Boys," as she expressed it.  She always insisted on
+doing their sewing for them, helped them to plan their costumes
+and gave them friendly advice on all occasions.
+
+The act which they were entering the ring to perform on this
+particular evening was a new one.  The two had been practicing it
+since the beginning of the season--practicing in secret that they
+might put it on as a surprise to Mr. Sparling.
+
+This was what is known as a "brother and sister act."  That is,
+the strong man and woman proposed to perform on the back of the
+same horse, and at the same time.
+
+The brother and sister act was not a new act by any means,
+but they had added ideas of their own to it until it had
+become novel.  They had essayed some daring and sensational
+features which were sure to create a sensation with any
+audience before which the act was performed.
+
+"It is a small town," said Dimples.  "We don't care if we do fall
+off, do we, Phil, my boy?"
+
+"We most certainly do care.  At least, _I_ do.  Where's your
+professional pride, Dimples?" demanded Phil, with an
+indulgent smile.
+
+"In my feet, I guess," answered the woman, with a merry laugh.
+"I am making my living with my feet.  Were they not so sure,
+enabling me to stand on the slippery back of a ring horse,
+I should not be drawing the fine salary that I now have.
+Neither would you."
+
+"Here we are at the ring," interrupted Phil.  "The audience is
+applauding us before we begin.  They must be expecting something
+out of the ordinary."
+
+As a matter of fact, the two riders made a very pleasing
+appearance as they entered the ring.  Phil, slender, athletic,
+manly; Dimples exquisitely dainty, looking almost as fragile
+as a piece of Dresden china, they were a pair to attract
+attention anywhere.
+
+The spectators did not even dream that Little Dimples was a
+married woman, with a son almost as old as Phil Forrest himself.
+
+They kicked off their slippers, chalked their feet, then Phil
+assisted his companion to the back of the horse.
+
+The band struck up a lively tune, the ringmaster cracked
+his whip, and Phil leaped to the back of the ring horse
+beside Dimples.
+
+"We are off," smiled the lad.
+
+"I hope not," laughed the woman happily.
+
+Further conversation for the moment was interrupted, for the
+time had arrived to begin their work in earnest.  The two threw
+themselves into a series of graceful positions, neither very
+difficult nor very dangerous, but to Mr. Sparling, who was
+watching their performance from a seat directly opposite to them,
+their work was more attractive than anything of the kind he ever
+had seen.
+
+The next time they started in, after the brief intermission,
+Phil and Dimples varied their performance by leaping from the
+ring horse, then, taking a running start, jumping to the back
+of the galloping animal.  Only once did Phil miss, and Dimples
+not at all.
+
+She greeted his failure with a merry laugh that goaded the lad to
+renewed efforts.
+
+"Have you forgotten how to jump?" teased Dimples.
+
+"I'll show you whether I have or not.  Keep him up close to the
+ring curb and stand back as far as you can."
+
+"What are you going to do?" she questioned suspiciously.
+
+"Going to prove to you that I have not forgotten how to jump,"
+answered Phil, with determination.
+
+"Please don't do anything foolish," warned the dainty rider.
+"It is too early in the season to break your neck.  Just think
+what you would miss were you to do so this early--think what I
+should miss.  Come up here and be sensible--that's a good boy."
+
+The ringmaster paid no attention to their chatter, which was in
+tones too low for the audience to catch.
+
+Phil placed the little jumping board in place, upon which
+the riders step just as they are leaping to the back of the
+ring horses.  Then the lad backed up.
+
+"Keep him up lively," he said to the ringmaster.
+
+All at once the lad started on a brisk run across the
+sawdust arena.
+
+"Yip!" encouraged Dimples.
+
+"Yip!  Yip!" answered Phil.
+
+The lad leaped up into the air just as if he had been hurled
+there on springs.  As he leaped his legs were curled up under
+him, and his working mate saw that he was not going to land
+on the back of the horse at all.  Still she dared not speak to
+him, now.  She knew that to attract Phil's attention at that
+moment might mean a bad fall for him, for a performer must have
+his mind on his work when attempting any dangerous feat.
+
+To the surprise of everyone who witnessed the act, Phil Forrest
+cleared the back of the ring horse, fairly flying past the
+astonished eyes of Little Dimples.
+
+He landed lightly well outside of the ring curbing, on the
+soft turf.
+
+The audience broke out into a roar of applause and a
+ripple of hand clapping ran over the arena from the
+appreciative performers.  They wholly forgot themselves
+in their surprise and approval of the feat.
+
+"Wonderful!" breathed Mr. James Sparling.  "That boy is
+worth a thousand dollars a week to any show."
+
+"Have I forgotten how to jump?" demanded the Circus Boy
+exultingly, as the ring horse slowed down to a walk, Phil
+stepping along by the side of it looking up into the eyes
+of Little Dimples.
+
+"Indeed you have not.  It was wonderful.  Don't you ever dare
+try it again, however.  Why, suppose you had dropped on an iron
+tent stake?  You would have at least been disabled for life."
+
+"I presume I should have been.  I happened to know there were
+no stakes where I landed.  I made sure of that before I made
+the leap."
+
+"You are a wise boy, even if an imprudent one.  We try the
+shoulder stand next, do we not?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I haven't the routine in my mind yet.  Don't you dare let
+me fall."
+
+"Supposing we save the shoulder stand until the last.  Let's do
+the somersault first," suggested Phil.
+
+"Very well; I don't care."
+
+The music started and the little couple began their work again.
+
+Dimples sprang up to the hip of the Circus Boy, leaning far out
+to one side, holding to one of Phil's hands, a very pretty though
+not perilous feat for a sure-footed ride.
+
+This they varied by throwing themselves into several
+different poses.
+
+"Now the turn," breathed Phil.
+
+He deftly lifted the little woman down to the horse just in front
+of himself.  Having done so, Phil grasped Dimples firmly about
+the waist with his strong, muscular young hands.
+
+"If you drop me I'll never speak to you again."
+
+"I shall not drop you.  You know the cue?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+The lad nodded to the ringmaster, indicating that the latter was
+to urge the horse on to a faster gallop.
+
+"Now what are those two children going to do?" wondered the owner
+of the show.  "One is as daring as the other.  It's a wonder they
+have gone along without knocking themselves out.  I believe they
+are going to do a turn."
+
+That was exactly what they were preparing.  "Now," said
+Phil sharply.
+
+The pair rose from the back of the ring horse as one person.
+They leaped gracefully and deliberately into the air, doubled
+their legs under them and performed one of the most graceful
+somersaults that had ever been seen in the Sparling shows,
+landing lightly and surely on the resined back of the old
+ring horse.
+
+Dimples sat down, and Phil, dropping lightly to the ground,
+threw a kiss to the audience.
+
+The spectators, fully appreciating what had been done, went
+fairly wild in their enthusiasm.
+
+Mr. Sparling was no less so.  In his excitement he forgot time
+and place and ran into the ring, where he threw an arm about
+Phil Forrest, giving him a fatherly hug.
+
+Dimples pouted prettily.
+
+"That's what I call partiality," she complained.
+
+Mr. Sparling promptly lifted her from the back of her horse,
+and stood the blushing little performer on the sawdust by the
+side of Phil.
+
+How the spectators did applaud, many standing up in their seats
+waving hats and handkerchiefs in their excitement and enthusiasm!
+
+Mr. Sparling was always doing these little, intensely human
+things, not with any idea of winning applause, but out of
+sheer big-heartedness.  They did much toward spreading the
+reputation of the Sparling show and popularizing it as well.
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen," announced the showman when quiet had once
+more been restored, "you will pardon me for interrupting the
+performance, but as the owner of the show I want to say a few
+words on behalf of my star performers, Little Dimples and Master
+Phil Forrest."
+
+The audience interrupted him with a cheer.
+
+"The act which you have just witnessed is as great a surprise
+to me as it could possibly have been to you.  It is the first
+time these two performers ever attempted it in public.  I might
+say, also, that it is the first time to my own knowledge that
+any performers in the world ever succeeded in getting away with
+a feat of that sort.  I thank you for your approval.
+The performance will now proceed."
+
+After the applause which this little speech elicited had died
+away the band once more began to play.
+
+Phil and Dimples commenced a series of acts, jumping from and to
+the back of the horse whose speed was increased for the purpose.
+
+In the next rest Dimples called the attention of her associate to
+the clown Diaz, who was not far from them at the moment.
+
+Dimples had been in the show business so long that her intuition
+had become very keen.  Nothing of consequence happened under the
+big top, or beneath the low-roofed dressing tents, that she did
+not know of, or at least surmise.  Especially keen was she in all
+matters relating to Phil Forrest and Teddy Tucker, and her
+interest had in many instances served to save the lads from
+unpleasant consequence.
+
+"I don't like that fellow, Phil," Dimples remarked, referring
+to Diaz.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"I think he is a bad man."
+
+"I hope not.  He is impulsive and--"
+
+"Revengeful and ugly," finished Dimples.
+
+"As I said, he is impulsive, like all of his race."
+
+"What has been going on with you lately, Phil?"
+
+"I don't understand what you mean?"
+
+"Oh, yes, you do."
+
+"You mean with regard to Diaz?"
+
+"That's what I mean.  Have you had any trouble?"
+
+"We had a slight disagreement," admitted the lad.
+
+"Tell me about it."
+
+"Wait!  There goes the music."
+
+The ringmaster's whip cracked its warning and the gray horse
+started at a slow gallop.  Phil was up beside his companion with
+agility and grace.  The first round or two they stood poised on
+the horse, while Phil related briefly what had taken place
+between himself and Diaz.
+
+"Come, aren't you two going to get to work?" demanded
+the ringmaster.
+
+"You attend to your own work.  We'll look out for ours,"
+snapped Dimples.
+
+"Yes, and if you think you can do better just come up and try,"
+added Phil, with a good-natured laugh.  "Up, Dimples!"
+
+He threw her lightly to his shoulders, on which the woman stood
+poised, making as graceful and pretty a picture as had ever been
+seen in a circus ring.  Fragile as she was, it seemed as if Phil
+were all too slender to support her weight.
+
+The act brought a whirlwind of applause.
+
+"You look out for him, Phil.  I--"
+
+"Jump, Dimples!"
+
+The ring horse had suddenly stumbled, its nose plowing up the
+sawdust in a cloud.
+
+Phil, with rare presence of mind, lifted the feet from his
+shoulders and hurled the girl far from him.
+
+"Land on your feet!" he shouted, then Phil plunged off,
+head first.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A NARROW ESCAPE
+
+Thanks to Phil's presence of mind, Dimples had landed lightly on
+her feet well outside the ring curbing.  Had the lad held to her
+ankles even a second too long the result must have been serious,
+if not fatal, for Dimples would have been hurled to the ground
+head first.
+
+As it was, Phil gave her a lift, enabling her to double and
+"ball," a circus term meaning to curl one's feet up under the
+body, then straighten them as needed to give the body balance
+either in turning a somersault or in falling.
+
+In doing so, however, Phil had had no thought for his own safety.
+He plunged forward over the head of the ring horse, striking the
+ground on his head and face.
+
+The force of his fall had been broken somewhat by his quickly
+throwing out his hands in front of him and relaxing the muscles
+of his body.  Circus performers soon learn how to fall--how to
+make the best of every situation with which they are confronted.
+Despite this, his fall had been a severe and dangerous one.
+
+"There, he has done it!  I knew he would," cried Mr. Sparling,
+rushing to the ring.  Quick as he was, Dimples was ahead of him.
+She leaped the ring curbing and dropped down beside him, not
+caring for the dust and the dirt that soiled her pretty costume.
+
+"Phil!  Phil!" she cried.
+
+Phil did not answer at the moment.
+
+"Is he hurt--is he killed?" demanded Mr. Sparling excitedly.
+
+"Of course he is hurt.  Can't you see he is?" answered
+Dimples testily.
+
+She turned the boy over and looked into his face.  The dirt
+was so ground into the handsome, boyish face as to make it
+scarcely recognizable.
+
+"Lift him up.  Get some of the attendants to carry him back!"
+commanded the woman impatiently.
+
+"No, no!" protested Phil in a muffled voice, for his mouth
+was full of sawdust and dirt.  "I'm all right.  Don't worry
+about me."
+
+"He's all right," repeated the showman.  "I'll help you
+up, Phil."
+
+Phil, like the plucky performer that he was, declined their
+offers of assistance and struggled to his feet.  He was dizzy and
+staggered a little, but after a moment succeeded in overmastering
+his inclination to faint.
+
+A fleck of blood on his lips showed through makeup and sawdust.
+
+"I'm all right.  Don't worry about me," he said, with a
+forced smile.
+
+Dimples sought to brush the dirt from his face with her
+handkerchief, but he put her aside gently, and, with a low bow,
+threw a kiss to the audience.
+
+Their relief was expressed in a roar of applause.
+
+Phil staggered over to where the ring horse still lay near the
+center of the ring and knelt down beside it, examining the leg
+that was doubled up under the animal.
+
+The ringmaster cracked his whip lash as a signal for the animal
+to get up, but the faithful old horse, despite its efforts to
+rise, was unable to do so.
+
+"What is the matter with him?" demanded Mr. Sparling.
+
+"Jim has broken a leg, I think," answered Phil sadly.  "Too bad,
+too bad!"
+
+The lad patted the head of the horse and ran his fingers through
+the grey mane.  Tears stood in Phil Forrest's eyes, for he had
+ridden this horse and won most of his triumphs on its resined
+back during the past three years.
+
+"Dimples, I guess we have ridden Jim for the last time," said
+Phil in a low voice.  "Hadn't you better start the other acts,
+Mr. Sparling.  The audience will become uneasy."
+
+"Yes, yes," answered the showman, waving his hand to the band,
+a signal that they were to play and the show to go on as usual.
+"Are you sure, Phil--sure Jim has not merely strained the leg?"
+
+"I am sure.  He never will perform again."
+
+Dimples brushed a hand across her eyes.
+
+"I shall cry when I get back to my dressing tent.  I know I
+shall," she said, with a tremor in her voice that she strove
+to control.
+
+Then Dimples smiled bravely, waving a hand at the audience,
+though her heart was sad.
+
+"What had we better do with him, Phil?"
+
+"We can do nothing at present--not until the show is ended.
+Then, there is only one thing to do."
+
+"You mean he will have to be--"
+
+"Yes, Dimples, he will have to be shot," answered Phil.
+
+"But the audience?"
+
+"Have a couple of attendants come in here and pretend to be
+working over Jim.  That will make the audience think the animal's
+foot is injured rather than fatally hurt," suggested
+Phil Forrest.
+
+"A good idea," said Mr. Sparling, giving the necessary orders.
+
+Tell them not to disturb the spot, not trample it down.
+
+"Why?" questioned the showman in surprise.
+
+"I'll tell you later.  I have my own reasons."
+
+Phil motioned to Teddy to approach.
+
+"Sit down here in the ring and watch the horse and the men around
+him," directed the Circus Boy.  "I'll tell you why later."
+
+The show went on with a snap and dash.  Meanwhile, Phil, his
+clothes torn, his face grimy with dirt, started down the
+concourse toward the pad room, hand in hand with Little Dimples.
+
+Their progress was a triumphal one so far as the audience was
+concerned, for the people cheered them all the way and until the
+slender riders had disappeared behind the crimson curtain just
+beyond the bandstand.
+
+Phil quietly washed the dirt from his face, and pulling on
+his street clothes over his ring costume, started to reenter
+the arena.
+
+At that moment Mr. Sparling came hurrying in.  The two met in the
+pad room.
+
+"Phil, how did that accident happen?" demanded the showman.
+
+"You saw it, did you not, Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"Yes.  But I was unable to understand how it occurred."
+
+"That is exactly what is bothering me," answered the lad, with a
+peculiar smile that the owner of the show was not slow to catch.
+
+"You suspect something?"
+
+"I suspect I got a bump that I shan't forget soon," laughed the
+Circus Boy.  "It is a wonder I did not break my neck."
+
+"You undoubtedly saved Dimples' life at the risk of your own.
+You are the pluckiest lad--no, I'll say the pluckiest _man_ I
+have ever known."
+
+"Don't make me blush, Mr. Sparling."
+
+"Nevertheless, I wish you wouldn't take chances on that
+act again.  Give the audience the same old act and they
+will be satisfied with that."
+
+"Didn't you like the act?"
+
+"Like it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It was the finest exhibition of its kind that I ever saw.
+I hope neither the Ringlings, nor Barnum and Bailey, nor any
+of the big shows get a peep at that act."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because were they to do so I would be sure to lose my little
+star performers right in the middle of the season," laughed
+the owner.
+
+"Oh, I hardly think so.  I do not wish to leave this show.
+Had it not been for you I should still be doing chores for
+my board and clothes back in Edmeston.  Now wouldn't that
+be fine?"
+
+"Very," grinned the showman.
+
+"Whatever I have accomplished I have you to thank for."
+
+"You mean you owe to your own brightness and cleverness.
+No, Phil, you are a boy who would have succeeded anywhere.
+They can't keep you down--no, not even were they to sit
+on you."
+
+"If Fat Marie, with her five hundred and odd pounds, were
+to sit on me, I rather think I would be kept down," answered
+the Circus Boy, with a hearty laugh in which Mr. Sparling
+joined uproariously.
+
+"What is Teddy doing out in the ring?"
+
+"I left him there to keep an eye on the injured horse."
+
+"Why, Phil?"
+
+"Until I could get back and make an examination."
+
+"Very well; I want to see you after you have done so."
+
+"I will look you up."
+
+With that Phil hurried out into the arena.  None of the
+spectators appeared to recognize the lad in his street clothes.
+Besides, he tried to avoid observation.  He might have been one
+of the spectators, except that he picked his way, among the ropes
+and properties down through the center, where the public were not
+allowed to go.
+
+"The rest of you may go," said Phil, reaching the ring where
+Jim lay breathing heavily.  "Thank you for easing off old Jim.
+I know he appreciates it."
+
+Jim looked up pleadingly as Phil bent over him, patting the
+animal on his splendid old gray head.
+
+The attendants went about their duties.
+
+"How'd this happen, Phil?" questioned Teddy.
+
+"I fell off; that's what happened."
+
+"Yes, I know you did, but there's more to it.  I wonder if it's
+got anything to do with the loss of my egg?"
+
+"I guess not."
+
+"You guess not?  Well, I know something, Phil."
+
+"I should hope you do."
+
+"I mean about this accident."
+
+Phil gazed at his companion keenly.
+
+"What do you know?"
+
+"Look here," said Teddy, pointing to a depression in the
+sawdust arena.
+
+Phil bent over, examining the spot closely.  When he rose, his
+lips were tightly compressed and his face was pale.
+
+"Don't mention this to anyone, Teddy.  Promise me?"
+
+" 'Course I won't tell.  Why should I?  But I found out about it,
+didn't I?"
+
+"Yes; at least you have made a pretty good start in
+that direction.  I shall have to tell Mr. Sparling.
+It would not be right to keep this information from him."
+
+"N-n-o-o.  Then maybe he'll organize a posse to hunt for my egg."
+
+"Oh, hang your old egg!"
+
+The Roman chariot races were on, the rattle of the wheels, the
+shouts of the drivers drowning the voices of the two boys.
+
+"Teddy, you'll have to get back and change your clothes.
+The performance is about over.  That makes me think.  I have on
+my ring clothes under this suit and I must hurry back to my bath
+and my change."
+
+The performance closed and the rattle and bang of tearing down
+the big white city had begun.  The boys were engaged in packing
+their trunks now, as were most of their fellow performers.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Teddy, straightening up suddenly.
+
+"Somebody fired a shot," answered another performer.
+
+Phil knew what it meant.
+
+A bullet had ended the sufferings of the faithful old ring horse
+off under the big top.  The Circus Boy turned away, with a
+blinding mist in his eyes.
+
+"Poor old Jim!" he groaned.
+
+Off under the women's dressing tent another pair of ears had
+heard and understood, and Little Dimples, burying her head in
+her hands wept softly.
+
+"Poor old Jim!" she, too, murmured.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE PILOT GETS A SURPRISE
+
+The happiness of the day had been marred by the accident,
+but, like true circus men, all hands took the disaster in
+the matter-of-fact manner characteristic of their kind.
+
+The show people, in couples and singly, took their way to the
+river, where they boarded the boats.  Already wagons were
+rumbling down on the docks and cages were being quickly shunted
+into position for their journey down the river that night.
+
+Everything moved with as much method as if the show had been
+traveling in this way from the beginning of the season.
+
+The performers were enjoying the novel experience of river
+traveling too thoroughly to turn into their berths early.  A cold
+lunch had been spread in the main cabins of the "Marie" and the
+"River Queen" for the performers, while from the cook tent,
+baskets had been prepared and sent in for the use of the laborers
+after they had completed their night's work and finished loading
+the show.
+
+All this was appreciated, and it was a jolly company that lined
+the tables in the two larger boats.  Leather upholstered seats
+were built into the sides of the cabin, and with mouths and hands
+full, the circus people soon took possession of the seats, where
+they ate and chatted noisily.
+
+"Funny thing about Jim," said one of the performers.  "What do
+you suppose made him fall, Mr. Miaco?"
+
+"I don't know.  Probably for the same reason that anyone falls."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"Stumbled over something, I guess."
+
+"Hey, Teddy, what ailed the ring horse?" called a voice as
+the Circus Boy sauntered in and espying the tables made a
+dive for them.
+
+"I guess he was hungry," mumbled Teddy, his mouth full of
+ham sandwich.
+
+"Hungry?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What makes you think that?"
+
+" 'Cause he bit the dust."
+
+A general groan was heard in the cabin.
+
+"Throw him overboard!"
+
+"I know a better way to punish him for that ghastly joke."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Take the food away from him, tie him up and make him watch us
+eat," was the answer.
+
+A shout of laughter greeted the proposition.
+
+The pilot of the "Marie," a heavily bearded man named Cummings,
+broke out in a loud guffaw.
+
+All eyes were turned upon him.
+
+"I reckon I kin tie him up if you says the word," he volunteered.
+
+"All right; tie him up," shouted the performers, scenting fun.
+
+Teddy eyed the pilot out of the corners of his eyes and placidly
+munched his sandwich.  The pilot, in the meantime, had stepped to
+the rear end of the cabin, where, from a box of life-preservers
+he took a piece of Manila rope.
+
+"I believe he is going to do it," said a clown, nudging
+his companion.
+
+"You mean he is going to try it," answered the other.  "Watch for
+some fun.  He thinks Teddy is an easy mark."
+
+"He will be in this case.  That fellow, Cummings, is hard as a
+rail fence.  He could handle two of Teddy."
+
+In the meantime Tucker had strolled to the table, from which he
+took a large sandwich, buttered it well, then returned to his
+seat, not appearing to observe the pilot's movements at all.
+
+As he sat down the lad was observed to open the sandwich,
+removing the thin slice of ham and stowing the latter in his
+coat pocket.  Then he sat thoughtfully contemplating the two
+pieces of buttered bread as if trying to decide whether or not
+he should eat them.
+
+"Get up, kiddie," said Cummings, grasping the boy by
+the shoulder.  "Get up and take your punishment like
+a little dear."
+
+Teddy got up, carelessly, indifferently, while the pilot
+stretched the rope to its full length.
+
+The boy saw that he was in earnest.
+
+Smack!
+
+Quick as a flash Teddy had plastered one half of the sandwich,
+buttered side in, right over the eyes of Cummings.
+
+Smack!
+
+The second half of the sandwich landed neatly over his mouth,
+pressed home by a firm fist.
+
+Cummings could not speak, neither could he see.  At that moment
+he was perhaps the most surprised man on the Mississippi River.
+At least he appeared to be, for he stood still.  He stood still
+just a few seconds too long.
+
+Teddy had seized the rope.  With it he made a quick twist about
+the body of the pilot, taking two turns, then drawing the rope
+tight and tying it, thus pinioning the hands and arms of the
+pilot to his sides.
+
+"Yip-yeow!" howled Teddy.
+
+The show people shrieked with delight.
+
+"You'll tie up a Circus Boy, will you?" jeered Teddy.
+"You'll have to grow some first.  No Rube with a bunch of
+whiskers on his face like that ever lived who could tie up
+a real circus man."
+
+Teddy had drawn nearer to impress his words upon the pilot, when
+all of a sudden the man's hands gripped the lad.  The boy never
+had felt quite so strong a grip on his body.  Cummings had not
+handled a pilot wheel on the Mississippi for thirty years without
+acquiring some strength in hands and arms.
+
+Teddy, failing to pull away, grappled with his antagonist,
+all in the best of humor, though his face bore its usual
+solemn expression.
+
+"Gangway," cried Teddy humorously.  "I'm going to give him a bath
+in the river."
+
+Then began a lively scrimmage.  Back and forth the combatants
+struggled across the cabin floor, the growls of the pilot drowned
+in the shouts and jeers of the performers.
+
+All at once, Teddy tripped his antagonist and the two went down
+into a heap, rolling under the main table on which the lunch had
+been spread.
+
+"Look out for the table!" warned a voice.
+
+"Sit on it, some of you fellows, and hold it down!"
+
+The suggestion came too late.  The table suddenly rose into the
+air, landing upside down with a crash, at one side of the cabin.
+A moment more and the two combatants were wrestling on roast beef
+and ham sandwiches, potato salad and various other foods.
+
+"I guess this has gone about far enough," decided Mr. Miaco,
+the head clown.  "We'll have a fight on our hands, first thing
+we know.  If Teddy really gets angry you'll think the 'Sweet
+Marie' is in the midst of a cyclone."
+
+"The 'Fat Marie,' you mean," corrected a voice.
+
+With the assistance of two others Miaco succeeded in
+separating the combatants, after which he untied the rope,
+releasing the pilot.
+
+Teddy was grinning broadly, but Cummings was not.  The latter was
+glowering angrily at his little antagonist.
+
+"Shake?" asked Teddy, extending a hand.
+
+"No, I'm blest if I will!  I'll not shake hands with anybody who
+has insulted me by buttering my face," growled the pilot.
+
+"You'll be better bred if you are well buttered,"
+suggested Teddy.
+
+"Oh, help!" moaned The Fattest Woman on Earth.
+
+"Put him out!  Put him out!" howled several voices in chorus.
+
+"Yes, that's the thing!  We can stand for some things some of the
+time, but we won't stand for everything all of the time," added
+a clown wisely.
+
+Half a dozen performers picked Teddy up bodily, bore him to one
+of the open windows and dumped him out on the deck.
+
+"Here, what's all this commotion about?" commanded Phil, who,
+at that moment, came from his cabin to the deck.
+
+"They threw me out," wailed Teddy.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I made a pun."
+
+"Tell it to me."
+
+Teddy in short, jerky sentences, related what had been done
+and said.  Phil leaned against the rail and shouted.
+
+"I--I don't blame them," he gasped between laughs.  "It is a
+wonder they did not throw you overboard."
+
+"They had better not try it."
+
+"But what about the pilot--what happened to him?"
+
+"May--maybe they have put him out, too."
+
+"You have a way of getting into trouble, Teddy.  Mr. Cummings
+will love you for what you have done to him, I can well imagine."
+
+"About as much as I love him, I guess.  He got too bold, Phil.
+He had to have a lesson and Teddy Tucker was the boy who had to
+teach it to him.  Say, go in and gather me a sandwich out of the
+wreck, will you?"
+
+"Not I.  Go and get your own sandwich.  I'm going to see
+Mr. Sparling in his cabin.  He has sent for me."
+
+Teddy sat out on deck while the others were picking up the table,
+the dishes and the ruined food.  It would not do for Mr. Sparling
+to come in and see how they had wasted the food he had had
+prepared for them.  The probabilities were that they would get no
+more, were he to do so.  Teddy watched the proceedings narrowly
+from the safe vantage point of the deck.
+
+In the meantime Phil had gone to Mr. Sparling's cabin, where the
+showman was checking up the day's receipts.
+
+"A pretty good day, Phil," smiled Mr. Sparling.
+
+"I am glad to hear that, sir."
+
+"Two thousand dollars in the clear, as the result of our two
+performances today.  Do you know of any other business that would
+pay as much for the amount invested, eh, Phil?"
+
+"I do not, sir."
+
+"You see, it is a pretty good business to be in after all,
+provided it is run on business principles, at the same time
+treating one's employees like human beings."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"How would you like to have an interest in a show?"
+
+"I am going to, someday.  It may be a long time yet before I have
+earned money enough, but I shall if I live," said the Circus Boy
+quietly but with determination.
+
+"So you shall.  I intend to have a talk with you on this subject,
+one of these days.  What I wanted to talk with you about is
+Jim's loss.  I am glad it wasn't your ring horse, Phil.  Have you
+anything to say about the animal breaking his leg?"
+
+"I have."
+
+"Out with it."
+
+"Somebody is to blame for that accident."
+
+"How?"
+
+"Someone planned that accident."
+
+"Explain!"
+
+"Teddy and myself examined the ring, that is, Teddy already had
+done so before I returned, and he discovered something--we both
+decided what must have happened."
+
+"Yes," urged the showman as Phil paused.
+
+"A round hole about a foot deep had been dug in the ring.
+This had been covered with a shingle and the sawdust sprinkled
+over to hide the shingle.  It was a deliberate attempt to do
+someone an injury."
+
+Mr. Sparling eyed him questioningly.
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"As sure as I can be.  Jim didn't happen to step on the
+shingle until we were doing the pyramid, then of course
+something happened.  It is a wonder that neither Little
+Dimples nor myself was injured."
+
+"Phil, we simply must find out who is responsible for this
+dastardly work."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And when we do--when we do--"
+
+"What then, Mr. Sparling!"
+
+The showman was opening and closing his fingers nervously.
+
+"Don't ask me," he replied in a low, tense voice.  "I don't want
+to see the man.  I should do something I would be sorry for all
+the rest of my life.  Good night, Phil."
+
+Phil Forrest left the cabin and strode thoughtfully away to his
+own room, where he was soon in bed.  Phil, however, did not sleep
+very well that night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AN UNWELCOME VISITOR
+
+The boats of the Sparling fleet had been moving steadily
+downstream for several hours, their passengers, in the majority
+of instances, sound asleep, lulled by the gentle motion and the
+far away "spat, spat, spat," of the industrious paddle wheel at
+the stern of each craft.
+
+Teddy had prudently kept away from the main cabin for the rest
+of the evening; when Phil turned in, Teddy was sleeping sweetly.
+His active part in the affair in the cabin had not caused him
+any loss of sleep.
+
+With the pilot, Cummings, however, matters had been different.
+Mr. Cummings had been steadily at the wheel of the "Marie" since
+the boats had sailed shortly after one o'clock in the morning.
+
+The pilot's temper had suffered as the result of his experience
+in the cabin, and the jeers aud laughter of the circus people had
+not added to his peace of mind.  At intervals he would break out
+into a tirade of invective and threats against Teddy Tucker, who
+had so humiliated him.
+
+"I'll get even with that little monkey-face!  They ought to put
+him in the monkey cage where he belongs," growled the pilot,
+giving the wheel a three-quarter turn to keep the boat from
+driving her prow into the bank, for which he had been steering
+to avoid a hidden sand bar.
+
+"I'll tell the manager tomorrow, that if he doesn't keep that
+boy away from me, I'll take the matter into my own hands and
+give that kid a trouncing that will last him till we get to
+New Orleans."
+
+The darkness of the night, just before the dawn, hung over the
+broad river.  Doors and windows of the pilot house were thrown
+open so that the wheelman might get a clear view on all sides.
+
+All at once Cummings seemed to feel some presence near him.
+He thought he caught the sound of a footfall on the deck.
+To make sure he left the wheel for a few seconds, peering out
+along the deck, on both sides of the pilot house.
+
+He saw no one.  The air was filled with a black pall of smoke
+from the "Marie's" funnel, the smoke settling over the boat,
+wholly enveloping her from her stack to the stern paddle wheel.
+
+"Huh!" grunted the pilot, returning to his duties.
+
+Yet his ears had not deceived him.  Something was near him, a
+strange shape, the like of which never had been seen on the deck
+of the "Fat Marie", in all her long service on the Mississippi.
+
+"If that fool boy comes nosing around here I'll throw him
+overboard--that's what I'll do," threatened Cummings.  "I'll show
+him he can't fool with the pilot of the finest steamboat of the
+old line.  I--"
+
+The pilot suddenly checked himself and peered out to starboard.
+
+"Wha--what?" he gasped.
+
+Something darkened the doorway.  What he now saw was a strange,
+grotesque shape that looked like a shadow itself in the uncertain
+light of the early morning.
+
+"Get out of here!" bellowed the pilot, the cold chills running up
+and down his spine.
+
+The most frightful sound that his ears had ever heard, broke
+suddenly on the quiet of the Mississippi night.
+
+"It's the lion escaped!"
+
+Cummings grabbed a stout oak stick that lay at hand--the stick
+that now and then, when battling with a stiff current, he used
+to insert between the spokes of the steering wheel to give him
+greater leverage.
+
+With a yell he brought the stick down on the head of the
+strange beast.  The roar or bray of the animal stopped suddenly.
+
+Whack! came the echo from the club.
+
+Cummings sprang back.  He slammed the pilot-house door in the
+face of the beast, and closed the windows with a bang that shook
+the pilot house.  In his excitement the pilot rang in a signal to
+the engineer for full speed astern.
+
+About that time something else occurred.
+
+With a terrific crash one of the windows of the pilot house was
+shattered, pieces of glass showering in upon the pilot like a
+sudden storm of hail.
+
+Crash!
+
+Another window fell in a shower about him.  He tried to get the
+door on the opposite side of the pilot house open, but locked it
+instead and dropped the key on the floor.
+
+All this time the "Fat Marie's" paddle wheel was backing water
+and the craft, now swung almost broadside to the stream, was
+working her way over toward the Iowa shore.
+
+Bang!
+
+A section of the pilot-house door fell shattering on the inside,
+and what sounded like a volley of musketry, rattled against the
+harder woodwork of the pilot house itself.
+
+Frightened almost out of all sense, Cummings began groping
+excitedly for his revolver.  At last he found it, more by
+accident than through any methodical search for it.
+
+The pilot began to shoot.  Some of his bullets went through the
+roof, others through the broken out windows, while a couple
+landed in the door.
+
+At last the half-crazed Cummings was snapping the hammer on
+empty chambers.  He had emptied his revolver without hitting
+anything more than wood and water.
+
+The fusillade from the outside still continued.
+
+By this time the din had begun to arouse the passengers on
+the boat.  Phil Forrest was the first to spring up.  He shook
+Teddy by the shoulder, but, being unable to awaken his companion,
+jerked the boy out of bed and let him drop on the floor.
+
+"Get a net!  What's the matter down there!" yelled Teddy.
+"Hey, hey, did the mule kick me?  Oh, that you Phil?
+What's the row--what has happened?"
+
+"I don't know.  Come on out.  Something has gone wrong.
+Hear those shots?"
+
+"Wow!  Trouble!  That's me!  I knew I couldn't dream about angels
+without something breaking loose."
+
+Phil had thrown the door open and bounded out to the deck.
+Just as he did so the pilot leaped from the front window of
+the pilot house, climbed over the rail and dropped to the
+deck below.  The volleying, the thunderous blows
+still continued.
+
+A loud bray attracted their attention to the other side of
+the boat.
+
+"What's that?" demanded Phil, starting off in that direction.
+
+"It's January!  It's January!" howled Teddy Tucker.  "I would
+know that sweet voice if I heard it in the jungles of Africa.
+Where is he?"
+
+"Over here somewhere.  Come on.  I can't imagine what
+has happened."
+
+"The animals have escaped.  There's a lion on the hurricane
+deck!" they heard a voice below shout in terrified tones.
+
+"Do you think that's it?" called Phil.
+
+"Lion, nothing!  Didn't I tell you I knew that voice?  There he
+is now.  See him hand out the hoofs at the pilot house.  He must
+have a grudge against Cummings.  I know.  He's paying the fellow
+back for trying to tie me up."
+
+"But--but, how did he ever get up here?"
+
+"Go it, January!  Kick the daylights out of him!  I'll give you a
+whole peck of sugar if you kick the house into the river, pilot
+and all."
+
+"Whoa!  Whoa, January!" shouted Phil.
+
+The donkey, for it was January himself, and not a savage
+beast that was acting the part of a battering ram and rapidly
+demolishing the pilot house, paused for a second; then, moving
+to a new position, he began once more hammering at the structure.
+
+"How did he ever get up here, Teddy?"
+
+"I don't know.  I know I am glad he did, that's all.
+Let him kick."
+
+"I'm going to try to catch him."
+
+"Keep away, Phil.  He'll have you in the river.  He has a fit.
+Wait till he comes out of it."
+
+"Why, the boat is moving backwards," cried Phil.
+
+"No!"
+
+"Yes, it is."
+
+"Maybe January has kicked the machinery out of gear."
+
+The circus people were by this time on deck, and, like Teddy and
+Phil, many of them were in their pajamas.  They had heard the
+cry, "the animals have escaped," and many of the people were
+gazing apprehensively about.
+
+"It's all right," shouted Teddy.  "It is only January, taking his
+morning exercise."
+
+About that time Phil, who had run around to the other side of
+the pilot house, discovered that it was empty.  There was no
+pilot there.
+
+Understanding came to him instantly.  January had either kicked
+or frightened Cummings out.
+
+"The boat is running wild!" he called.  "Find the pilot or we
+shall be on the shore before we know it."
+
+Phil did not wait for them to find the pilot.  Instead, he
+climbed in through one of the broken windows and grasped
+the wheel.
+
+"I've got to stop this going astern first of all," he decided.
+
+He could see the banks now, and they seemed perilously near in
+the faint morning light.  The other boats of the fleet were
+steaming up in answer to the signals of distress that Cummings
+had blown in his excitement.
+
+"What is it?  Are you sinking?" called a voice through a
+megaphone from the deck of the "River Queen."
+
+"No, we are all right," answered Phil, leaning out of the window.
+
+"You'll be high and dry on the Iowa shore if you don't
+watch sharp.  Where are you going?"
+
+"Don't know.  Keep out of the way or we're liable to run
+you down."
+
+Phil grabbed a bell pull and gave it a violent jerk.  The engines
+stopped suddenly, to the Circus Boy's great delight.  January had
+ceased his bombardment and now stood with head thrust though one
+of the broken windows, gazing in inquiringly at Phil Forrest.
+
+"If one bell stopped the engine, another bell should be the
+signal to go ahead," reasoned the lad, giving the bell pull two
+quick jerks.  He was right.  The machinery started and he could
+hear the big paddle wheel beating the river into a froth.
+
+The lower deck was in an uproar.  Men were shouting and running
+about, trying to discover what animals had escaped, as the pilot
+insisted that the hurricane deck was alive with them.
+
+"Get that pilot up here, if you have to drag him.  I don't know
+where the channel is, and I am liable to put the whole outfit
+aground any minute," shouted Phil Forrest.  "Teddy, never mind
+that idiotic donkey.  We're in a fix.  Get downstairs, at one
+jump, and see that the pilot is brought up here lively."
+
+"I'll fetch him.  You watch me," answered the irrepressible
+Teddy, starting off on a run.
+
+January had all at once grown very meek.  He stood gazing
+thoughtfully off over the river.
+
+"What is the trouble here?" roared Mr. Sparling dashing up to the
+pilot house at that moment.
+
+"That is exactly what I have been trying to find out," answered
+the Circus Boy.
+
+"What, _Phil?_"
+
+"Yes, it's Phil."
+
+"What are you doing in there?"
+
+"Steering the boat."
+
+"Piloting the--where is the pilot?"
+
+"Somewhere below.  I have sent Teddy after him.  You see,
+January was trying to kick the pilot house off the boat and into
+the river.  The pilot, thinking the animals had escaped, fled.
+When I came up this craft was traveling astern and January was
+making a sieve of this little house.  I have got the 'Marie'
+going forward, but I may run her aground if he doesn't come
+along pretty soon."
+
+Mr. Sparling reached the companionway in two bounds, and, leaping
+to the lower deck, caught the pilot by the coat collar, shaking
+off the two circus men who had hold of Cummings.
+
+"You get up to that pilot house or you'll be in the worst fix
+in your whole river career."  Mr. Sparling accompanied the
+words with a violent push that sent the pilot headlong toward
+the stairway.  But the showman was by the fellow's side by the
+time he had gotten to his feet, and began assisting him up the
+companionway, while Teddy Tucker followed, prodding the pilot
+in the back with a clenched fist.
+
+Into the pilot house they hurled the man, Cummings.
+
+"Now, you steer!  If it had not been for that boy we might have
+lost our whole equipment.  I don't care anything about your old
+boat, but I'm blest if I am going to let a fool pilot wreck
+us--a pilot who is afraid of a donkey."
+
+"I'll quit this outfit tomorrow," growled Cummings.  "I kin pilot
+steamers, but I can't fight a menagerie and a pack of boys with
+the very Old Nick in them.  Get away from that wheel!" he
+commanded, thrusting Phil aside.
+
+Mr. Sparling had him by the collar once more.
+
+"You do that again, and I'll take it out of you right here!"
+declared the showman savagely.
+
+"I'll bet he's the fellow who stole my egg," declared Teddy,
+eyeing the pilot sternly.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+BETRAYED BY A SNEEZE
+
+"How did that beast get up here?" demanded Mr. Sparling.
+
+"Who, Cummings?" asked Teddy innocently.
+
+"No, no!  The donkey."
+
+"Oh!  Maybe he came up through the smoke stack.  If you will look
+at it you may find donkey tracks on the inside of the stack."
+
+"That will do, that will do, young man."
+
+It was found upon investigation that January had gnawed his
+halter until only a thin strand held it together, which was easy
+for the donkey to break.  Then he began an investigation of the
+boat, ending by his climbing the broad staircase and frightening
+the pilot.
+
+Next morning the pilot house looked as though it had been through
+a shipwreck.  The whole craft, in fact the entire fleet, was
+laughing at the expense of Cummings, who now kept to himself,
+studiously avoiding the other people.  January was tied up with
+a dog chain after that, and was not heard from again during any
+trip of that season; that is, beyond his regular acts in the
+sawdust arena.
+
+The next day Phil Forrest began his investigation in earnest.
+He knew that Mr. Sparling looked to him to discover who had
+caused so much trouble in the show, besides which, Phil took a
+personal interest because of the attempt that had been made on
+the lives of Little Dimples and himself.
+
+Teddy suggested that he go through the pilot's belongings,
+expressing the firm belief that they would find the ostrich egg
+were they to do so.
+
+Phil consulted Little Dimples, that afternoon, as to her opinion
+of the occurrences of the past week, but the star bareback rider
+could shed no light on them, beyond the fact that certain people
+with whom Phil had had difficulties might bear watching.
+
+"That's what I think," answered the Circus Boy.  "I do not like
+to accuse anyone unjustly, but I have these suspicions of the
+Spanish clown."
+
+"Have you mentioned your suspicion to Mr. Sparling, Phil?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Do you intend to do so?"
+
+"Not unless I find some facts to support my suspicion."
+
+"You will get to the bottom of the mystery, I am sure," smiled
+the woman.
+
+"I am not so sure.  Why do you think so?"
+
+"Because you are one of the cleverest boys I ever knew,
+that's why.  I should hate to have you on my track if I
+were guilty of any particular crime that you were trying to
+run down.  I should expect to land in jail, and I think I
+should come straight to you and give myself up," added the
+woman with a merry laugh.
+
+"I wish I were all that you think I am, Dimples."
+
+"You are.  You saved my life again yesterday.  I'm going to
+pay you back, however.  Someday, when you fall overboard,
+Little Dimples is going to jump right in and rescue you--haul
+you out by the hair of your head--"
+
+"You can't, it is cut too short."
+
+"Then I will pull you out by an ear."
+
+"I shall make it my business to fall in, then, at the first
+opportunity," laughed Phil.  "It would be worthwhile."
+
+Dimples gave him a playful tap.
+
+"You can turn a compliment as well as you can do a turn in the
+ring, can't you Phil Forrest?"
+
+Despite their narrow escape from serious accident, Phil and
+Dimples went through their double act in the ring that day and
+evening with perfect confidence.  Previous to going on, Phil had
+had a ring attendant go over the sawdust circle on his hands and
+knees, making a careful examination of it, to be sure that the
+ring had not been tampered with.
+
+>From that time on until the act went on, the ring was watched,
+though Phil did not believe the miscreant would attempt to lay
+another trap for him so soon.  Still, he took nothing
+for granted.
+
+That night after the performance, the air being warm and balmy,
+the Circus Boy strolled out on the lot, sitting down on a little
+knoll to think matters over.  There was plenty of time, for the
+boat would not leave for two or three hours, and Phil wanted to
+be alone.
+
+Lights were twinkling on the lot like fireflies.  There was
+shouting and singing, but little of this conveyed itself to Phil,
+for his mind was on other things.
+
+All at once he pricked up his ears.  He caught the sound of
+running footsteps.
+
+"Someone is coming this way," he muttered.  "I wonder what
+that means?  Surely none of the circus people would come here.
+They would go around by the road."
+
+The lad concealed himself behind the knoll, peering over the top
+of it.  He resolved not to show himself until he had discovered
+the identity of the newcomers.
+
+They proved to be two men who halted a short distance beyond him,
+and began to converse in guarded tones.  It was so dark that Phil
+could scarcely distinguish their figures and their voices were
+pitched so low that it was impossible for him to hear what they
+were saying.
+
+"This looks queer," Phil muttered.  "I wish I could hear what
+they are talking about.  Perhaps they are town fellows who have
+been chased off the lot because they were in the way.  At any
+rate, I'm going to try to find out what they are up to.
+Hello, they are coming right over here."
+
+Phil crouched down behind the knoll and listened.  The men turned
+slowly and came toward him.  All at once one of them stumbled on
+the very knoll behind which he was secreted.
+
+The man uttered a growl.
+
+"Come, sit down," he said to his companion.
+
+"We better go on," answered the other.
+
+"No hurry.  We've got all the time in the world.  If we miss the
+boat we can swim.  That was a narrow escape.  In a minute more
+we'd had that wagon fixed so they would never have got off the
+lot with it."
+
+"Hello," muttered Phil under his breath.  "Something surely is
+going on here.  One of the voices I have heard before, and the
+other I seem to recognize.  I believe that first fellow belongs
+to the show.  I am almost sure of it."
+
+"You think the fellow suspects?"
+
+"The tall one does.  But he doesn't know whom be suspects."
+
+"We have to take care."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But we will get both before the end of the season."
+
+"You bet we will.  I have a plan that--"
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"It is this."
+
+Phil had buried his head in the grass and compressed his body
+into the smallest possible space that he might avoid discovery.
+He could hear the two men breathe, and he reasoned that they
+might hear him as well.
+
+"You know the big net?"
+
+"You mean the one over which the flying four perform?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What about it?"
+
+"It can be fixed."
+
+"How?"
+
+"By weakening some of the strands on each side."
+
+"That is good, but suppose someone noticed."
+
+"Not if it is done right.  I don't mean to do it all at once.
+I'll doctor one or two strands every day until the net is so
+weakened that it won't hold."
+
+"Yes, but how will you do this so no one will see?"
+
+"I'll tell you.  After the act is over they roll the net up and
+carry it out.  It is dumped just outside the pad room, where it
+is picked up by one of the property wagons later in the evening.
+It's in the same place every night."
+
+"I think somebody may see us do it."
+
+"No danger.  Keep cool; that's all.  We'll get even with
+those fellows.  We have got to before we can carry out
+the other plans we have talked over.  They are too sharp.
+Sooner or later they will get wise to us, and we've got to
+get them out of the way before we go any further.  The work
+must be done in a natural sort of way, so that no suspicion
+is aroused."
+
+"Yes, that's so.  But what about the others?  You want to hurt
+them, too?"
+
+"I don't care, so long as we get the right one, how many get
+their bumps."
+
+"That's right.  But only one of them is on trapeze.  What you do
+about other?"
+
+"It is the tall one that I want most.  He's got to be put out of
+the running.  It won't kill him, but it will lay him up in a
+hospital for the rest of the season, and that's enough for us."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"The other one will be taken care of after we get through with
+the first.  The small fellow is sharp, but he can't see beyond
+his nose.  It's easy to fool him."
+
+"The fiends!" muttered Phil.  "I believe they are plotting
+against Teddy and me.  I have a good notion to sail into
+them right here and settle it.  I believe I could whip the
+two of them.  I--"
+
+At that instant a blade of grass tickled Phil's nose.  He raised
+his head quickly.
+
+"What's that?" exclaimed one of the plotters.
+
+"I heard nothing."
+
+"You didn't?  Well, I did.  There's someone around here and close
+by us."
+
+"Perhaps it was a squirrel in the grass.  There is no one here."
+
+The blade of grass had done its work, however.  Phil tried hard
+to control himself, but he knew he was going to sneeze.
+
+All at once the sneeze came, louder than he had ever
+sneezed before.
+
+The men leaped to their feet in sudden alarm.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+EAVESDROPPERS!
+
+"Look out!"
+
+"There he is!"
+
+"Grab him!"
+
+Phil had bounded to his feet, realizing that he could no longer
+conceal himself from them.  As he did so, both men sprang toward
+him, the Circus Boy eluding them by a leap to one side.
+
+The men made a rush for him.  At first Phil was inclined to stand
+his ground and give battle, but he reasoned that, being two to
+one, the chances were against him and that even if he were not
+captured, he might sustain injuries that would keep him out of
+the ring.
+
+That was the deciding factor with Phil Forrest.  Although he
+would have preferred facing his enemies, he whirled instead
+and started on a run, with both men pursuing him at top speed.
+
+"He's out-running us.  He'll get away!" cried one of the men.
+"Run, run!  Run for all you're worth!"
+
+But they might as well have spared their effort.  Phil was fleet
+of foot, and after getting a slight lead over them he turned
+sharply to his right, leaped a fence and lay down.
+
+The men quickly discovered that they had lost their prey.
+Then they became alarmed.
+
+"Get out of here, quick!  He will be following us!"
+
+The men turned and ran swiftly in an opposite direction.
+
+"Do you think he recognized us?"
+
+"I don't know.  We can tell by the way he acts when we get back;
+that is if he doesn't follow us now.  We had better separate and
+go back to the lot.  From there we can go along with the wagons
+and not be noticed.  Don't let him bluff you."
+
+"Have no fear for me."
+
+The plotters separated and cautiously made their way back to the
+lot where they were soon lost among the crowd of men at work
+taking down the tent.
+
+"I believe one of those two men was Diaz," declared Phil,
+as he once more tried to place the voice that he had seemed
+to recognize.  "They have given me the slip, too.  I know what
+I'll do.  I will hurry back to the boat and when Diaz returns
+I will face him and make him betray himself if I can.  I shall
+have him then."
+
+Having decided on his course of action, Phil struck off at a trot
+across the field.  He soon reached a back street of the village,
+and from there ran at full speed to the docks.
+
+All was activity here.  The lad cast a quick glance about, though
+he did not expect to find the man for whom he was looking.
+Without pausing in his rapid gait he ran up the companionway to
+the upper deck, where he intended to watch at the rail for the
+arrival of Diaz from the lot.
+
+As he leaned over the rail he felt someone stir near him.
+Glancing up quickly, the Circus Boy started almost guiltily.
+There, beside him, sat Diaz on a camp stool with his feet on the
+steamer's rail, calmly watching the loading operations on the
+deck below.
+
+"Good evening, Mr. Diaz," said Phil quickly recovering
+his self-possession.
+
+Diaz uttered an unintelligible grunt, but did not deign to turn
+his head.
+
+"Hey, Phil, is that you?" called the voice of Teddy from further
+down the deck.
+
+"Yes," answered Phil, rising and moving aft.  "How long have you
+been here?"
+
+"About an hour."
+
+"Do you know who is sitting over there?"
+
+"Over where?"
+
+"There by the rail?"
+
+"Sure, I know.  That's our old friend Diaz," grinned Teddy.
+
+"How long has he been there?"
+
+"He came in when I did."
+"An hour ago?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Phil was perplexed.
+
+"I do not understand it at all."
+
+"Don't understand what?"
+
+"Something that occurred this evening."
+
+Teddy's curiosity was aroused.
+
+"What is it all about, Phil?"
+
+"I should prefer not to talk about it here, Teddy.  I will tell
+you after we get to bed and there is no one about to overhear us.
+There is a rascally plot on foot."
+
+"A plot?"
+
+"Yes.  I know very little about it, but I know enough to warn me
+that you and I will have to keep our eyes open or else we shall
+find ourselves in serious difficulties before we realize it."
+
+"Is that so?  Tell me who the plotters are, and I'll turn January
+loose on them," explained Teddy.  "Do you think they are the
+fellows who stole my egg?"
+
+"I don't know.  Where is Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"I haven't seen him since I ran into him and bowled him over off
+on the lot."
+
+Phil laughed.
+
+"As I have said many times before, you are hopeless, Teddy.
+I must go now.  If you see Mr. Sparling, please let me know,
+but say nothing to anyone about what I have just told you."
+
+"I won't."
+
+Phil walked back to the point on the deck where he had first
+stopped to look over the rail, and, drawing up a stool sat down.
+He began studying the faces of the belated performers who came
+straggling down to the dock, singly and in pairs.  None seemed
+to be in a hurry; not a face appeared to reflect any excitement.
+After an hour of this Phil felt sure that all the company had
+been accounted for.
+
+Mr. Sparling had arrived about twenty minutes earlier, and was
+standing on the dock giving orders.  As the lad saw the owner
+enter the boat he turned away and hurried downstairs.
+
+"When you are at liberty, I should like a few moments
+conversation with you, sir," announced Phil.
+
+"I am at liberty, now, my lad," answered the showman with a smile
+and a friendly slap on the boy's shoulder.
+
+"I would rather not talk here, Mr. Sparling," answered Phil in a
+low tone.
+
+"Something doing, eh?"
+
+"There is."
+
+"Is it important that you should talk with me at once, or will a
+little later on answer the purpose?"
+
+"Later on will do.  It is not so urgent as that."
+
+"When the men get these menagerie cages all shifted on deck I
+will meet you in my cabin.  That will be in about twenty
+minutes, Phil."
+
+"Very well, sir; I will be on hand."
+
+Phil walked away, watched the loading operations for a few
+minutes, then strolled to the main cabin on the upper deck,
+where lunch was being served as usual.
+
+The Circus Boy appeared more light-hearted than usual that
+evening, as he chatted and joked with his friends among
+the performers.  He did not wish the man or men whom he had
+overheard off on the lot to know that he was the eavesdropper.
+He felt that he could make better progress in his investigation
+were they not on their guard.
+
+The pilot, Cummings, was not in the cabin.  He had not been
+seen there since his trouble with Teddy.  Despite the pilot's
+determination to resign, he was still on duty, he and
+Mr. Sparling having come to a satisfactory understanding.
+
+Teddy was helping himself liberally for the second time since his
+return from the lot.
+
+"Do you think you will ever be able to satisfy that appetite
+of yours?" laughed Phil.
+
+"I hope not," answered Teddy solemnly.  "That's the only fun in
+life--that and the donkey."
+
+Just then Mr. Sparling passed through the cabin on the way to his
+stateroom and office.  He gave Phil a significant glance, to
+which the Circus Boy did not respond.  A few minutes later,
+however, Phil strolled out to the deck.  Reaching it he turned
+quickly and hurried aft, entering the passageway there and going
+directly to Mr. Sparling's quarters.
+
+"Come in," invited the owner in response to Phil's gentle rap.
+
+The blinds had been drawn up, though the windows were let
+down into their casings out of sight.  Phil noted this in
+a quick glance.
+
+"Sit down and tell me what has happened, Phil.  I am sure you
+have made some sort of discovery."
+
+"I have and I haven't."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That I am deeper in the mire than ever."
+
+"Tell me about it."
+
+"While I have made no discoveries that will help us much, I have
+learned just enough to understand that there is a diabolical plot
+on foot."
+
+"Against whom?"
+
+"I am not sure, but I think it is against Teddy and myself."
+
+"Is it possible?  Who are the plotters?"
+
+"That is the worst of it; I do not know.  I wish I did.
+I thought I had one of the men identified, but I find I
+am all wrong.  I am more at sea than ever."
+
+"Who did you think it was?"
+
+"As long as I am mistaken, why should I accuse anyone?"
+
+"You are right.  Have you reason to believe it is someone
+connected with this show?"
+
+"I am sure that at least one of the men is."
+
+"Then there is more than one in this thing?"
+
+"There are two men.  At least I have seen two.  There may be more
+for all I know."
+
+"Now, tell me what it is all about.  You haven't said a word
+regarding this plot yet," urged the showman drawing his chair
+around the corner of his desk and leaning forward with his hands
+on his knees.
+
+Phil told how he strolled off into the field adjoining the
+circus lot, and went on in detail to relate all that had
+occurred after that.  As he proceeded with his story the face
+of James Sparling grew serious and then stern.
+
+"I presume I should have stood my ground and given battle to
+them, if for no other reason than to find out who they were,"
+concluded the lad, somewhat ruefully.
+
+"Phil Forrest, you should have done nothing of the sort,"
+answered Mr. Sparling sharply.  "You take quite enough risk as
+it is.  You think the plot now is to tamper with the big net?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Is it possible that such scoundrels are traveling with the
+Sparling shows?"
+
+"I wish I did not think so."
+
+"Phil, it is not the man who was responsible for several
+accidents the first year you were with us, is it?" demanded
+the showman shrewdly, darting a sharp glance at Phil.
+
+"No, sir," answered the boy flushing a little.  "That man is no
+longer with the show."
+
+"I thought so.  Now I have him located."
+
+"The--the man I saw tonight--you know him?" gasped Phil.
+
+"No.  I did not mean that.  I refer to the fellow who nearly
+caused your death three years ago."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"You had some trouble with Diaz a short time ago, did you not?"
+
+Phil was surprised that the showman was aware of this.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where is Diaz tonight?" demanded the showman almost sternly.
+
+"In his stateroom, or else out on deck."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+Phil nodded.
+
+"What time did he return from the lot?"
+
+"He was here when I went on deck.  He came to the boat directly
+after the performance."
+
+"You are sure of this?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"You are a very shrewd young man, sir," said Mr. Sparling,
+with a mirthless smile.  "However, these guilty men must be
+found and punished.  You think their first efforts will be
+directed toward the net?"
+
+"Yes, according to what I overheard.  I have an idea, however,
+that they will not do so at once, fearing they may have been
+recognized, or at any rate that their plans are known to
+someone else."
+
+"Do you think they recognized you?"
+
+"I do not.  I did not speak.  I was on the point of doing so,
+then checked myself."
+
+"Right!  You are one in a hundred.  I will have a watch kept on
+the net, and an examination made of it before every performance."
+
+Phil smiled faintly.
+
+"I am not afraid for myself."
+
+"No, that's your greatest failing.  You are not afraid of
+anything and you take very long chances.  I hope you will be
+more cautious in the future.  You must be careful, Phil, and
+you had better caution your partner, Teddy Tucker.  Does he
+know of this?"
+
+"No, but I intend to tell him.  He is more interested in the
+possibility of recovering his egg than in any personal danger
+to himself or to me," said the Circus Boy with a short laugh.
+
+"Keep your eyes open, and take care of yourself.  If we fail
+to get a clue by the time we get to Des Moines I shall send
+to St. Louis for the best detective they have and put him on
+the case.  Perhaps it would be best to do so now."
+
+"I think--" began Phil, when his words were arrested by a loud
+noise just outside the cabin, on the deck.
+
+Mr. Sparling and Phil started up, for the instant not
+understanding the meaning of the disturbance.
+
+"Wha--what--" gasped the showman.
+
+Phil ran to the window and looked out.
+
+The deck at that point was deserted.  He thought he saw a figure
+dodge into an entrance near the stern of the boat, and looking
+forward he discovered another disappearing in that direction.
+
+The Circus Boy sprang for the door.
+
+"What is it, what is it?" cried the showman.
+
+"Eavesdroppers!" answered the lad, darting out into the
+passageway, followed closely by Mr. Sparling.
+
+"You go that way and I'll go this," directed Phil.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+MAKING A CAPTURE
+
+The two ran down the corridor, Mr. Sparling heading for the
+forward end, Phil toward the stern.
+
+"There he goes!  I see him!" shouted the showman as a figure
+leaped out to the deck, slamming the door.  "We have him now!"
+
+Phil rushed out at the stern and started to run along the
+starboard side of the boat.  As he emerged he caught sight of a
+figure running toward him, and behind the figure, Mr. Sparling,
+coming along the deck in great strides.
+
+"Stop!  We've got you!" shouted the showman.
+
+Phil spread out his arms as the fleeing one drew near him, then
+threw them about the fellow, holding him in a firm grip.
+
+"I've got him, Mr. Sparling!"
+
+"Leggo of me!  What's the matter with you?  Anybody would think
+this was a high school initiation."
+
+"Teddy," groaned Phil.
+
+"What's that?" demanded the showman jerking Phil and his prisoner
+over to an open window through which a faint light was showing.
+
+"It is Teddy Tucker, sir," said Phil releasing his hold.
+
+"What does this mean, sir?" demanded the showman in a
+stern voice.
+
+"That's what I want to know.  You fellows chase me around the
+boat as if I were some kind of a football.  It's a wonder one
+of you didn't kick me.  Lucky for you that you didn't, too, I
+can tell you."
+
+"Teddy, come to my cabin at once.  Phil, bring him along,
+will you?"
+
+"Yes," answered Phil Forrest.  Phil was troubled.  He could not
+believe it possible that Teddy was guilty of eavesdropping, and
+yet the evidence seemed to point strongly in that direction.
+Taking firm hold of his companion's arm he led him along toward
+Mr. Sparling's cabin.
+
+"What's all this row about?" growled Teddy.
+
+"That is what I hope you will be able to explain to
+Mr. Sparling's satisfaction," replied Phil.  "However, wait
+till we get to his cabin."
+
+Phil led Teddy to the door, thrust him in, then followed, closing
+and locking the door.
+
+"Perhaps we had better close that window this time, sir."
+
+"Yes."
+
+Mr. Sparling drew up and locked the window.
+
+"Sit down!" he commanded, eyeing Teddy keenly.
+
+Teddy sat down dutifully and was about to place his feet on the
+showman's desk when Phil nudged him.
+
+"Now, sir, what does this mean?"
+
+"What does what mean?  I never was any good at guessing riddles."
+
+"What do you mean by eavesdropping at my cabin window?"
+
+"Oh, was that your window?"
+
+"It was and it is.  And unless you can offer a satisfactory
+explanation, something will have to be done.  That is one of the
+things that I shall not tolerate.  I can scarcely believe you
+guilty of such a disgraceful act.  Unfortunately, you have
+admitted it."
+
+"Admitted what?"
+
+"That you were listening at my window."
+
+"I never said anything of the sort."
+
+"No, not in so many words; but when I asked you what you meant by
+doing so, you answered, 'Oh, was that your window?'"
+
+"Certainly I said it."
+
+"Then will you kindly explain why?"
+
+"I wasn't listening at your window.  I wasn't within half a
+block--half a boat, I mean--of it.  What do you think I am?"
+
+"Well, Teddy, for a minute I thought you had been guilty of an
+inexcusable act but upon second thought I begin to understand
+that it is impossible.  There is some misunderstanding here."
+
+Phil looked relieved, but Teddy was gazing at the showman with
+half-closed eyes.
+
+"While Phil and myself were holding a confidential conversation
+here, someone was listening to us under that window.  All at once
+the blind fell with a crash--"
+
+"And so did the other fellow," interrupted Teddy, his eyes
+lighting up mischievously.
+
+"Phil looked out quickly.  He thought he saw someone dodging into
+the entrance aft, and at the same time he was sure someone was
+doing the same thing forward."
+
+"I was the fellow who dodged in the forward entrance.  Then you
+fellows started a sprinting match with me."
+
+"Why did you run?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose I might as well tell you all about it."
+
+"Yes, if we are to make any headway it will be best to let you
+tell your story in your own way," answered Mr. Sparling with a
+grim smile.
+
+"I was halfway between here and the pilot house, sitting
+down on the deck, leaning against the side of the deck-house.
+I had just gone to sleep, at least I think I had, when I woke
+up suddenly.  I saw somebody down this way peeping in at
+a window.  I became curious.  I wondered if he was the fellow who
+stole my egg, so I got up to investigate.  Just then he saw me."
+
+"Well, what happened?"
+
+"He was standing on a box.  The box tipped over or he jumped off,
+I don't know which.  I thought he was chasing me, and I ran."
+
+"Afraid, eh?" jeered Phil.
+
+"No, I wasn't afraid.  I just ran because I needed the exercise;
+that's all.  Do you think he really had my egg?"
+
+"Who was the man, Teddy?"
+
+"How do I know?"
+
+"You saw him.  Could you not--did you not recognize him?"
+
+"No, it was too dark.  I didn't wait long after I first
+discovered him, you know.  I thought maybe it was that fellow
+Cummings, laying for me.  I wish January had finished him
+while he had the chance."
+
+"You noticed nothing familiar about him?"
+
+"Yes, I did."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He looked like some kind of a man," answered Teddy solemnly.
+
+"Oh, fudge!"
+
+"You say he was standing on a box?"
+
+"Something of the sort."
+
+Mr. Sparling went out, leaving the boys alone for a few minutes.
+When he returned he brought with him a small square box which he
+examined very carefully.
+
+"Do you recognize it?" asked Phil.
+
+"Yes, it is one in which the candy butcher received some goods.
+It might have been picked up by anyone.  I will find out where he
+left it.  This may give us some slight clue.  It is quite
+evident, boys, that we have among us one or more dangerous men.
+Teddy, I offer you my humble apology for having suspected you for
+a moment.  The thought was unworthy."
+
+"Don't mention it," answered the Circus Boy airily.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+TEDDY JOINS THE BAND
+
+"I would suggest that you divide the band into two parts and have
+them play on deck as we approach the next stand," said Phil later
+that evening.
+
+"I think that a most excellent plan," decided Mr. Sparling.
+"We will work it whenever we get in after daylight.  It might
+not be a bad idea to try it tomorrow morning.  I'll allow the
+musicians overtime for it, so there should be no objection on
+their part.  We will make a triumphal entry into Des Moines,
+providing nothing happens to us in the meantime."
+
+Mr. Sparling's face darkened as he thought of the dastardly
+attempts that had been made against his young charges.
+
+"I will see the leader before I turn in.  You had better go to
+bed now, Phil.  You have been keeping pretty late hours and
+working unusually hard.  Good night."
+
+"Good night," answered Phil pleasantly.
+
+Man and boy had come to be very fond of each other, and
+Phil Forrest could not have felt a more genuine affection
+for Mr. Sparling had the latter been his own father.
+
+"A noble fellow," was Mr. Sparling's comment as the youth walked
+away from the cabin.
+
+At half-past three o'clock the next morning the boat's passengers
+were awakened by the blare of brass, the crash of cymbals and the
+boom of the big bass drum.
+
+They tumbled out of bed in a hurry, for few of them knew of the
+plan of the owner to give an early morning concert on the deck of
+the "Fat Marie."
+
+Teddy Tucker struck the floor of his cabin broadside on.
+
+"Wake up, Phil!  We're late for the show.  It's already begun and
+here we are in bed."
+
+"Guess again, Teddy," answered Phil sleepily.  "Don't you know
+where you are?"
+
+"I thought I did, but I don't.  Where am I?"
+
+"In our cabin on the ship."
+
+"But the band, the band?"
+
+"It is playing for the benefit of the natives along the shore."
+
+"Oh, pooh!  And here I am wide awake.  Do you know what time
+it is?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It is only twenty minutes of four."
+
+"In the afternoon?  Goodness we are late."
+
+"No, in the morning, you ninny.  This is a shame.  I'll bet that
+band concert was your suggestion, Phil Forrest."
+
+Phil admitted the charge.
+
+"Then you must take your medicine with the rest of us.  Come out
+of that!"
+
+One of Phil's feet was peeping out from under the covers.
+Teddy saw it and grabbed it.  Being a strong boy, the mighty
+tug he gave was productive of results.
+
+Phil landed on his back on the floor, with a resounding thump and
+a jolt that made him see stars.
+
+"Teddy Tucker, look out; I'm coming!"
+
+"You had better look out; I'm waiting."
+
+The two supple-limbed youngsters met in the middle of the cabin
+floor and went down together.  They were evenly matched, and
+the muscles of their necks stood out like whip cords as they
+struggled over the floor, each seeking to get a fall from
+his antagonist.
+
+Teddy managed to roll under the bed, and there they continued
+their early morning battle, but under no slight difficulties.
+Every time one of the gladiators forgot himself and raised his
+head, he bumped it.  Phil tried to force Teddy out from under
+the bed, but Teddy refused to be forced.
+
+"When--when I get you out of here I am going to do something to
+you that you won't like, Teddy Tucker," panted Phil.
+
+"What--what you going to do to me?"
+
+"I'm going to pour a pitcher of cold water on your bare feet."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+The thought of it sent Teddy into a nervous chill.  He would
+rather take a sound thrashing, at any time, than have that done
+to him.  Now he struggled more desperately than ever to hold Phil
+under the bed.  At last, however, the boys rolled out and Teddy's
+shoulders struck the cabin floor with a bang that sent the
+pitcher jingling in the wash bowl.
+
+Phil sprang up, seized the water pitcher, making a threatening
+move with it toward his companion.
+
+"Wow!  Don't, don't!" howled Teddy.
+
+Phil pursued him around the cabin, the water splashing from the
+pitcher to the floor.  Teddy yelling like a wild Indian every
+time he stepped in the puddles.
+
+The window was open and the band was playing just outside.
+
+Suddenly a new plan occurred to Teddy--a plan whereby he might
+escape from his tormentor.
+
+Taking a running start he sprang up, making a clean dive through
+the window head-first.
+
+The lad had intended to land on his hands, do a cartwheel and
+come up easily on his feet.  But the best-laid plans sometimes
+go wrong.
+
+The bass drummer was pounding his drum right in line with
+the window.  Teddy did not see the drum until too late to
+change his course.  His head hit the drum with a bang.
+He went clear through it, his head protruding from the
+other side.  And there he stuck!
+
+"Oh, wow!" howled the Circus Boy.
+
+The other members of the band, discovering that the drum was
+no longer marking time for them, got out of tune and came to
+a discordant stop.
+
+The leader, whose side had been toward the drummer at the time,
+did not know what had happened.  He was furious.  He was about
+to upbraid them when he discovered the head of Teddy Tucker
+protruding from the head of the drum.
+
+"Wha--wha--what--"
+
+The bass drummer paid no attention to him.  Instead he grabbed
+the offending boy by the feet, bracing his own feet against the
+rim of the instrument, and began to pull.  The drummer was red
+in the face, perspiring and angry.
+
+Teddy popped out like a pea from a pod.  The Circus Boy was not
+yet out of his trouble.  With unlooked-for strength the irate
+drummer threw the lad over his knees, face down, and raised the
+drumstick aloft.
+
+This drumstick, as our readers well know, is made of heavy
+leather--that is the beating end is--and is hard.  To add to the
+distress of the victim, Teddy was in his pink pajamas and they
+were thin.
+
+Whack!
+
+The stick came down with more force than seemed necessary.
+
+"Ouch!  Stop it!  I'll pay you back for keeps for that!"
+
+Whack!
+
+"Oh, Phil!"  Teddy was making desperate efforts to squirm away
+now, but his position was such that he was unable to bring his
+full strength to bear on the task.
+
+The stick was raised for another blow, but there came an
+interruption that took all thought of continuing the punishment
+out of the mind of the angry drummer.
+
+"Stop it!  I don't want to be a drum!" howled the boy.
+
+Splash!
+
+A pitcher of water was emptied over the drummer's head, a large
+part of the water running down and soaking Teddy to the skin,
+causing that young gentleman to howl lustily.
+
+It gave the boy the opportunity he was looking for, however.
+With a quick twist he wrenched himself free from the grasp of the
+drummer, dropped on all fours and was up and away, a pink streak
+along the port side of the "Fat Marie."
+
+Phil had come to the rescue of his companion.  He now jerked the
+window shut and slammed the blind in place, after which he
+quickly got into his clothes, fully expecting that he should have
+a call from the bass drummer.
+
+There was a great uproar on deck about that time, with much
+shouting and unintelligible language--at least unintelligible
+to Phil.
+
+Before he had finished dressing, Teddy came skulking in, rubbing
+himself and muttering threats as to what he proposed to do to
+the drummer.
+
+"You did it!  You did!" he shouted, pointing a finger at
+Phil Forrest.
+
+"It strikes me that you did something, too--"
+
+"No I didn't.  Something was done to me.  I had on my pajamas,
+too," wailed the boy.  "I'm glad you soaked him, though.
+Why didn't you throw the pitcher at him, too?"
+
+"Oh, no, it might have hurt him, Teddy."
+
+"Hurt him?  Pshaw!  Maybe the drumstick didn't hurt me.  Oh, no!"
+
+"Well, get dressed.  I will go out and see if I can pour oil on
+the troubled waters.  You stay here.  I don't want you mixing it
+up with the drummer.  I'll attend to him."
+
+Phil first hunted up Mr. Sparling, whom he found shaving in
+his cabin.
+
+"Why good morning, Phil.  Why this early call?"
+
+"I called to ask you what a new set of heads will cost for the
+bass drum?"
+
+"I think they are worth about fifteen dollars.  Why do you ask?"
+
+"Because Teddy and myself have just smashed the heads out of the
+one belonging to the band."
+
+Mr. Sparling paused in his shaving long enough to glance keenly
+at Phil.  There was a twinkle in his eyes.  He knew that his
+Circus Boys had been up to some mischief.  Phil was as solemn as
+an owl.
+
+"It was this way," explained the lad, as he related how the
+accident had occurred.
+
+Mr. Sparling sat down and laughed.
+
+"Never mind the drum heads.  We have others for just such an
+emergency, I do not mind a little fun once in a while.  We all
+have to blow off steam sometimes."
+
+"No, sir; we shall pay for the drum heads.  To whom does the
+drum belong?"
+
+"The drummer, I think."
+
+"Very well; thank you."
+
+Phil hastily withdrew from the cabin and hurried back to his
+own stateroom.
+
+"Teddy," he said, "I want seven-fifty from you."
+
+"What's that?"
+
+"Seven dollars and a half, please."
+
+Teddy began pawing over his trousers.  All at once he paused,
+looking up at Phil suspiciously.
+
+"You want to borrow seven-fifty, do you?"
+
+"No, I want you to contribute it."
+
+"To what?"
+
+"To the fund."
+
+"What fund?  What are you talking about?"
+
+"Those drum heads are worth fifteen dollars and we are going to
+pay the owner of the drum for the damage we did.  I will give
+half and you half."
+
+"What!" shrieked Teddy.
+
+"Come, pay up!"
+
+"What!  Give that fellow money when he's taken more than twenty-
+five dollars worth out of my hide?  I guess not!  What kind of an
+easy mark do you think I am?  Pay him yourself.  You did it."
+
+"Teddy, do you want me to give you a good thrashing, right here
+and now?"
+
+"You can't do it.  You never could," returned
+Teddy, belligerently.
+
+"Come, hand out the money!"
+
+Teddy eyed his companion for a full minute; then, thrusting a
+hand slowly into his own trousers' pocket, brought forth a goodly
+roll of bills from which he counted off eight dollars.
+
+"Tell him to keep the change."
+
+"I will, thank you," said Phil with a merry twinkle in his eyes.
+
+"It's like taking candy out of the mouth of a babe.  I'll get
+more than eight dollars' worth out of that bass--he's baser than
+he is bass.  Bass sounds like a fish, doesn't it--out of that
+bass drummer when I get a good fair chance at him.  Sometime when
+he isn't looking, you know.  I wonder if he could be the fellow
+who stole my egg?" questioned Teddy reflectively.
+
+Phil went out laughing, to make his peace with the drummer.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A CAPTURE IN THE AIR
+
+Fortunately, the band carried a new set of heads for the drum,
+and the contribution of the boys served to restore the offended
+musicians to good nature.  Teddy, however, was not appeased.
+That youngster vowed that he would take revenge on the bass
+drummer at the very first opportunity.
+
+That afternoon, during the performance, Teddy began his
+getting-even process by standing in front of the bandstand
+between his acts, and making faces at the musicians.
+
+This seemed to amuse them, and brought only smiles to
+their faces.  Teddy was not there for the purpose of
+amusing the band, so he turned his back on them and
+tried to think of something more effective.
+
+The show did a great business at Des Moines, having a "turn-away"
+at both afternoon and evening performances.  The Sparling shows
+had played there before, but never to such business, which the
+showman decided was due to their novel way of traveling.  He knew
+that these little novelties frequently made fortunes for
+Circus owners.
+
+At the evening performance, Teddy had an inspiration.  He was
+too busy, during the first part of the show, to give his idea a
+practical test, but later in the evening, while he was awaiting
+his cue to go on in his clown act, he tried the new plan.
+
+The lad had purchased half a dozen lemons from the
+refreshment stand.  One of these he cut in halves, secreting
+the pieces in a pocket of his clown costume; then when the
+time came he stationed himself in front of the bandstand
+where he stood until he had gained the attention of several
+of the musicians.
+
+Teddy took out the two pieces of lemon with a great flourish,
+went through the motions of sprinkling sugar over them, then
+began sucking first one piece, then the other, varying his
+performance by holding out the lemon invitingly to the players.
+
+The bass drum player scowled.  Teddy's lemon did not affect the
+beating of the drum, but as the lad began to make believe that
+the acid juice was puckering his lips, some of the musicians
+showed signs of uneasiness.
+
+The Circus Boy observing this, smacked his lips again and again,
+and industriously swallowed the juice, though it nearly choked
+him to do so.
+
+Very soon some of the players got off the key, their playing grew
+uneven and in some instances stopped altogether.  The leader
+could not understand what the trouble was.  He called out angrily
+to the offending musicians, but this seemed only to add to
+their troubles.
+
+All at once the big German, who played the bass horn, rose from
+his seat and hurled his music rack at the offending Teddy Tucker.
+Everything on the bandstand came to a standstill, and the
+performers in the ring glanced sharply down that way, wondering
+what could have happened.
+
+The leader turned and discovered Teddy and his lemons.  He was
+beside himself with rage.  He understood, now, why his musicians
+had failed.  Teddy sucking the lemon had given many of them
+"the puckers."
+
+It was an old trick, but it worked as well as if it had been
+brand new.
+
+The Circus Boy was delighted.  The leader experienced no
+such sensations.  With an angry exclamation, he leaped from
+the box on which he was standing, aiming a blow at Teddy with
+his baton.
+
+The boy dodged it and ran laughing out into the ring, for it was
+now time for him to go on in his next act.
+
+After a minute or two the band once more collected itself and
+the show went on, but there were dire threats uttered against
+Teddy Tucker by the leader and players.  The bass drummer
+grinned appreciatively.
+
+"I wish I could think of something that would tie up that fellow
+with the drum," muttered Teddy, gazing off at the drummer with
+resentful eyes.
+
+The band leader had no scruples against carrying tales, and
+immediately after the performance he hunted up Mr. Sparling and
+entered a complaint against the irrepressible Teddy.  The result
+was that Teddy was given a severe lecture by the showman after
+they got on board the boat that night.  Then Phil added
+a warning.
+
+"Well, what about yourself?" retorted the lad.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I never stirred up as much roughhouse as you did this morning.
+You had better take some of that advice to yourself."
+
+Phil laughed good-naturedly.
+
+"I shall have to admit the impeachment," he said.
+
+It seemed, however, as if the Sparling shows could not get
+along without exciting incidents happening at least once in
+twenty-four hours.  They appeared to follow the Circus Boys,
+too, like a plague.  It is likely that, had they not followed
+the boys, Teddy Tucker would have gone out hunting for them.
+
+The next morning something else occurred that was not a part of
+the daily routine.  The boats were late and the next stand was
+not yet in sight, so the band had not been called to work as
+early as on the previous morning.  The bandsmen were just
+rousing themselves, in response to raps on their cabin doors,
+when they heard rapid footsteps on the deck, and excited shouts
+from several voices.
+
+Teddy and Phil awakened at about the same time, having been
+disturbed by the unusual sounds.
+
+"Now, what is the trouble?" exclaimed Phil.
+
+"Something is going on, and here I am in bed," answered Teddy,
+tumbling out and throwing open the blinds.
+
+He saw nothing unusual.  The boat was slipping along, enveloped
+in a cloud of black smoke.  The disturbance seemed to be on the
+other side of the vessel.
+
+"Come on, Phil.  Let's find out what it is all about.
+Maybe the boat has struck a rock and we are sinking.
+Wouldn't that be fun?"
+
+"I don't see anything funny about that.  It would be serious, and
+you and I would be out of a job for the rest of the season."
+
+"Don't you care!  I have money.  Didn't I give you seven-fifty
+yesterday and still have some left?"
+
+"Eight," grinned Phil.
+
+By this time the boys had hurried out into the corridor, and
+thence to the deck.
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?" howled Teddy.
+
+"Bruiser is out," exclaimed Phil.
+
+Bruiser was a baboon, whose temper was none too angelic.  He was
+a big heavy fellow, who never lost an opportunity to vent his
+temper on whoever chanced to be within reach.
+
+It seems that on this particular occasion a sleepy keeper was
+cleaning Bruiser's cage so that it might be neat and presentable
+when the show opened.  Bruiser had sat on a trapeze far up in the
+cage, watching the proceedings with resentful eyes, perhaps
+wondering how he might administer a rebuke to the keeper.
+
+All at once the baboon saw his opportunity.  The keeper had
+stooped over to pick up something from the floor of the boat,
+as he stood at the open door of the cage in the rear.
+
+Bruiser projected himself toward the opening like a catapult.
+At that instant the keeper had straightened up and the baboon
+hit him squarely in the face.  There could be but one result.
+The keeper tumbled over on his back.
+
+Chattering joyously, Bruiser began hopping off on all fours.
+First he investigated the tops of the cages, running over them
+and bringing roars from the animals within.  Then he hopped down
+and paid a visit to the horses.
+
+January sent a volley of kicks at the beast, but Bruiser was too
+quick, and the hoofs passed harmlessly over his head.
+
+About this time the keeper had scrambled to his feet in alarm.
+At first he did not know where the baboon had gone, but hearing
+the disturbance among the horses he ran that way, soon coming
+upon Bruiser.  With a scream of defiance, the animal bolted up
+the companionway, hurriedly investigated the corridors and the
+main cabin, then leaped out through an open window to the
+hurricane deck.
+
+Two other men had joined in the chase now, and it was their
+shouts that had awakened the Circus Boys.
+
+"Come on, here's sport!" shouted Teddy Tucker starting on a run
+after the fleeing Bruiser.  The latter tried to climb up the
+smoke stack and narrowly missed being captured in the attempt.
+At the same time he burned his feet, filling him with rage and
+resentment, so that, when the keeper grabbed him, the former's
+face was badly scratched.
+
+Round and round the deck ran pursued and pursuers, the baboon
+having not the slightest difficulty in eluding his followers,
+Teddy chasing gleefully and howling at the top of his
+shrill voice.
+
+Others joined the chase, until well nigh half the boat's company
+raced yelling up and down the decks.  Mr. Sparling was one of
+the number, though he devoted most of his attention to directing
+the others.
+
+One mast had been erected on the boat from which to fly flags,
+and from this rope braces ran off forward and aft.
+
+Finally Bruiser was so hard pressed that he took to this rigging
+and ran up one of the ropes to the mast, where he perched on the
+end of a spar and appeared to mock his pursuers.
+
+Poles were brought, at the direction of the owner, with which the
+men sought to poke Bruiser down.  But the poles were too short.
+Then the men threw ropes and missiles at the baboon, most of
+which went overboard and were lost.
+
+"It is no use.  We shall have to wait until he gets ready to come
+down," decided Mr. Sparling.  "How did he get away?"
+
+The keeper explained.
+
+"He won't come down today," added the man.  "That is, so long as
+we are here.  He is a bad one."
+
+"You do not have to tell me that.  Can any of you
+offer suggestions?  I am not very strong on capturing
+escaped animals.  Phil, how about it?"
+
+Phil shook his head.
+
+"I have an idea, Mr. Sparling," spoke up Teddy.
+
+"I knew you had, from the expression on your face.  What is it?"
+
+"I'll climb up and shake him down."
+
+A loud laugh greeted this remark.
+
+"You couldn't climb up there.  The mast is too slippery."
+
+"I'll show you."
+
+"Very well; go ahead."
+
+"Teddy, I think I would keep out of this, were I in your place,"
+remarked Phil.
+
+"You keep out of it yourself.  I'll show you that I know how
+to catch wild beasts.  I haven't ridden January all this time
+for nothing."
+
+Teddy started in bravely to climb the mast.  After a great
+struggle he managed to get up about eight feet.  Suddenly he
+lost his grip and came sliding down, landing at the foot of
+the mast in a heap.
+
+A shout greeted his ludicrous drop.
+
+"I think you had better give it up," laughed Mr. Sparling.
+
+"I won't give it up."
+
+"You cannot climb the mast."
+
+"I don't intend to.  I have an idea."
+
+"What is your idea?"
+
+"I will show you.  Bring me a rope."
+
+The rope was quickly handed to him.  The Circus Boy coiled
+it neatly, closely observed by the show people, who did not
+understand what he was about to do.
+
+"I'm a sailor, you know," he grinned.  Measuring the distance
+accurately, Teddy swung the coil about his head a few times,
+then let it fly up into the air, keeping the free end in one
+hand as he did so.
+
+The coil tumbled over the yard or cross piece and came down,
+hitting the deck with a thump.
+
+"There.  Can you beat that?" he demanded triumphantly.
+
+"Very well done," agreed Mr. Sparling.  "Now that it is over,
+what do you propose to do next?"
+
+"Watch me!"
+
+The lad made fast one end of the rope to the ship's rail, the
+baboon peering down suspiciously.
+
+"Oh, I'm after you, you rascal," jeered Teddy, shaking a fist at
+the ugly face above him.
+
+After testing the rope, Teddy began climbing it hand over hand.
+Then the spectators divined his purpose.
+
+"The boy is all right," nodded Mr. Sparling approvingly.
+"That is the time that he got the best of you, Phil."
+
+"He is welcome to the job," answered Phil.  "You haven't captured
+the baboon yet."
+
+Teddy, by this time, was halfway up the mast.  It seemed a dizzy
+climb, but the lad was so used to being up high that he did not
+mind it in the least.
+
+"Hey, down there!" he called.
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"Better get out a small net so you can catch him.  I'm going to
+shake him down as I would a ripe apple.  If you catch him in the
+net he will tangle himself up so that he cannot get away."
+
+"That is a good idea," approved Mr. Sparling.  "Get the net, and
+hold it in readiness."
+
+Teddy, in the meantime, was working his way up.  After a time his
+hands grasped the crossbar and he pulled himself up astride it,
+waving one hand to those below him.
+
+Bruiser, however, was not there.  The baboon had scrambled to the
+top of the mast on which there was a golden ball, and on this he
+perched some eight or nine feet above Teddy Tucker's head.
+
+"Now where is your baboon?" called a voice.
+
+"Where he cannot get away from me unless he jumps into the
+Mississippi," answered Teddy quickly.
+
+"How are you going to get him?" called Mr. Sparling.
+
+"I'll see when I get to him."
+
+With great caution, the lad climbed up the slender top of
+the mast.
+
+Bruiser's tail hung over, while he clung with his feet, glaring
+down at Teddy.  The baboon realized that he could not get away.
+
+"Come down here!" commanded Teddy, grabbing the beast's tail and
+giving it a mighty tug.
+
+Bruiser's grip gave way.  Down shot Teddy and the baboon.
+But the cross-tree saved him, as the lad figured that it would.
+One hand was clinging to Bruiser's tail, the other arm thrown
+about the mast.
+
+Now, Bruiser took a hand.  With a snarl of rage he fastened
+in the hair of Teddy Tucker's head, causing that young man
+to howl lustily.
+
+For a moment boy and baboon "mixed it up" at such a lively rate
+that it was difficult for the spectators below to tell which was
+boy and which baboon.  Teddy seemed to be getting the worst
+of it.
+
+"Look out!  Let go of him!  You will be in the river the first
+thing you know!" shouted Mr. Sparling warningly.
+
+Teddy did not hear him.  He was too busy, at the moment, trying
+to keep those savage teeth from fastening themselves in his neck,
+for which the beast seemed to be aiming.  At the same time the
+boy was getting more and more angry.  It was characteristic of
+Teddy that, the angrier he became, the cooler he grew.
+
+He was guarding himself as best he could and watching his chance
+to get the upper hand of his antagonist.
+
+All at once Teddy let drive a short-arm blow at the head of
+the baboon.
+
+Few things could withstand that blow, and least of all a baboon.
+It landed fairly on the grinning jaws and Bruiser's head jolted
+backwards as if it were going right on into the river.
+
+Teddy lost his balance, aided in this by the fact that Bruiser
+had fastened to the lad's pajamas.
+
+"They're going to fall!" roared Mr. Sparling.  "Catch them!
+Catch them!"
+
+The men hastened to move the net, and none too soon, for Teddy
+and Bruiser came whirling down, the lad making desperate efforts
+to right himself so as to drop on his feet.  But the baboon
+prevented his doing this.
+
+They struck the net, which was jerked from the hands of the men,
+and Teddy hit the deck with a terrific bump.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+A CIRCUS BOY MISSING
+
+"Grab the beast!"
+
+Teddy was still clinging to the baboon so firmly that they had to
+use force to get Bruiser away from him.
+
+As for the baboon, he was too dazed from the shock of the fall
+to offer any resistance, and was quickly captured and returned
+to his cage.
+
+Teddy had not fared quite so well.  He was unconscious, and for a
+time it was feared that he had been seriously injured.
+
+As it turned out, however, he had escaped with nothing worse than
+a severe shock and a sprained wrist.  A sprain of any sort is
+sufficient to lay up a circus performer for sometime.  As a
+result of his injury, Teddy Tucker did not work again for the
+next week; that is, he did not enter the ring, though he was
+anxious to do so.  Mr. Sparling, however, would not permit it.
+
+Those were glorious days for Teddy.  He could not keep away
+from the circus lot.  He had plenty of time to think up new
+ways of tormenting his enemies, some of which he applied from
+time to time.  The boy was safe, however, for no one felt
+inclined to punish a boy who was going around the outfit with
+one arm helpless in a sling.
+
+Perhaps Teddy Tucker took advantage of this fact.  At least, he
+enjoyed himself and, besides, found plenty of time to hunt for
+his lost egg.  The boy was suspicious of everyone.  One time he
+became firmly convinced that Mr. Sparling had taken it from him.
+The moment the idea occurred to him he hunted up the showman and
+demanded to know if the latter had his egg.
+
+"No," answered Mr. Sparling with a twinkle in his eyes, "but I
+will try to arrange so you get another."
+
+"You will?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Thank you; thank you."
+
+"I am having the show's carpenter make one out of wood."
+
+"I can't eat a wooden egg," protested Teddy.
+
+"Why not?  You were going to eat the ostrich egg.  The wooden
+one will give you indigestion no quicker than the other would
+have done."
+
+"I'll tell you what I will do," said the Circus Boy, an idea
+suddenly occurring to him.
+
+"I am listening."
+
+"You have the carpenter make an egg and I will circulate the news
+that I have another egg.  I will leave it in my cabin and keep
+watch on the thing.  In that way I shall catch the fellow, if he
+tries to steal it again.  I shan't put it in the trunk.  Oh, I'll
+talk a lot about that wooden egg."
+
+"I am in hopes we shall hear no more about eggs all the rest
+of the trip, after I give you another," said the showman.
+"Your idea is not a half-bad one at that.  If you catch the
+man we are looking for I will make you a nice present."
+
+"What kind of a present?" asked Teddy with an eye to business.
+
+"What would you like?"
+
+"I'll have to think it over.  There are so many things I want,
+that I do not know which I want most."
+
+"I thought you had money enough to buy whatever you needed.
+By the way, how much money have you saved, Teddy?"
+
+"Let me see," reflected the lad, counting up on his fingers.
+"Why, I must have a little more than three thousand dollars in
+the bank.  Mrs. Cahill is taking care of it for me, you know."
+
+"Fine, fine!  That is splendid.  What are you going to do with
+all of that money?"
+
+"I think I will buy out the Sparling shows, someday, when you get
+tired of the business and want to sell at any old price,"
+answered the boy boldly.
+
+The showman laughed heartily.
+
+"So you think you would like to own a show, do you?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I am going to--Phil and I."
+
+"May I ask when this interesting affair is coming off--this
+purchasing of a real circus?"
+
+"I told you.  When you get tired of the business we are going to
+buy you out."
+
+"You have it planned, eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir; that is, I have.  Phil doesn't know anything about
+that yet.  I haven't told him."
+
+"I thought not.  So, while I am paying you to work for me, you
+are planning to take my show away from me, are you?" questioned
+Mr. Sparling with a smile.
+
+"No, Sir; we are not trying to do anything of the sort.  You have
+been too kind, and I thank you for all you have done for me,
+and--and all you have put up with.  You ought to have 'fired'
+me a long time ago--I guess you ought to have done it before I
+started in the Show business.  I'm glad you didn't," added Teddy,
+glancing up with a bright smile.
+
+It was the first time Mr. Sparling had ever heard the little
+Circus Boy express his appreciation.  He patted the
+lad affectionately.
+
+"I hope you are feeling quite well, today, my boy.  You never
+talked this way before.  What caused your sudden change
+of heart?"
+
+"I--I guess it was the baboon," answered Teddy whimsically.
+"Or else, maybe, it was the bump I got when I hit the deck
+of the 'Fat Marie.'"
+
+Phil came up and joined them at that moment, waiting for his
+turn to go on in his trapeze act for the evening performance.
+Mr. Sparling surveyed him keenly.  He noted the trim, athletic
+figure, the poise of the head and the steady clear eyes that
+held one irresistibly.
+
+"You are looking very handsome tonight, Phil," said the owner.
+
+"Thank you, sir.  'Handsome is as handsome does,' as the saying
+goes," laughed the Circus Boy.  "Are you having the net watched,
+Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"Yes, my lad.  Two men are keeping close tab on the big spider
+web all the time, except in the afternoon, when no one would dare
+to tamper with it for fear of being detected."
+
+"I am not so sure of that.  You see, I have a personal interest
+in that net, seeing that I have to risk my bones over it twice
+each day."
+
+"Don't worry.  It will be well watched, Phil."
+
+"I take the first drop in it, you know, so if it should give way
+you would be minus Phil Forrest."
+
+"Teddy tells me you and he are thinking of buying out the
+Sparling shows, eh?"
+
+"Why, Teddy, how could you say such a thing?" demanded
+Phil, reddening.
+
+Teddy expostulated, explaining that it was merely a dream in his
+own mind, repeating that Phil knew nothing of it.
+
+"I do intend to own a show, as I have told you before,
+Mr. Sparling, as soon as I have enough money.  I am afraid,
+however, that that day is a long way off."
+
+"Perhaps not so far off as you think, Phil.  Perhaps both of
+you may own a show much sooner than you even dream," said the
+showman, significantly.  "Well, good night, boys if I do not
+see you again."
+
+"What do you think he meant by that?" questioned Teddy.
+
+"I am sure I do not know.  Perhaps he thinks we have a future
+before us and that we shall make rapid advances.  I hope so,
+don't you, Teddy?"
+
+"I think I would rather find my egg than have most anything else
+just now."
+
+"Oh, hang your egg!  There goes my cue.  I must get out, now.
+Bye, bye.  You are a lucky boy not to have to work on this
+hot night."
+
+Phil waved his hand and tripped out into the arena.  A few
+minutes later he was soaring through the air with the
+gracefulness and ease of a bird on the wing.
+
+The boys did not meet again until bedtime, for Phil had turned
+in immediately upon reaching the boat.  Teddy, of course, was
+the last one to go to bed, but he was soon asleep after
+reaching there.
+
+Phil, on the contrary, had lain awake for some hours, thinking.
+He was still seeking a solution to the mystery that had been
+disturbing them almost from the beginning of the season.
+Twice had an effort been made to do him serious injury at least.
+Who could have taken so violent a dislike to him as to wish to
+cause his death?  There seemed to be no answer to the question.
+
+"I can think of no one, unless it is Diaz," muttered the boy.
+"Yet he surely was not one of those who were plotting out on the
+lot that night.  He would not have had time to get back to the
+boat ahead of me.  Then again, Teddy was sure that the clown had
+been back for more than an hour.  He may have had something to do
+with laying the trap in the ring for Dimples and myself."
+
+"I am afraid I am not on the right track at all," decided Phil
+at last, with a deep sigh.
+
+He was still awake when the "Fat Marie" shook off her moorings
+and with a long blast of her siren, drifted out into the stream
+and began pounding down the river.
+
+Phil got up, stretched himself, looked out of the window, then
+decided to go on deck to get the breeze, for the heat was
+stifling in his stateroom.  Teddy was sound asleep.
+
+The deck seemed to be deserted.  Phil walked over to the rail and
+leaning both elbows upon it closed his eyes dreamily.
+
+It must have been fully an hour later when Teddy awakened
+suddenly, with a foreboding that something was not as it
+should be.
+
+"Phil!" he called.
+
+There was no reply.
+
+"_Phil!_" repeated Teddy in a louder tone.
+
+Failing to get a response, Teddy arose and found his companion's
+bed empty.  Teddy, knowing that Phil seldom ever left the
+stateroom after retiring, decided to go out to look for him.
+He investigated the cabin, then going out on dock peered into
+every shadow, calling softly for Phil.
+
+Failing to get any trace of his chum, Teddy returned to his
+cabin, put on his slippers and went down to the lower deck, where
+he made inquiries of the watchman, but with no better success.
+
+Teddy Tucker began to feel alarmed.  He hurried to the upper deck
+again, once more going over it carefully, as well as the inside
+of the boat.
+
+A terrible suspicion began to force itself upon him.
+
+"Man overboard!" bellowed the Circus Boy.  "Man overboard!"
+He ran through the corridors shouting the startling cry, then
+out to the deck repeating it as he ran.
+
+The cry was taken up by others as they rushed from their cabins,
+Mr. Sparling among the number.
+
+"Where, where?" shouted the showman.  "Who--who--"
+
+"It's Phil!  He's gone.  He's over there, somewhere, I don't
+know where!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+OVERBOARD INTO THE RIVER
+
+"I can't understand it," Phil mused, as the soft evening breezes
+lulled him into slumber.
+
+"What!  What!" he cried suddenly.  "What is it?  I'm falling!"
+
+The deck of the "Marie" all at once seemed to have dropped from
+beneath him.  He felt himself falling through space.  What could
+it mean?
+
+With the showman's instinct the Circus Boy quickly turned his
+body, spread out his hands and righted himself.
+
+The night was black, and as yet he had not succeeded in
+collecting his senses sufficiently to decide what had happened.
+He knew that he was falling, but that was all.
+
+There was a sudden splash as his body struck the water.
+Phil shot right down beneath it and the waters of the
+Mississippi closed over him.
+
+He understood then what had happened, but not for an instant did
+he lose his presence of mind.  Phil had caught his breath as his
+feet touched the water, and now that he had sunk beneath the
+surface he began to kick vigorously and work his hands to check
+his downward course.
+
+A moment of this and he felt himself rising toward the surface.
+Phil was as good a swimmer as he was a performer in the circus
+ring, and he felt no nervousness, even though his position at
+that moment was a perilous one.
+
+Almost at once he felt his head above the surface of the river,
+but his eyes were so full of muddy water that he could see
+nothing at all.  Instead of trying to swim, Phil lay over on his
+back, floated and began blinking industriously to get the water
+out of his eyes.  He soon found that he could see once more,
+though at that moment there was nothing to be seen in the
+blackness of the night.
+
+"There's the 'Marie,'" he cried.  Phil raised his voice in a good
+lusty howl for help, but none heard him.  He could see the lights
+of the steamboat and they appeared to be far away.
+
+"There is only one thing left for me to do, and that is to strike
+out for the shore.  I wonder which way the shore is?"
+
+Once more he raised himself in the water, for an instant, and
+gazed toward the rapidly disappearing lights of the 'Marie.'
+
+"She is going downstream, so if I swim to the left I should reach
+shore after a while," decided the lad.
+
+He did not know that the boat had in the meantime made a sharp
+turn to her right and that in turning to the left he would be
+swimming downstream, making his attempt to reach shore a
+difficult one indeed.
+
+The lad struck out manfully, swimming with long, easy strokes,
+aided considerably by the current which was sweeping him
+downstream much faster than he thought.
+
+"I'm glad I have only my pajamas on," decided the lad.  "If I
+had all my clothes on I fear I should have a pretty tough fight.
+It's bad enough as it is."
+
+Talking to himself, in order to keep up his courage, he swam
+steadily on, now and then pausing to swim on his back to
+rest himself.  He had gone on for nearly an hour when the
+lad began to wonder why he had not reached shore.
+
+"Surely the river cannot be so wide at this point.  I must have
+drifted downstream considerably.  Perhaps I haven't been going in
+the right direction at all."
+
+He tried to find out which way the drift was, in order to make
+up his mind as to the direction in which the shore lay.  In the
+darkness, however, he was unable to determine this, so he began
+swimming again, trusting to luck to land him on something solid,
+sooner or later.  He knew that this must occur, but whether his
+strength would hold out that long he could not say.
+
+All at once he caught a peculiar drumming sound.  It reminded him
+of a partridge that he had once heard in the woods, but it seemed
+a long way off and he could not identify it.
+
+"I guess it must be my heart, up somewhere near my mouth, that I
+hear," said the boy with a short mindless laugh.  "Maybe I am
+going to pieces.  If I am I deserve to drown."
+
+About that time Phil decided to turn over on his back and rest
+for a moment.
+
+The instant he did so he uttered a sharp exclamation.  His eyes
+caught sight of something that he had not seen before.  It looked
+to him like some giant shadow, from which twinkled hundreds
+of lights.
+
+"It is the 'Marie'!" cried the boy.  "They are coming back
+for me.  No, no, it cannot be the 'Marie,' for this boat
+is coming from the opposite direction.  Yes, it surely is
+a steamboat!"
+
+Though Phil did not know it, this was one of the big river
+packets bound down the river from St. Louis.
+
+"I must get out of the way, or they will run me down, but I want
+to keep close enough so I can hail them.  I hope this is where I
+get on something solid again."
+
+A few minutes of steady swimming appeared to have taken him out
+of the path of the river boat.  Then Phil rested, lying on his
+back, watching the boat narrowly.
+
+"In almost any other position or place, I might think that was a
+pretty sight.  As matters stand, now, it looks dangerous to me."
+
+His position was more perilous at that moment than he
+even dreamed.
+
+"H-e-l-p!  H-e-l-p!" called Phil, in what he thought was a
+loud tone.
+
+There were no indications that his cry had been heard by those
+on board the steamboat.  He tried it again, but with no better
+success than before.
+
+"I have simply got to keep on yelling my lungs out until I
+attract their attention.  I am afraid I shall never reach shore
+unless I am picked up.  I might be able to keep afloat until
+daylight, but I doubt it.  I shall get so chilled, before then,
+that I shall have to give up.  I've got some fight left in me
+yet, just the same."
+
+"A-h-o-y, boat!  _Help!_"
+
+On came the steamer, steadily.
+
+Suddenly Phil discovered something else.  She had changed
+her course.  The boat seemed to be drawing away from him!
+His heart sank, but almost at once, the boat turned again,
+following the tortuous channel of the stream.
+
+She now was sweeping almost directly down upon him.  He heard
+some call on the upper deck.
+
+"They are going to run me down!" he gasped.
+
+Phil threw all his strength into an effort to swim out of the
+path of the swiftly moving boat, but he feared he would not be
+able to clear her.
+
+The lad uttered a loud shout, then dived deep, coming up at once
+only to find himself almost against the side of the moving craft.
+
+He grabbed frantically, hoping that his hands might come in
+contact with some projection to which he could cling, but the
+slippery sides of the hull slid past him at what seemed almost
+express train speed.
+
+He was almost on the point of diving again to get away from the
+dangerous spot, when suddenly, his fingers closed over something.
+It was a rope, one of the hawsers that had not been fully hauled
+in when the boat left the last landing place some miles up
+the river.
+
+With a glad cry, both the lad's hands closed over the
+precious rope.  His joy was short lived.  He found himself
+dropping back, the river craft still gliding past him.
+
+The rope was paying out over the boat's side in his hands.
+
+Phil Forrest was never more cool in his life, but he now began
+to realize the well-nigh hopeless position in which be found
+himself placed.
+
+Suddenly the rope ceased paying out with an abruptness that
+jerked him clear out of the water.  He fell back with a splash,
+all but losing hold of the rope as he did so.
+
+"I've got it!  I've got it!" exulted the lad.  A rush of water
+filled his mouth, almost suffocating him.
+
+"I guess I had better keep my mouth closed," thought the boy.
+
+He was directly astern of the steamboat by this time, and this
+placed him in a much more favorable position than he had been
+while dragging along at the side.
+
+Phil began resolutely to work himself along the rope hand
+over hand.  It was a desperate undertaking, one calling for
+strength and courage of an unusual kind, but he never hesitated.
+His breath came in long, steady, sighs, for he was going though
+the water at such a rate of speed that breathing was made
+doubly difficult.
+
+"It is a good thing I am a circus performer.  I should probably
+have been at the bottom of the river long ago, had I not been a
+ring man."
+
+At last, after what seemed hours of struggling, he had succeeded
+in working his way past the stern paddle wheel, and up under the
+stern of the ship.  He twisted the rope about one arm, and with
+his head well out of water lay half exhausted while he was shot
+through the water at high speed.
+
+A few minutes of this, and Phil, considerably rested, began to
+pull himself up.
+
+Ordinarily this hand over hand climb would have been an easy feat
+for the Circus Boy.  As it was, however, the lad was forced to
+pause every foot or so, and, twisting the rope about an arm and a
+leg, hang there between sky and water, gasping for breath, every
+nerve and muscle in his body a-quiver.
+
+Few men, no matter how strong nor how great their endurance,
+could have gone through what Phil Forest had endured that night.
+
+He was glad to be out of the water, where he was in imminent
+danger of being drowned as the boat jerked him along.  Of course
+he was not obliged to cling to the rope, but the chances of his
+reaching shore, were he to let go, he felt were very remote.
+
+"I am glad Teddy is not here," muttered Phil with a half smile
+as he thought of his companion back on the "Marie" fast asleep.
+"I wonder what he will think when he finds that I am missing?
+I hope they do not turn about and come back to look for me, for
+I hardly think they will be able to do that and make their next
+stand in time."
+
+Once more the lad began pulling himself up the rope.  At last,
+to his great relief, his fingers closed over the stern rail of
+the river boat.  Phil pulled himself up as if he were chinning
+the bar, though in this case he chinned it only once.
+
+Elbows were braced on the rail, then the right leg was thrown
+over and Phil Forrest was high and dry on the deck of a great
+river steamer, after an experience that perhaps never had
+befallen a human being on the Mississippi before.
+
+He found himself standing face to face with an officer of the
+boat, who proved to be the mate.  The man was so astonished at
+the dripping figure that had come over the stern, that, for the
+moment, he did not speak.
+
+"Good evening," greeted Phil politely.
+
+"Who are you?" demanded the mate sternly.
+
+"I guess I am Old Neptune himself.  Maybe I am a mermaid.
+At least I have just risen from the sea, and mighty glad
+I am that I have risen."
+
+The officer seized Phil.  Leading the boy to where the light
+shone from the main cabin window, he peered into the lad's face.
+Evidently fairly well satisfied by his brief glance into the
+honest eyes of the Circus Boy, the officer quickly turned and
+led Phil to the forward end of the boat, where he summoned the
+captain, who was lying down in the pilot house.
+
+"What's this?  Whom have you here?"
+
+"I don't know, sir," answered the officer.  "He came over the
+side half a mile above here."
+
+"What--what's this--came over the side?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"I saw him.  I was standing astern when he climbed over
+the rail."
+
+"See here, young man, what does this mean?"
+
+"I fell from a boat, sir, further up the river.  I was trying to
+swim ashore when you nearly ran me down.  You see, I did not know
+you were going to make that sharp turn and I did not have time to
+get out of the way."
+
+"That is not a likely story, young man.  How did you get aboard
+this boat?  That is what I want to know."
+
+Phil explained that he had caught hold of a rope.
+
+"Is there a rope trailing, mate?"
+
+"I don't know, sir."
+
+"Find out."
+
+The mate returned a few moments later with the information that a
+hawser was dragging astern.
+
+"Wonderful!" breathed the captain.  "How did you ever do it, and
+you only a boy?"
+
+"I am pretty strong, even if I am a boy," smiled Phil.
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+Phil gave it.
+
+"How did you happen to get in the river?"
+
+"I told you I fell in, or something of the sort, from the
+'Fat Marie.'"
+
+"Never heard of her."
+
+"I think she was called the 'Mary Jane.'"
+
+"Oh, that's that circus boat--the Sparling Circus?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Do you belong to the circus?"
+
+"Yes.  I am a bareback rider and a trapeze performer."
+
+Both men gazed at him with new interest.
+
+"Well, you beat anything that I ever heard of.  You certainly
+must be a performer if you did a thing like that.  I remember the
+pilot's telling me he thought he heard someone cry out from the
+river, but as the call was not repeated, he thought he must have
+been mistaken.  Come in, and we will put you to bed."
+
+"I have no money with me, sir," said the lad.  "If you will
+extend the courtesies of your craft to me, I will see that you
+are well paid after I reach my show once more."
+
+"We will take care of you.  Never mind about the pay."
+
+"By the way, where is your next landing place?"
+
+"Memphis."
+
+Phil gave a low whistle.
+
+"Where do you want to go?"
+
+"Corinth, I believe is the stand we show at tomorrow."
+
+"That's not far from Memphis.  We will land you at Memphis
+in the morning and you can take a train back, getting you to
+Corinth in plenty of time for your show.  I will see that you
+have a ticket."
+
+"Thank you ever so much.  You are very kind."
+
+The Circus Boy was put to bed and in a few minutes he was sound
+asleep, thus far not much the worse for his thrilling experience,
+though he was completely exhausted, as he realized after he had
+tucked himself in his berth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE ROMAN CHARIOT RACES
+
+It was late when the Circus Boy awoke next morning.  A steward
+rapped at the door and a suit of officer's clothes, brass buttons
+and all was handed in to him.
+
+"With the captain's compliments, sir," said the steward.
+"He hopes it will fit you.  When you are ready, you will
+please come to the saloon for breakfast."
+
+"Thank the captain for me, and say that I can't get there any
+too soon," laughed Phil, springing out of bed.
+
+The passengers had all heard the remarkable tale from the captain
+that morning, and they were anxious to see the young Circus Boy
+who had performed such a plucky act.
+
+Phil entered the dining room, not thinking for a minute that he
+would be recognized.  When the passengers saw the handsome young
+fellow in an officer's uniform, they knew him.  Everyone in the
+room sprang to his feet and three cheers rang out for
+Phil Forrest.
+
+"Speech, speech!" cried someone.
+
+Blushing faintly, Phil glanced about him.
+
+"You cannot expect a boy to make much of a speech before
+breakfast, especially after he has been swimming most of
+the night.  I don't know that I am entitled to any
+special credit.  I saved only my own life, and I do not
+expect to get a medal for it, either.  I hope all of you
+will visit the Great Sparling Shows at the first opportunity.
+Then I shall try to entertain you in a way that I understand
+far better than this.  I'm very much obliged to you all."
+
+Then Phil sat down.  The passengers gave him another cheer,
+louder and more enthusiastic than the first.  Mr. Sparling would
+have been proud of the lad could he have heard that speech.
+Phil lost no opportunity to advertise the Sparling shows, and
+every passenger on the boat, that morning, made up his mind to
+visit the show ere another week had passed.
+
+All the rest of the morning Phil was a hero in the eyes of the
+passengers, who followed him wherever he went, asking questions
+about his experience in the river, and how he had happened to
+fall in, as well as numerous questions about the life of a
+circus man.
+
+With regard to his accident, Phil had little to say.  He seemed
+to wish to avoid discussing the falling-in matter, but his face
+took on a serious expression when it was referred to.
+
+At last Memphis was sighted.  Phil arranged with the captain
+to return the uniform, which he promised to send to St. Louis,
+so that his benefactor could get it on the return trip.
+
+As the craft began drawing in toward the dock, the Circus Boy
+bade all the passengers good-bye, everyone of whom insisted on
+shaking hands with him.
+
+Phil walked off, the passengers giving him three cheers as he
+stepped over the gangplank to the dock.  Before he had reached
+the end of it, he was overtaken by a reporter who had just heard
+of Phil's feat and wished an interview.
+
+At first Phil was reluctant to speak.
+
+"I think it will be a good advertisement for the show," he said
+to himself.  So the Circus Boy related, modestly, the story
+of his experience in the river and of his rescue of himself; not
+forgetting to say some pleasant things about the Sparling shows,
+which would visit Memphis two days hence.  That afternoon he saw
+his story set forth in the Memphis newspaper.  He bought two
+papers, one of which he tucked in his pocket, sending the other
+to Mrs. Cahill, his guardian.  His next move was to start for the
+station, to take a train for Corinth.  He was already too late to
+reach that town in time for the afternoon performance, but he had
+wired Mr. Sparling that he was safe.
+
+As it happened the lad reached the show grounds before his
+message had been delivered.  Mr. Sparling, well nigh beside
+himself with worry, had telegraphed to all points passed by their
+boats, begging that neither effort nor expense be spared to find
+his Circus Boy.
+
+The showman was standing in front of his office tent, that
+afternoon, at about three o'clock, his broad-brimmed slouch hat
+pulled well down over his eyes, his hands thrust deep in his
+trousers pockets.
+
+Off under the big top the band was playing a lively tune,
+and the side-show people were out in front sunning themselves,
+all discussing Phil Forrest's mysterious disappearance.
+
+After a short time, Mr. Sparling espied a young man in uniform
+coming on the lot.  He did not pay much attention to the
+stranger, thinking the fellow was a police officer or something
+of the sort.
+
+As the young man drew nearer, however, the showman thought he
+noted something familiar in the springy step and the poise of
+the body.
+
+"Now, who is that?" he muttered.  "Somehow I seem to know
+that youngster."
+
+Others about the main entrance were also looking in his direction
+about that time.  Still no one seemed to recognize the young man.
+
+All at once the showman tilted up the rim of his hat and gazed
+more keenly.
+
+"Phil!" he shouted, casting the hat aside and running forward
+with outstretched arms.  "It's Phil, it's Phil Forrest!"
+
+A moment more and Mr. James Sparling had clasped his little
+Circus Boy about the waist, hugging him delightedly.  There was a
+suspicious moisture in the eyes of the showman, which he sought
+to hide from Phil.
+
+"Phil!  Phil!  Where have you been?" he cried leading the boy
+toward the office tent.  "And that uniform--what does it mean?"
+
+"I will tell you all about it as soon as I get my breath,"
+laughed the lad.
+
+By this time the others out in front had hurried forward,
+showering questions upon the boy, all of which he answered
+without giving very much information.  He wished to talk with
+Mr. Sparling first of all.
+
+"Where is Teddy?" was almost his first question.
+
+"He is in the big top at work."
+
+"I presume he was considerably excited when he missed me, was
+he not?"
+
+"Yes, at first, but since then he has not said much.  Teddy is
+a queer boy."
+
+The word was quickly passed that Phil had returned safe and
+sound, and ten minutes after his arrival every man and woman
+in the show had heard the news.  There was great rejoicing.
+
+Teddy was going through his clown act when he first heard the
+rumor that Phil was back.  Teddy waited until he had worked
+around to the entrance to the menagerie tent when he suddenly
+darted through, leaving his work and the ring, a most serious
+breach of discipline.  Teddy, however, did not care.  He was
+willing to be fined.  He bolted through the main entrance like
+a miniature tornado, to the amazement of the door tenders.
+
+"Where's Phil?" he shouted.
+
+One of the doormen pointed to Mr. Sparling's office tent.
+
+The little clown was off on a run.
+
+"Hey, Phil, you old rascal!  Where have you been?" he demanded,
+dashing into the small tent.
+
+"I have been out for a swim, old fellow.  Did you miss me?"
+
+"I nearly broke my neck thinking about you this afternoon.
+Landed on my head in the leaping act, and I've got a pain
+in my neck yet."
+
+"Young man, what are you doing here?" demanded the
+showman, sternly.
+
+"Same thing you are.  Seeing Phil."
+
+"Get back to your act!"
+
+"I'm off.  I'll see you later, Phil, then we will talk it over."
+
+"We will, Teddy," and Teddy was off at top speed to take
+up his performance where he had so abruptly left it a few
+minutes before.  The ringmaster had not missed him, though
+he saw at once that the boy was not on his station, when
+Teddy began to work again.
+
+"Now, Phil, we will hear all about it.  How in the name of the
+Sparling shows did you get into that uniform?"
+
+"The captain of the river boat that picked me up fitted me out."
+
+"So you really fell in?"
+
+"I got _in,_ right."
+
+"Tell me all about it."
+
+The Circus Boy related his experiences from the time he found
+himself in the river, until his arrival in Memphis that morning.
+
+"Marvelous--almost unbelievable," breathed Mr. Sparling as the
+tale was unfolded.  "I never heard anything to compare with it."
+
+When Phil told of his speech in the dining saloon of the river
+steamboat, Mr. Sparling leaned back with hands on his hips,
+laughing immoderately.
+
+"Oh, Phil, you are the sort from which great showmen are made!"
+
+Phil handed over the Memphis paper with the account of his
+experience, which the showman glanced over briefly.
+
+"That will give us another turn-away in Memphis.  You can't stop
+them, after that.  They will come to the show even if they have
+to fight their way in.  That was a great stroke of enterprise,
+but I would rather it had not happened, of course."
+
+"What--the interview?"
+
+"No, of course not.  I mean your accident."
+
+"It is all right, Mr. Sparling.  I am here now, and none the
+worse for my bath, but for a time I surely thought I was a goner.
+I would not care to go through that experience again."
+
+"I should say not.  Yours was the most wonderful escape I ever
+heard of.  I'll wager there was never anything like it before on
+this river."
+
+Mr. Sparling paused suddenly and bent a keen, searching glance on
+Phil Forrest's face.  The lad felt that he knew what was in the
+mind of his employer.
+
+"Phil?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You have not told me everything, yet."
+
+"What makes you think that, Mr. Sparling?"
+
+"Because I know you so well.  There is something on your mind
+that you have not told me.  I want to know what it is."
+
+Phil's eyes were lowered to the green grass at his feet.  For a
+moment he was silent and thoughtful.
+
+"What is it you wish me to tell you, Mr. Sparling?" he asked in a
+low voice.
+
+"You have not given me a satisfactory explanation of how you came
+to get into the river."
+
+"Perhaps I fell in," answered the lad with a faint smile.
+
+"Perhaps.  But you have not said so.  I want you to tell me how
+you did get in."
+
+"I think I was thrown in, Mr. Sparling," answered the
+Circus Boy quickly.
+
+"Thrown in!" exclaimed the showman, leaping to his feet, his face
+working convulsively in his effort to control his emotions.
+"Phil Forrest, do you mean that?"
+
+"I do."
+
+Mr. Sparling sat down helplessly.
+
+"Is it possible?"
+
+"I am sure of it, sir."
+
+"Had anyone but you told me that I should have laughed.  I know
+I can depend upon what you say.  Tell me more about it?"
+
+"As I have already said, I was leaning on the rail and dropped
+off into a doze.  How long I had been in that position I do
+not know.  I could not have been there many minutes, or I
+should have gone so soundly asleep that I would have fallen
+over to the deck, you know."
+
+"Yes, yes."
+
+"All at once I felt myself being lifted.  At first, as I remember
+it, the sensation was as if the deck were dropping from under me.
+As I recalled the incident afterwards, I realized that I had
+been lifted.  You know all that occurred after that."
+
+"Was there more than one who threw you overboard?"
+
+"I am unable to say.  I did not even see one," said Phil with
+a half-smile.  "I felt myself being lifted--that's all.  The next
+minute I was in the river, with the 'Marie' pounding away
+downstream at a lively clip."
+
+"Dastardly!  Dastardly!" growled the showman.  "I shall send for
+a detective to meet us in Memphis tomorrow.  This thing has gone
+far enough."
+
+"I think I agree with you, sir," was Phil's half-humorous answer.
+"But I had been in hopes of solving this mystery myself."
+
+"Yes, and you came near losing your life as the result.
+No, sir!  This thing must be cleared up at once.  I shall wire to
+St. Louis now, and we will have a man with us sometime tomorrow.
+Say nothing to anyone of my plan.  The detective will join
+the show in some capacity or other, and have regular duties
+to perform.  You will know him, but no one else will
+except myself.  I think the Roman races are about due under the
+big top now.  Suppose you go in and change your clothes, joining
+me at my table after you come out.  We will talk these matters
+over at length this evening.  When the officer reaches here I
+shall expect you to tell him freely all that you know as well
+as what you suspect.  Keep nothing from him.  Run along, Phil.
+I want to think this matter over by myself for a few minutes."
+
+As Phil entered the big top the Roman races were just coming on.
+The chariot drivers, with their prancing steeds, had entered
+the arena.
+
+Phil paused to wait until the fast and furious races were over.
+The leading woman chariot driver was trying out a new three-horse
+team; that is, two of the horses were new to the work, the third,
+being an old hand.  The new animals were spirited, and after the
+first round of the arena, Phil saw that they were nervous.
+
+"I am afraid she is going to have trouble with that pair,"
+muttered Phil with a shake of his head.  "If she can keep them
+up to the mark, they will outrun anything in the show today."
+
+The new team fairly tore around the arena.  They won the first
+races easily, then lined up in the center to await the finals
+which were to follow a few minutes later.
+
+The ringmaster's whistle trilled for the successful drivers to
+swing out into the concourse.  They were driving furiously,
+almost before the echoes of the whistle had died away.
+
+Making the turn at the lower end of the track in safety, the two
+teams in the race squared away down the home stretch.  All at
+once Phil saw that something was wrong.  The leading chariot was
+swaying dizzily, and the driver was trying with all her strength
+to pull the plunging animals down.
+
+Suddenly the wheel on the inner side slipped from its axle and
+went rolling off into the center of the arena.  The axle dropped
+to the turf, caught, then turned the chariot bottom side up.
+
+The woman driver was hurled off into the center in the wake of
+the careening wheel, landing on her head and shoulders beside the
+center platform.
+
+The team did not stop, however.  It started directly across the
+arena, in a diagonal course.
+
+"She is hurt!" cried Phil.  "Somebody will be killed unless that
+wild team is stopped!"
+
+Giving no thought to the danger to himself, Phil Forrest darted
+across the arena and leaped for the bridles of the plunging,
+frightened animals.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+It seemed a foolhardy thing to do, but Phil understood exactly
+how to go about it.  If he were able to turn the team, he would
+undoubtedly save them from plunging into the seats where hundreds
+of people were sitting.  A trained circus horse always will avoid
+the spectators, but there is no accounting for what a green
+animal will do.
+
+Grasping the bit of the animal nearest to him, Phil threw his
+whole weight into the effort.  To his intense satisfaction the
+team swerved, half turned and dashed across the arena again.
+This time, however, they did not go far.  The outfit smashed into
+the main center pole, and Phil went on, sitting down violently in
+the middle of the concourse, unhurt, but more or less shaken up.
+
+By that time ring attendants had caught the frightened horses.
+All danger was over.
+
+Phil Forrest was loudly cheered by the spectators, but his
+borrowed officer's uniform was a hopeless wreck.  It was torn
+beyond any possibility of repair.
+
+Upon investigation, which Phil made at once, he found that the
+cap that held the chariot wheel in place, had been removed.
+No trace of it ever was found, and Phil well knew that the
+mysterious enemy was once more at work.  The news was conveyed
+to Mr. Sparling, with the information that Phil had gleaned.
+
+He also bore the unwelcome tidings to his employer that their
+leading woman chariot driver had broken both arms and that she
+would not perform again that season, if ever again.
+
+Mr. Sparling was so angered over this latest outrage that he was
+scarcely able to control himself.  Yet he knew that it would be
+best to maintain silence until the detective had had an
+opportunity to make an investigation.  Some of the circus people,
+however, had voiced a suspicion that the accident was a
+deliberate attempt to do the show an injury, and this was quickly
+passed from lip to lip, until almost everyone had heard it.
+The show people accepted the situation quietly, as was their
+wont, nevertheless they were very much excited.  There was no
+telling when they themselves might fall victims to the mysterious
+enemy, and each one vowed to run down the scoundrel who they knew
+must be a member of the circus family.
+
+Phil made some guarded inquiries, but was unable to learn
+whether or not anyone had been observed about the chariots
+that day.  The hub cap, of course, might have been removed
+while the chariots were still on the boat, but in that event
+its loss would no doubt have been noticed, for the caps were
+of brass, large and prominent.
+
+Phil decided that the act must have been committed just before
+the chariots were driven into the arena for the Roman races.
+
+In this, Phil Forrest was right.
+
+The solution of the mystery was at hand, however, and was to come
+in a most unexpected manner.
+
+Supper had been eaten, and most of the performers were out on
+the lot, enjoying the balmy air of the early evening for the few
+moments left to them before they would be obliged to repair to
+the dressing tent to make ready for the evening performance.
+
+Phil decided to go in, after finishing a talk with Mr. Sparling
+in the latter's private tent.  As the lad passed through the
+menagerie tent the attendants were lighting the gasoline lamps
+there and hauling them up the center poles.
+
+Under the big top, however, one could not see half its length.
+The lights there would not be turned on for fifteen or twenty
+minutes yet.  Not a person was in sight as Phil entered the tent,
+making his way slowly down the concourse.  He paused half-way
+down, seating himself on a grandstand chair in one of the arena
+boxes, where he thought over the latest exploit of the
+show's enemy.
+
+"This time they were not after me, but after the outfit itself,"
+he muttered.  "That is the time the fellow showed his hand, and
+it gives me an idea.  I--hello, there is someone who acts as if
+he did not wish to be seen."
+
+Phil sat still and watched.  Someone had slipped in under the
+tent down at the other end, directly across the arena from where
+the bandstand was located.  It had now become so dark in the tent
+that Phil could not make out the fellow's features.  In fact, the
+man was a mere shadow.
+
+"I wonder what he is doing there?"
+
+Then a thought struck Phil Forrest like a blow.
+
+"That's where they put the big net between performances."
+
+Phil crept down into the arena and made his way back to the
+entrance to the menagerie tent, where he quickly slipped out
+into the open and ran down along the outside of the big top
+at his best speed.  As he drew near the spot where he had seen
+the man, he moved cautiously.
+
+Finally Phil dropped down and peered under the tent.  He was less
+than ten feet from where the fellow was at work.  The Circus Boy
+could catch a "rip, rip" now and then.
+
+"The fiend is cutting the net," he muttered.  "I wonder who
+he is.  Ah, I know him now!  He is one of the tent men.  I never
+thought he was in this thing.  I must catch him--I must make the
+attempt, for he may get away.  I don't even know the fellow's
+name, nor do I understand his enmity toward the show or myself."
+
+Phil wriggled in under the tent, now, not fearing discovery, for
+inside the tent, it was quite dark.  Slowly raising himself to
+his feet, he edged nearer, step by step, to where the man was
+at work.  The man had partly spread the net out by this time,
+to make sure that he was cutting it in the right place so that
+it would give way beneath the weight of the performer unfortunate
+enough to drop into it first.
+
+"The fiend!" repeated Phil, clenching his fists.  "I'm glad I am
+the one to discover him.  Mr. Man, I have a score to settle with
+you and I'm going to begin the settling up now."
+
+Phil crouched low.  He was now only a few feet from the
+stooping figure.
+
+All at once the boy threw himself forward.  He landed on the man,
+forcing him to the ground.  As he struck, Phil raised his voice
+in the showmen's rallying cry.
+
+"_Hey, Rube!_" he shouted in a sing-song voice that was heard in
+the dressing tents and even out in the menagerie tent.
+
+His first care, then, was to pinion the man so he could not use
+his hands, for the Circus Boy knew that his captive had a knife
+in one hand.
+
+Men came running from all directions, Mr. Sparling among the
+number, for he had been in the menagerie tent when the cry
+reached him, and feared some fresh trouble was at hand.
+
+"What is it?  Where is it?" roared the showman.
+
+"Here, here!  Bring lights.  Bring--"
+
+The man beneath him began to struggle.  In fact the fellow
+staggered to his feet, the boy being too light to hold him down.
+
+Phil grabbed him about the waist, pinioning the man's arms to
+his sides.  Then began a desperate struggle, during which the
+combatants fell to the ground, rolling over and over in their
+fierce battle.
+
+"It's Phil Forrest!" shouted the owner.
+
+He sprang forward and with a mighty tug, jerked the tentman free
+of the Circus Boy's body.  At that instant the fellow leaped to
+his feet and started to run.
+
+"Stop him!" howled Phil.
+
+Teddy, who had come running up, suddenly stooped over and
+constituting himself a battering ram, ran full tilt into the
+tentman, the boy's head landing in the pit of the circus
+hand's stomach.  The fellow went down, whereupon Teddy
+promptly sat on him until the others reached the scene.
+
+"Now, what does this mean?" demanded the showman sternly.
+
+"It means that I caught this fellow cutting the net.  If you will
+look at it you will find it to be badly mutilated, I think."
+An examination proved that Phil was right.  Mr. Sparling had all
+he could do to prevent the angry circus men from wreaking their
+vengeance on the wretch then and there.
+
+Teddy, in the meantime, had been peering into the man's face.
+
+"I know him!  I know him!" howled the Circus Boy, dancing about.
+
+"You know him?"
+
+"Yes, do you remember Bad Eye who was mixed up with Red Larry,
+the fellow we sent to jail two or three seasons ago?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"That's Bad Eye," pointing to the prisoner, "and he is bad
+medicine, besides."
+
+"Is it possible?" muttered Phil, a new light breaking over him.
+
+Suddenly Teddy uttered a yell.
+
+"I've got him!  He's the fellow who stole my egg."  Teddy made a
+dive for the prisoner, but strong hands pulled him away.
+
+Bad Eye, it developed, smarting under the punishment that had
+been meted out to his companion, had once more joined the show,
+determined upon revenge.  He had in the meantime grown a full
+beard, so that no one recognized him.  Now, Phil Forrest knew why
+the voice was dimly familiar to him when he had heard it that
+night out on the lot.
+
+Caught red-handed, Bad Eye made a full confession.  And to the
+surprise of everyone, he implicated Manuel, the assistant to
+the Spanish clown.  Bad Eye admitted having thrown Phil Forrest
+overboard, as well.  He denied having stolen Tucker's egg,
+placing the full responsibility for this on the shoulders
+of Manuel.
+
+What was done with the egg was never known, though Manuel was
+believed to have thrown it overboard.  Diaz, after his one
+violent outbreak, had made no further evil attempts.
+
+Bad Eye and Manuel were tried and convicted in due time, and
+placed where they would do the show no further harm.
+
+The show went on, and after several successful weeks, reached
+New Orleans, where the final performance of the season was given.
+All hands then turned their faces northward.  Teddy and Phil
+decided to take a steamship for New York, thence proceeding to
+their home by train.  Each lad was a few thousand dollars richer
+than when he had joined out in the spring.
+
+They waved their adieus to Mr. Sparling from the deck of an ocean
+steamer next morning as the big ship slowly poked its nose out
+into the gulf.
+
+"You can't down the Circus Boys," said Phil, with a pleased smile
+as they leaned over the rail.
+
+"At least, not this season," added Teddy.
+
+But the exciting experiences of the Circus Boys were not yet at
+an end.  The lads will be heard from further in another volume,
+under the title: "THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE PLAINS; Or, The Young
+Advance Agents Ahead of the Show."
+
+In this forthcoming volume the lads pass through a phase of
+circus life never experienced by them before.  They will find,
+too, that all the thrills of the circus life are not confined
+to the sawdust arena, but that there is every whit as much
+excitement and real peril in the daily life of the advance man
+on the advertising car ahead of the show.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Circus Boys On the Mississippi
+
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