"What!"
"Yes, hurry!" and Phil sank back, weak from lack of food and the severe strain he had put upon himself.
Mr. Sparling grasped the meaning of the lad's words in a flash. Snatching a whistle from his pocket he blew two short, shrill blasts. A mounted man came riding up at a gallop.
"Go to the lot! Have the tents surrounded. Let no one through who doesn't belong to the show. I trust you to look out for our property. An attempt may be made to do us damage while we are out on parade. Now, ride!"
The man did ride. He whirled his horse and set it at a run down the line, headed toward the circus lot.
"I've got to get back there myself, Phil. Can you stand it to stay in the carriage until it reaches the lot?"
"Yes, but I don't look fit. I—"
"Sit up and look wise. The people will think you are a clown and they'll split their sides laughing. I'll talk with you later. You must have had a rough time of it."
"I have had."
Mr. Sparling jumped out of the carriage, and, ordering a rider to dismount, took the latter's horse, on which he, too, rode back to the lot with all speed.
Phil pulled himself together. Half a block further on the people, espying him, did laugh as Mr. Sparling had said they would.
Phil grinned out of sheer sympathy.
"I must look funny riding in this fine carriage with four white horses drawing me through the streets. I don't blame them for laughing. If I had something to eat, now, I would be all right. I am getting to have as much of an appetite as Teddy Tucker has. I—"
Phil paused, listening intently.
"I hear another band and it is coming nearer," he exclaimed."That must be the Sully show. I forgot in my excitement, to askMr. Sparling about them. I wonder where they are?"
The music of the rival band grew louder and louder, but strain his eyes and ears as he would, Phil was unable to locate the other show's line of parade.
"Where's that band?" he called up to the driver of his carriage.
"Off that side of the town, I guess," he answered, waving his whip to the right of them.
"Well, I think they are pretty close to us and I don't like the looks, or rather the sound of things."
At that moment Phil's carriage was drawn across an intersecting street. He looked up the street quickly.
"There they are!" he cried.
Less than a quarter of a block up the street he saw the other parade sweeping down upon them, bands playing, flags flying and banners waving. Phil's quick, practiced eyes saw something else too. The elephants were leading the rival parade, with horsemen immediately at their rear, the band still further back.
This being so unusual in a parade, the Circus Boy knew that there must be some reason for the peculiar formation. The elephants should have been further back in the line, the same as were those of the Sparling show.
Phil divined the truth instantly.
"They're going to break up our parade!" he cried. "That's what they are hoping to do. Drive on! I'm going to get out and run back to tell the parade manager. They'll do us a lot of damage."
Phil leaped from the carriage and ran down the street, his coat wide open showing his pink riding shirt beneath it.
"Where's the parade manager?" he cried.
"Gone to the lot. Boss sent him back."
Phil groaned. Something must be done and done quickly.The rival parade must be nearing their street by this time.
A thought occurred to him. Phil dashed for the elephant herd.
"Mr. Kennedy!"
"Yes?"
"Sully's show is going to run into us at that corner there."
"They don't dare!"
"They do and they will. Swing your elephants out of line and throw them across that intersecting street. I'll bet they won't get by our bulls in a hurry."
"Great! Great, kid! I'd never thought of that."
"You'll have to hurry. The other fellows are almost here and their elephants are leading the parade. Sully's just looking for trouble!"
The voice of the elephant trainer uttered a series of shrill commands that sounded like so many explosions. The elephants understood. They swung quickly out of line and went lumbering down the street.
"Hey, there, that you, Phil?"
It was Teddy on old Emperor's back in the same frog costume that he had worn for that purpose the first season with the show.
"Yes, what's left of me," answered Phil, running fast to keep up with the swiftly moving elephants.
Just before reaching the intersecting street he managed to get ahead of Kennedy and his charges.
"Hurry, hurry! They're right here," howled the Circus Boy.
The trainer, with prod and voice, urged the elephants into even quicker action than before. Two minutes later they swung across the street down which the rival parade was coming, and, at the command of their keeper, the huge animals turned, facing the other body of paraders.
"We're just in time! There they are!" cried Phil excitedly.
"I should say so. They were going to do what you said they would, the scoundrels!"
"Can you hold them till our people get by, do you think?"
"Can I hold them? I can hold them till all the mill ponds inCanada freeze up!" exploded the elephant trainer.
Phil walked forward to meet the Sully parade. The owner of that show was well up toward the front of the line on horseback.
"You'll have to wait till our line gets by, sir," announced Phil, with a suggestive grin. "We've got your little game blocked, you see."
"You!"
Sully fairly hurled the word at the disreputable lookingCircus Boy.
"Yes; you see I got away. Are you going to stop?"
"No, not for any outfit that James Sparling runs. Where is he? Afraid to come out and show himself, eh? Sends a runaway kid out to speak for him. Get out of the way, or I'll run you down!"
Phil's eyes snapped.
"You had better not try it, if you know what's good for you!"
"Move on! Break through their line!" commanded Sully.
Phil turned and waved his hand.
"They are going to try to break through, Mr. Kennedy," he called.
Kennedy uttered several quick commands. The Sully elephants swung down toward him, their trunks raised high in the air. The leader, a big tusker, uttered a shrill cry.
It was the elephants' battle cry, but Phil did not know it.Kennedy did.
For the first time, thus far, the Sparling herd of elephants began to show signs of excitement. Their trainer quieted them somewhat with soothing words here, a sharp command there, and occasionally a prod of the hook.
All at once the leading tusker of the Sully herd lunged straight at old Emperor. In another instant nearly every elephant in each herd had chosen an opponent and the battle was on in earnest.
Trumpetings, loud shrieks of rage and mighty coughs made the more timid of the people flee to places of greater safety.
As the crash of the meeting elephants came, Phil ran back to the street where his own parade was standing.
"Move on!" he shouted. "Follow your route without the elephants. And you, bandmaster, keep your men playing. When you have gone by, we will give the other show a chance to go on if there's enough left of them to do so."
Realizing that Phil had given them sensible advice, the Sparling show moved on with band playing and colors waving, but above the uproar could be heard the thunder of the fighting elephants.
Two of the rival show's elephants had been tumbled into a ditch by the roadside. Then Kennedy had a lively few minutes to keep his own animals from following and putting an end to the enemies they had tumbled over.
The tusks of the two big elephants, when they met, sounded like the report of a pistol. Such sledge hammer blows as these two monsters dealt each other made the spectators of the remarkable battle gasp.
All at once they saw something else that made them stare the harder.
On the back of Emperor, lying prone was stretched a strange figure. From it they saw the head of a boy emerge. Slowly the frog costume that he had worn, slipped from him and dropped to the ground.
"Teddy!" shouted Phil. "He'll be killed!"
"W-o-w!" howled Teddy Tucker, who had been so frightened in the beginning that he could not get down, and now he could not if he would.
"Let go and jump off! I'll catch you!" shouted Phil.
"I—I can't."
"Mr. Kennedy, can't you get him off?"
But the trainer had his hands more than full keeping his charges in line, for at all hazards they must not be allowed to get away from him, as in their present excited state there was no telling what harm they might do.
The Sparling people suddenly uttered a great shout. Emperor was slowly forcing his antagonist backward, the Sully elephant gradually giving ground before the mighty onslaught of old Emperor. Seeing their leader weakening, the other elephants also began retreating until the line was slowly forced back against Sully's line of march. The owner was riding up and down in a frightful rage, alternately urging his trainer to rally his elephants, and hurling threats at Phil Forrest and the organization he represented.
"Had we better not call our bulls off, Mr. Kennedy?" shouted Phil. "Our parade has gone by this time."
"Yes, if I can. I don't know whether I can stop them now or not."
"You get the others away. I'll try to take care of Emperor and Jupiter. Emperor will give in shortly, after he knows the other elephant is whipped."
"He won't give in till he kills him," answered Kennedy."Better look out. He's blind, crazy mad."
"I'm not afraid of him. Hang on now, Teddy. We will have you out of your difficulty in a few minutes."
Teddy had been hanging on desperately, his eyes large and staring. Every time the long trunk of Sully's big tusker was raised in the air, Teddy thought it was being aimed at his head and shrank closer to Emperor's back. But the tusker probably never saw Teddy at all. He was too busy protecting himself from old Emperor's vicious thrusts.
At last the tusker began to retreat in earnest. First he would turn, running back a few rods; then he would whirl to give a moment's battle to Emperor.
Emperor was following him doggedly.
Phil decided that it was time to act. He rushed up to Emperor's head during one of these lulls and called commandingly.
Emperor, with a sweep of his trunk, hurled Phil Forrest to the side of the street. But Phil, though shaken up a bit, was not harmed in the least.
He was up and at his huge friend almost at once.
"Emperor! Emperor!" he shouted, getting nearer and nearer to the head of the enraged beast.
Finally Phil stepped up boldly and threw both arms aboutEmperor's trunk.
"Steady, steady, Emperor!" he commanded.
This time the elephant did not hurl Phil away. Instead, he stopped hesitatingly, evidently not certain whether he should plunge on after his enemy or obey the command of his little friend.
Phil tucked the trunk under his arm confidently.
"That's a good fellow! Come along now, and we'll have a whole bag of peanuts when we get back to the lot."
The elephant coughed understandingly, it seemed. At least he turned about, though with evident reluctance, and meekly followed the Circus Boy, his trunk still tucked under the latter's arm.
The Sully elephants had been whipped and driven off, though none had been very seriously injured. Some fences had been knocked over and a number of people nearly frightened to death—but that was all. Phil had saved the day for his employer's show and had come out victorious.
The Circus Boy was in high glee as he led Emperor back toward the lot, where the parade was drawing in by the time he reached there.
Teddy, on the big elephant's head, was waving his arms excitedly.
"We licked 'em! We licked 'em!" he howled, as he caught sight ofMr. Sparling hurrying toward them.
As the result of that victory, the Sparling shows did a great business in Corinto. The owner, considering that his rival had been severely enough punished, made no further effort to have him brought to justice, though Phil could hardly restrain him from making Sully suffer for the indignities he had heaped on young Forrest.
Phil found his money that day when he removed his ring shirt.The string that had fastened his money bag about his neck hadparted, letting the bag drop. This money he handed toMr. Sparling as rightfully belonging to him.
Of course the showman refused it, and wanted to make Phil a present besides, for the great service he had rendered. As it chanced, one of Mr. Sparling's own staff was attending the Sully show when Phil made his escape, and much of the latter's discomfort might have been prevented had he only been aware of that fact.
Teddy assumed the full credit for the victory of old Emperor, and no one took the trouble to argue the question with him.
Soon after these exciting incidents the Sparling shows leftCanada behind and crossed the Niagara River. It was with along drawn sigh of relief that they set eyes on the Stars andStripes again.
After showing at the Falls, the outfit headed southwest. The season was getting late, the cotton crop in the south was going to market, and it was time for all well managed shows whose route lay that way to get into Dixie Land. The Circus Boys, too, were anxious to tour the sunny south again. This time they were going to follow a route they had never been over before, something that was still a matter of great interest to the boys.
Mr. Sparling upon learning that there was a traitor in his camp who was supplying secret information to the Sully show as to the route of the Sparling circus, had at once set a watch for the offender. It was not long before the traitor was caught red-handed. He was, of course, dismissed immediately, despised by all who knew what he had been doing.
No more had been seen of the Sully Hippodrome Circus after the meeting of the two organizations in Corinto, though that crowd had been heard of occasionally as hovering on the flanks of the Sparling shows.
"I don't care where they go," said Mr. Sparling, "so long as they don't get in the same county with me. I am liable to lose my temper if they get that near to me again, and then something will happen for sure."
The Sparling show got into the real southland when it made Memphis, Tennessee, on October first, a beautiful balmy southern fall day. All season Phil had been keeping up his practice on the trapeze bar, until he had become a really fine performer. He had never performed in public, however, and hardly thought he would have a chance to do so that season. He hoped not, if it were to be at some other performer's expense, as had usually been the case.
"When somebody gets hurt it's Phillip who takes his place," said the lad to himself.
"Which means that you are always on the job," replied Mr. Sparling who had chanced to overhear the remark. No serious accidents had occurred in sometime, however, and it was hoped by everyone that none would. Accidents, while they are accepted by show people in the most matter-of-fact way, always cast a gloom over the show. Even the loss of a horse will make the sympathetic showman sad.
After a splendid business in Memphis the show ran into Mississippi where it played a one day stand at Clarksdale, and where the showmen experienced the liveliest time they had had since they met the Sully organization in Canada.
The afternoon performance had just come to an end, and the people were getting ready to leave their seats under the big top, when a great commotion was heard under the menagerie top.
Most of the performers were in the dressing tent, changing their dress for supper, but a roar from the audience, followed by shouts of laughter, attracted their attention sharply, and as soon as they could clothe themselves sufficiently, the performers rushed out into the ring again.
Suddenly the people, upon looking toward the menagerie tent, saw a troop of diminutive animals sweeping into the big top. At first the people did not recognize them.
"They're monkeys!" shouted someone. "They're going to give us a monkey show."
"No. The beasts have gotten out of their cage," answered another.
He was right. A careless attendant had hooked the padlock of the monkey cage in the staple, but had not locked it. An observant simian had noticed this, but did not make use of his knowledge until the keeper had gone away.
Peering out to make sure that no one was looking, the monkey reached out its hand and deftly slipped the padlock from its place.
The rest was easy. A bound against the cage door left the way open, and the hundred monkeys in the cage, big and little were not slow to take advantage of the opportunity thus offered.
Chattering wildly, they poured from the wagon like a small cataract. A moment later the attendants discovered them and gave chase. At about the same time the monkeys discovered that something was going on under the big top. Being curious little beasts, they concluded to investigate. Then, too, the attendants were pressing pretty close to them, so the whole herd bolted into the circus tent with a shouting crowd of circus men in pursuit.
The yells of the audience, added to those of the attendants, sent the nimble little fellows scurrying up ropes, center and quarter poles, all the time keeping up their merry chatter, for freedom was a thing they had not enjoyed since they had been captured in their jungle homes.
Some of the ring men tried to shake the monkeys down from the poles, just as they would shake an apple tree to get the fruit. But the little fellows were not thus easily dislodged. The attempt served only to send them higher up. They seemed to be everywhere over the heads of the people.
Finally, having thoroughly investigated the top of the tent, several of the larger simians decided to take a closer look at the audience. At the moment the audience did not know of this plan, or they might have taken measures to protect themselves.
The first intimation they had of the plans of the mischievous monkeys, was when a woman uttered a piercing shriek, startling everyone in the tent.
"What is it?" shouted someone.
"Oh, my hat! My hat!" she cried after discovering what had happened to her.
The eyes of the audience wandered from her up to where a monkey was dangling by its tail far above their heads. The animal had in its hands a flower-covered hat, so large that when the monkey tried to put it on, it almost entirely concealed his body. So suddenly had the hat been torn from the head of the owner that hatpins were broken short off while the little thief "shinned" a rope with his prize.
Failing to make the hat fit, Mr. Monkey began pulling the flowers out; then picking them to pieces, he showered the particles down over the heads of the audience.
This was great sport for the monkey, but no fun at all for the owner of the hat. The woman hurried from her seat, red-faced and humiliated. Phil Forrest had chanced to be a witness to the act. He stepped forward as she descended to the concourse and touched his hat.
"Was the hat a valuable one, madam?" he asked.
"Very."
"I am sorry. If you will come with me to the office of the manager I am quite sure he will make good your loss."
"Do you belong to the circus, sir?"
"I do."
The woman gladly accompanied him to Mr. Sparling, and there was made happy by having the price of her ruined hat handed over to her without a word of objection.
In the meantime trouble had been multiplying at a very rapid rate under the big top. Everyone was shouting, attendants were yelling orders to each other, and now Mr. Sparling, hurrying in, added his voice to the din.
Hats in all parts of the tent seemed to fly toward the roof almost magically, to come tumbling down a few minutes later hopeless wrecks.
Once the monkeys got a tall silk hat. This they used for an aerial football, tossing it to each other as they leaped from rope to rope at their dizzy height.
One monkey was discovered peering down at a certain point in the audience with an almost fascinated gaze. Something down there attracted him. Cautiously the little fellow let himself down a rope to the side wall, then, unnoticed by the people, crept down through the aisle. Slowly one black little hand reached up and jerked from the head of an old gentleman a pair of gold spectacles.
The man uttered a yell as he felt the spectacles being torn from him, and made a frantic effort to save them. But the glasses, in the hands of the monkey, were already halfway up the aisle and a moment more the monkey was twisting the bows into hard knots and hurling pieces of glass at the spectators.
"Catch them! Catch them!" shouted Mr. Sparling.
"How, how?" answered a showman.
"Somebody—"
"I'll go up and get them," spoke up Teddy Tucker. Teddy simply could not keep out of trouble. He was sure to be in the thick of it whenever a disturbance was abroad.
"That's a good plan. How are you going to do it?"
"I'll show you. I'll shake 'em down if you will catch them when they reach the ring."
"Yes, but be careful that you don't fall."
"Don't you worry about me!"
Teddy untied a rope from a quarter pole, straightened it out and throwing off his coat and hat, began going up the rope hand over hand. The monkeys peered down curiously from their perches, chattering and discussing the little figure that was on its way up to join them.
Teddy reached the platform of the trapeze performers. From there he climbed a short rope that led to a smaller trapeze bar higher up, thence to the aerial bars, where the whole bunch of monkeys were sitting, scolding loudly.
"Shoo!" said Teddy. "Get out of here! Better get a net and catch them down there," shouted Teddy, standing up on the bars without apparent thought of his own danger.
"Look out that we don't have to catch you!" calledMr. Sparling warningly.
Teddy picked his way gingerly across the bars shooing the monkeys ahead of him, now holding to a guide rope so that he might not by any chance slip through and drop to the ring forty feet below him, and all the while waving his free hand to frighten the monkeys.
A few of them leaped to a rope some eight or ten feet away, down which they went to the ring and up another set of ropes before the show people below could catch them.
While Teddy was thus engaged, the whole troop of monkeys swung back on the under side of the aerial bars beneath his feet.
"Shoo! Shoo!" he shouted. "You rascals, I'll fix you when I get hold of you, and don't you forget that for a minute."
He turned, cautiously making his way back, when the lively, mischievous little fellows shinned up the rope by which he had let himself down to the serial bars.
"I'll drive you all over the top of this tent, but I'll get you,"Teddy cried.
Down below the audience was shouting and jeering. The people refused to leave the tent so long as such an exhibition was going on. No one paid the least attention to the "grand concert" that was in progress at one end of the big top, so interested were all in the Circus Boy's giddy chase.
"I'm afraid he will fall and kill himself," groaned Mr. Sparling.
"You can't hurt Teddy," laughed Phil. "He can go almost anywhere that a monkey could climb. But he'll never get them." Phil was laughing with the others, for the sight was really a funny one.
"Oh, look what they've done!" exclaimed one of the performers.
"They've pulled up the rope," said Mr. Sparling hopelessly.
"Now he certainly is in a fix," laughed Phil.
The monkeys, after shinning the rope, had mischievously hauled it up after them, acting with almost human intelligence. One of them carried the free end of it off to one side and dropped it over a guy rope. This left Tucker high and dry on the aerial bars with no means at hand to enable him to get back to earth.
The audience caught the significance of it and howled lustily.
"Now, I should like to know how you are going to get down?" shouted Mr. Sparling.
Teddy looked about him questioningly, and off at the grinning monkeys, that perched on rope and trapeze, appeared to be enjoying his discomfiture to the full.
"I—I guess I'll have to do the world's record high dive!" he called down. There seemed no other way out of it.
"Throw him a rope!" shouted someone.
"Yes, give him a rope," urged Mr. Sparling.
"No one can throw a rope that high," answered Phil. "I think the first thing to be done is to get the monkeys and I have a plan by which to accomplish it."
"What's your plan?"
"Have their cage brought in. We should have thought of that before."
"That's a good idea," nodded Mr. Sparling. "I always have said you had more head than any of the others of this outfit, not excepting myself. Get the monkey cage in here."
While this was being done Phil hurried out into the menagerie tent, where, at a snack stand, he filled his pockets with peanuts and candy; then strolled back, awaiting the arrival of the cage.
"We shall be able to capture our monkeys much more easily if the audience will please leave the tent," announced Mr. Sparling. "The show is over. There will be nothing more to see."
The spectators thought differently. There was considerable to be seen yet. No one made a move to leave, and the manager gave up trying to make them, not caring to attempt driving the people out by force.
The cage finally was drawn up between the two rings.This instantly attracted the attention of the little beasts.Phil stood off from the cage a few feet.
"Now everybody keep away, so the monkeys can see me," he directed. Phil then began chirping in a peculiar way, giving a very good imitation of the monkey call for food. At the same time he began slowly tossing candy and peanuts into the cage.
There was instant commotion aloft. Such a chattering and scurrying occurred up there as to cause the spectators to gaze in open-mouthed wonder. But still Phil kept up his weird chirping, continuing to toss peanuts and candy into the cage.
"As I live, they are coming down," breathed Mr. Sparling in amazement, "never saw anything like it in my life!"
"I always told you that boy should have been a menagerie man instead of a ring performer," nodded Mr. Kennedy, the elephant trainer.
"He is everything at the same time," answered Mr. Sparling. "It is a question as to whether or not he does one thing better than another. There they come. Everybody stand back. I hope the people keep quiet until he gets through there. I am afraid the monkeys never will go back into the cage, though."
There was no hesitancy on the part of the monkeys. They began leaping from rope to rope, swinging by their tails to facilitate their descent, until finally the whole troop leaped to the top of the cage and swung themselves down the bars to the ground.
Phil lowered his voice to a low, insistent chirp. One monkey leaped into the cage, the others following as fast as they could stretch up their hands and grab the tail board of the wagon. Instantly they began scrambling for the nuts and candies that lay strewn over the floor.
The last one was inside. Phil sprang to the rear of the cage and slammed the door shut, throwing the padlock in place and snapping it.
"There are your old monkeys," he cried, turning to Mr. Sparling with flushed, triumphant face.
The audience broke out into a roar, shouting, howling and stamping on the seats at the same time.
"Now, you may go," shouted Mr. Sparling to the audience. "Phil, you are a wonder. I take off my hat to you," and the showman, suiting the action to the word, made a sweeping bow to the little Circus Boy.
Still the audience remained.
"Well, why don't you go?"
"What about the kid up there near the top of the house?" questioned a voice in the audience.
"That's so. I had forgotten all about him," admitted the owner of the show.
"Oh, never mind me. I'm only a human being," jeered Tucker, from his perch far up near the top of the tent. This brought a roar of laughter from everybody.
"We shall have to try to cast a rope up to him."
"You can't do it," answered Phil firmly. Nevertheless the effort was made, Teddy watching the attempts with lazy interest.
"No, we shan't be able to reach him that way," agreed Mr.Sparling finally.
"Hey down there," called Teddy.
"Well, what is it? Got something to suggest?"
"Maybe—maybe if you'd throw some peanuts and candy in my cage I might come down."
This brought a howl of laughter.
"I don't see how we are going to make it," said Mr. Sparling, shaking his head hopelessly.
"I'll tell you how we can do it," said Phil.
"Yes; I was waiting for you to make a suggestion. I thought it funny if you didn't have some plan in that young head of yours. What is it?"
"What's the matter with the balloon?"
"The balloon?"
"Yes."
"Hurrah! That's the very thing."
The balloon was a new act in the Sparling show that season. A huge balloon had been rigged, but in place of the usual basket, was a broad platform. Onto this, as the closing act of the show, a woman rode a horse, then the balloon was allowed to rise slowly to the very dome of the big tent, carrying the rider and horse with it.
The act was a decided novelty, and was almost as great a hit as had been the somersaulting automobile of a season before.
The balloon stood swaying easily at its anchorage.
"Give a hand here, men. Let the bag up and the boy can get on the platform, after which you can pull him down."
"That won't do," spoke up Phil. "He can't reach the platform. Someone will have to go up and toss him a rope. He can make the rope fast and slide down it."
"I guess you are right, at that. Who will go up?"
"I will," answered the Circus Boy. "Give me that coil of rope."
Taking his place on the platform the lad rose slowly toward the top of the tent as the men paid out the anchor rope.
"Halt!" shouted Phil when he found himself directly opposite his companion.
"Think you can catch it, Teddy?"
"Yep."
"Well, here goes."
The rope shot over Teddy's head, landing in his outstretched arm.
"Be sure you make it good and fast before you try to shin down it," warned Phil.
"I'll take care of that. Don't you worry. You might toss me a peanut while I'm getting ready. I'll go in my cage quicker."
Phil laughingly threw a handful toward his companion, three or four of which Teddy caught, some in his mouth and some in his free hand, to the great amusement of the spectators.
"They ought to pay an admission for that," grinned Phil.
"For what?"
"For seeing the animals perform. You are the funniest animal in the show at the present minute."
"Well, I like that! How about yourself?" peered Teddy with well-feigned indignation.
"I guess I must be next as an attraction," laughed the boy.
"I guess, yes."
"Haul away," called Phil to the men below him, and they started to pull the balloon down toward the ground again.
"Get a net under Tucker there," directed Mr. Sparling.
"I'm not going to dive. What do you think?" retorted Teddy.
"There is no telling what you may or may not do," answered the showman. "It is the unexpected that always happens with you."
Phil nodded his approval of the statement.
In the meantime Teddy had made fast the end of the rope to the aerial bar, and grasping the rope firmly in his hands, began letting himself down hand under hand.
"Better twist your legs about the rope," called Phil.
"No. It isn't neces—"
Just then Teddy uttered a howl. The rope, which he had not properly secured, suddenly slipped from the bar overhead.
Teddy dropped like a shot.
Teddy landed in the net with a smack that made the spectators gasp.
"Are you hurt," cried Mr. Sparling, running forward.
Teddy got up, rubbing his shins gingerly, working his head from side to side to make sure that his neck was properly in place.
"N-n-no, I guess not. I'll bet that net got a clump that it won't forget in a hurry, though. Folks, the show is all over. You may go home now," added Teddy, turning to the audience and waving his hand to them.
The seats began to rattle as the people, realizing that there was nothing more to be seen, finally decided to start for home.
"It is lucky, young man, that I had that net under you," announced Mr. Sparling.
"Lucky for me, but a sad blow to the net," answered Teddy humorously, whereat Mr. Sparling shook his head hopelessly.
The tent was beginning to darken and the showman glanced up apprehensively.
"What's the outlook?" he asked as Mr. Kennedy passed.
"Just a shower, I guess."
The owner strode to the side wall and peered out under the tent, then crawled out for a survey of the skies.
"We are in for a lively storm," he declared. "It may not break until late tonight, and I hardly think it will before then. Please tell the director to cut short all the acts tonight. I want every stick and stitch off the lot no later than eleven o'clock tonight."
"Shall we cut out the Grand Entry?"
"Yes, by all means. If possible I should like to make the next town before the storm breaks, as it's liable to be a long, wet one."
"I don't care. I've got a rubber coat and a pair of rubber boots with a hole in one of them," spoke up Teddy.
"And, Teddy Tucker," added the owner, turning to the Circus Boy."If you mix things up tonight, and delay us a minute anywhere,I'll fire you. Understand?"
Teddy shook his head.
"You don't? Well, I'll see if I can make it plainer then."
"Why, Mr. Sparling, you wouldn't discharge me, now, would you?Don't you know this show couldn't get along without me?"
The showman gazed sternly at Teddy for a moment, then his face broke out in a broad smile.
"I guess you're right at that, my boy."
The cook tent came down without delay that afternoon, and on account of the darkness the gasoline lamps had to be lighted a full two hours earlier than usual.
The show at the evening performance was pushed forward with a rush, while many anxious eyes were upon the skies, for it was believed that the heaviest rainstorm in years was about to fall.
By dint of much hard work, together with a great deal of shouting and racket, the tents were off the field by the time indicated by Mr. Sparling, and loaded. A quick start was made. Long before morning the little border town of Tarbert, their next stand, was reached.
Mr. Sparling had all hands out at once.
"Get to the lot and pitch your tents. Everything has got to be up before daylight," he ordered. "You'll have something to eat just as soon as you get the cook tent in place."
That was inducement enough to make the men work with a will, and they did. The menagerie and circus tents had been laced together, lying flat on the ground, when the storm broke.
"That will keep the lot dry, but hustle it! Get the canvas up before it is so soaked you can't raise it," commanded the owner.
By daylight the tents were in place, though men had to be stationed constantly at the guy ropes to loosen them as they strained tight from the moisture they absorbed.
The rain seemed to be coming down in sheets. Fortunately the lot chosen for pitching the tents was on a strip of ground higher than anything about it, so the footing remained fairly solid. But it was a cheerless outlook. The performers, with their rubber boots on, came splashing through a sea of mud and water on their way to the cook tent that morning, Phil and Teddy with the rest.
"Looks like rain, doesn't it," greeted Teddy, as he espied Mr. Sparling plodding about with a keen eye to the safety of his tents.
"I wish the outlook for business today were as good," was the comprehensive answer.
When the hour for starting the parade arrived, the water over the flats about them was so deep and the mud so soft that it was decided to abandon the parade for that day.
"I almost wish we hadn't unloaded," said the owner. "It looks to me as if we might be tied up here for sometime."
"Yes," agreed Phil. "The next question is how are the people going to get here to see the show?"
"I was thinking of that myself. The answer is easy, though."
"What—"
"They won't come."
"Why? Are they drowned out?"
"No; the town is high enough so they will not suffer much of any damage, except as the water gets into their cellars. No; they are all right. I wish we were as much so, but there'll be no use in giving a show this afternoon."
"Wait a minute," spoke up Phil, raising one hand while he considered briefly.
"Of course, you have an idea. It wouldn't be you if you hadn't. But I am afraid that, this time, you will fall short of the mark."
"No, not if you will let me carry out a little plan."
"What is it?"
"When I came over I noticed a strip of ground just a few rods to the north of the lot, and running right into it, that was higher than the flats. It was a sort of ridge and fairly level on top."
"I didn't see that."
"I did. It was showing above the water a few inches and looked like hard ground. If you don't mind getting wet I'll take you over and point it out."
The showman agreed, though as yet he did not understand whatPhil's plan was.
Phil led the way to the north side of the lot, then turning sharply to the left after getting his bearings, walked confidently out into the water followed by Mr. Sparling. The ground felt firm beneath their feet. As a matter of fact it was a stratum of rock running out from the nearby mountains.
"Boy, you've struck a way for us to get out when time comes for us to do so. That mud on the flats will be so soft, for several days, that the wheels would sink in up to the hubs. The stock would get mired now, were they to try to go through."
"But not here."
"No; I rather think that's so. What's your plan?"
"We have plenty of wagons that are not in use—take for instance the pole wagons. Why not send our wagons over to the village and bring the people here? I am sure they will enjoy that," suggested Phil.
"Splendid," glowed the showman. "But I'm afraid the horses never would be able to pull them over."
"Think not?"
"I said I was afraid they would not be able to."
"I had considered that, sir."
"Oh, you had?"
"Yes."
"Of course, I might have known you had. Well, what is it?"
"I have an even better scheme, and it will be great advertising— one that few people in town will be able to resist."
"Yes? I am listening."
"Well, in the first place, have the long pole wagons fixed up to bring the people over. We can use our ring platforms to make a bottom for the passengers to sit on."
"Yes, that will be easy."
"Then, take some side wall poles, stand them up along the sides of the wagon and build a roof with canvas. That will keep the inside of the wagon as dry as a barn."
"A splendid idea. But how are you going to get the folks over here after you have done that?"
"Wait, I am coming to that. What do you say to hitching the elephants to the wagons and hauling the people back and forth? Nothing like that has ever been done, has it?"
Mr. Sparling tossed up his hat regardless of the fact that the rain was beating down on his head and running down his neck.
"Nothing ever been done to compare with it, since P. T. Barnum ploughed up his farm with Jumbo. By the great Dan Rice, that's a scheme!" shouted Mr. Sparling enthusiastically.
"But you will have to hurry if you are going to put the plan into operation," urged Phil.
"What would you suggest, Phil?"
"I would suggest that you send men into town on horseback, right away, having them call at every house, at the post office, the hotel and every other place they can think of, telling the people what we propose to do. Teddy and I will take horses and go out with the rest, if you say so. The rain won't hurt us, and besides, it will be great fun. What do you say, sir?"
Mr. Sparling hesitated for one brief second.
"Come on!" he shouted as with hat in hand he splashed toward the lot followed a short distance behind by Phil.
The arrangements suggested by the Circus Boy were quickly made, and a company of horsemen rode over to the village to tell the people how they might see the show without getting wet. While this was being done the pole wagons were being rigged for the purpose, and the elephants were provided with harness strong enough to stand the strain of the heavy loads they would have to draw.
The wagons were to be driven along the village streets at one o'clock, the circus to begin at half-past two. That would give the show people plenty of time to prepare for the performance.
The suggestion met with great enthusiasm. Few people had ever had the privilege of riding behind an elephant team, and they gladly welcomed the opportunity.
At Phil's further suggestion a separate wagon had been prepared for the colored people. When all was ready the elephants were first driven across the ridge without their wagons, to show the animals that the footing was safe. Then they were hooked to the covered pole wagons and the work of transporting the village to the lot was begun.
The show grounds were on an island, now, entirely surrounded by water. Some of the clowns had rigged up fishing outfits and sat on the bank in the rain trying to catch fish, though there probably was not a fish within a mile of them, according to Phil's idea.
"That's good work for a fool," gloated Teddy.
"It takes a wise man to be a fool, young man," was the clown's retort.
"Perhaps you don't know that the river has overflowed a few miles above here, and that this place is full of fish?"
"No; I don't know anything of the sort. The only water I see coming is from right overhead. Maybe there's fish swimming around up there; I don't know. Never caught any up there myself."
After a time the clowns tired of their sport and went back to their dressing tent to prepare for the afternoon performance, the only performance that would be given that day, as it would not be safe to try to transport the people across the water in the dark. And, besides, the owner of the show hoped to be able to get his show aboard the cars before night.
In the big top a slender rope had been stretched across the blue seats from the arena back to the sidewall. This was the "color line." On one side of it sat the colored people, on the other the white people.
After all were seated, however, the line was taken down and colored and white people sat elbow to elbow. All were perfectly satisfied, for the color line had been drawn. The rest did not matter.
The show people entered into the spirit of the unusual exhibition with the keenest zest, and the Sparling show had never given a better entertainment than it did that afternoon. The clowns, even though they had not been successful as fishermen, where wholly so when they entered the ring. Teddy and his donkey, which he had named January, after the manner of most clowns who own these animals, set the whole tent roaring, while Shivers and his "shadow" made a hit from the moment they entered.
"I've got the greatest bunch of people to be found in this country," confided Mr. Sparling proudly to the surgeon.
"Especially those two boys, eh?"
"Yes. They can't be beaten. Neither can a lot of the others."
A fair-sized house had been brought over to see the show, and after the performance was ended they were taken back to their homes in the pole wagons, as they had been brought over.
"I'll tell you what you ought to do," said Teddy confidentially, just before the show closed.
"Well, what is it?" questioned Mr. Sparling.
"You ought to leave those folks here."
"Leave them here?"
"Yes."
"What for?"
"Why, they couldn't get back, and they would have to go to the evening performance again. You'd get 'em going and coming then. Do you see?"
The showman tipped back his head, laughing long and loud.
"Yes; I see."
"Then why not do it?"
"Young man, this show doesn't do things that way. We do business on the square, or we don't do it at all. I admire your zeal, but not your plan."
"Yes," agreed Phil, who stood near; "I sometimes thinkTeddy Tucker's moral code does need bolstering up a bit."
"What's that?" questioned Teddy. "What's a moral code?"
"I'll explain it to you some other time when we are not so busy," replied Phil.
"Nor so wet," added Mr. Sparling. "You see, we want to come to this town to show again some other time."
"I don't," responded Teddy promptly. "I've had all I want of it for the rest of my natural life. I can get all the fun I want out of performing on dry ground, instead of the edge of a lake that you are expecting every minute to tumble into."
"Help, help! Oh, help!"
"Coming," shouted Teddy Tucker, leaping from the platform of the sleeping car where he had been lounging in the morning sun.
The Fattest Woman on Earth was midway down the steep railroad embankment with the treacherous cinders slowly giving way beneath her feet, threatening every second to hurl her to the bottom of the embankment and into the muddy waters of a swollen stream that had topped its banks as the result of the storm that had disturbed the circus so much.
The Sparling shows did not succeed in getting fully away from the island until the middle of the day following the events just narrated.
This made it necessary to skip the next stand, so the show ran past that place, intent on making St. Charles, Louisiana, sometime that night.
The train had been flagged on account of a washout some distance ahead, and while it was lying on the main track many of the show people took the opportunity to drop off and gather flowers out in the fields near the tracks.
The Fat Woman was one of these. She had found it a comparatively easy thing to slide down the bank further up the tracks, after finding a spot where she could do so without danger of going right on into the creek below.
But the return journey was a different matter. She had succeeded in making her way halfway up the bank when, finding herself slipping backward she uttered her appeal for help.
"Stick your heels in and hold to it. I'll be there in a minute," shouted Teddy, doing an imitation of shooting the chutes down the embankment, digging in his own heels just in time to save himself from a ducking in the stream.
"There goes that Tucker boy, headed for more trouble," nodded a clown. "Watch him if you want to see some fun. Fat Marie is in trouble already, and she's going to get into more in about a minute."
Teddy picked himself up, and, running up behind the Fat Woman, braced his hands against her ample waist and began to push.
"Start your feet! Start your feet! Make motions as if you were walking!" shouted Teddy.
Marie did not move.
"Oh, help!" she murmured. "Help, help!"
"Go on. Go on! Do you think I can stay in this position all day, holding up your five hundred pounds? My feet are slipping back already. I'm treading water faster'n a race horse can run right this minute."
"I guess he's started something for himself all right," jeered the clown. "Told you so. Hey, there goes the whistle! The train will be starting. We'd better be making for the sleeper."
All hands sought a more suitable climbing place, hurried up the railroad embankment and ran for the train. A crowd gathered on the rear platform, where they jeered at Tucker and his burden.
"Come—come down here and help us out," howled Teddy."You—you're a nice bunch, to run away when a lady is in trouble!Come down here, I say."
Just then the train started.
Phil, at that moment, was up forward in Mr. Sparling's car, else he would have tried to stop the train; or, failing to do that, he would have gone to his companion's assistance.
By this time Teddy had turned and was bracing his back against the Fat Woman, his heels digging into the shifting cinders in a desperate attempt to prevent the woman's slipping further down.
"You'll have to do something. I'm no Samson. I can't hold the world on my back all the time, though I can support a piece of it part of the time. Do something!"
"I—I can't," wailed the Fat Woman. "There goes the train, too.We'll be left."
"No, we won't."
"Yes, we shall."
"No; we won't be left, 'cause—'cause we're left already. Wow!I'm going! Save yourself!"
The cinders slipped from under Teddy's feet, and, with the heavy burden bearing down upon him, he was unable to get sufficient foothold to save himself.
The result was that Teddy sat down suddenly. Fat Marie sat down on him, and Teddy's yell might have been heard a long distance away. Those on the tail end of the circus train saw the collapse, then lost sight of the couple as the train rolled around a bend in the road.
Down the bank slid the Fat Woman, using Tucker as a toboggan, with the boy yelling lustily. Faster and faster did they slide.
Suddenly they landed in the muddy stream with a mighty splash, Teddy still on the bottom of the heap. When she found herself in the water Marie struggled to get out, and Teddy quickly scrambled up, mouth, eyes and ears so full of water that he could neither see, hear nor speak for a moment. He was blowing like a porpoise and trying to swim out, but the swift current was tumbling him along so rapidly that he found himself unable to reach the bank only a few feet away.
Marie, screaming for help, floated down rapidly with the current. When finally Teddy succeeded in getting his eyes open he discovered that she had lodged against a tree across the stream, where her cries grew louder and more insistent than ever.
Teddy was swept against her with a bump. He frantically grabbed for a limb of the fallen tree. As he did so his legs were drawn under it, so that it required all his strength to pull himself up to the tree trunk.
He sat there rubbing the water out of his eyes and breathing hard.
"Quick, get me out of here or I'll drown!" moaned the Fat Woman.
"Drown, if you want to. I've got my own troubles just this minute. What did you ever get me into this mix-up for? That's what I get for trying to be a good thing—"
Marie's screams waxed louder.
"All right. If you'll only stop that yelling I'll get you on dry land somehow. Can't you pull yourself up nearer the bank?"
"No. My dress is caught on something."
Teddy peered over, and, locating the place where she was caught, tried to free her. The lad was unable to do so with one hand, so, in a thoughtless moment, he brought both hands to the task. He lost his balance and plunged into the torrent head first, his body disappearing under the log. Teddy shot to the surface on the other side, flat on his back.
The Circus Boy did not shout this time. He was too angry to do so. He turned over and struck out for the bank which he was fortunate enough to reach. Quickly clambering up, Teddy sat down to repeat his process of rubbing the water out of his eyes.
"Are you going to let me lie here and drown?" cried theFat Woman.
"It looks that way, doesn't it, eh?"
Teddy got up and hurried to her just the same. Throwing off his wet coat he set to work with a will to get Marie out. The water was shallow and she managed to help herself somewhat, therefore after great effort Teddy succeeded in towing her to land. The woman was a sight and Teddy a close second in this respect.
"I'm drowned," she moaned as he dragged her out on the bank, letting her drop sharply.
"You only think you are. I suppose you know what we've got to do now, don't you?"
"N-n-n-no."
"We've got to walk to the next stand."
"How—how far is it?"
"Maybe a hundred miles."
"Oh, help!"
As a matter of fact they were within five miles of St. Charles, where the Sparling show was billed to exhibit that afternoon and evening.
"I'm afraid they'll miss you in the parade today, but what do you think will happen if we don't reach the show in time for the performance this afternoon?"
"I—I don't know."
"I do. We'll get fined good and proper."
"It—it's all your fault, Teddy Tucker."
Teddy surveyed her wearily.
"If you'd held me up I shouldn't have fallen in and—and—"
"Drowned," growled Teddy.
"Yes."
"And if you hadn't sat on me I shouldn't have fallen in, and there you are. Now, get up and we'll find a place to climb up the bank. We can't stay here all day and starve to death. Come on, now."
"I—I can't."
"All right; then I'll go without you." Teddy started away, whereupon the Fat Woman wailed to him to come back, at the same time struggling to her feet, bedraggled and wet, her hair full of sand and her clothes torn.
"If they'd only start a beauty show in the side top you would take first prize," grinned the boy. "Hurry up."
Marie waddled along with great effort, making slow headway.
"We shall have to go further along before we can get up the bank. That is, unless you want to take the chance of falling into the creek again."
It was some distance to the place where the creek curved under the railroad bed, and they would be obliged to go beyond that if they expected to get the Fat Woman out without a repetition of the previous disaster.
After a while they reached the spot for which Teddy had been heading.
Marie surveyed the bank up which she must climb.
"Can you make it?"
"I—I'll try."
"That's the talk. Take a running start, but slow up before you get to the top, or with your headway you'll go right on over the other side and down that embankment. You ought to travel with a net under you, but it would have to be a mighty strong one, or you'd go through it."
Marie uttered a little hopeless moan and began climbing up the bank once more, but bracing each foot carefully before throwing her weight upon it. Teddy, in the meantime, had run up to the top where he sat down on the end of a tie watching the Fat Woman's efforts to get up to him.
"Oh, help!"
"Help, help," mimicked Teddy.
"I can't go any further, unless you come down here and push."
"Push? No thank you. I tried that before. It would take a steam engine to push you up that bank, because you'd let the engine do all the pushing. You wouldn't help yourself at all."
"I'll fall if you don't help me."
"Well, fall then. You've got a nice soft piece of grass to land on down there. I'll tell you what I'll do."
"What?"
"I'll take hold of your hand if you'll promise to let go the minute you feel you're going to fall."
"I—I don't want to let go. I want to hold on if I feel I'm going to fall," wailed Marie.
"No, you don't. 'United we stand, divided we fall,'" quotedTeddy solemnly.
"I'll promise; I'll promise anything, if you will come help me."
Teddy rose and slid down the bank to her.
"Give me your hand."
Marie extended a fat hand toward him, which he grasped firmly.
"Now gather all your strength and run for it. We'll be at the top before you know it. Run, run, run!"
The command was accompanied by a jerk on Marie's arm, and together they started plowing up the bank.
"Here we are. One more reach, and we'll be on hard ground.Then—"
"Help!" screamed Marie.
Both her feet flew out. One caught Teddy, tripping him and down they rolled amid a shower of cinders, both landing in a heap at the foot of the embankment.
"That settles it. I thought you were going to let go," growled Teddy.
"I—I couldn't."
"You mean you didn't. Now, you can take your choice; go up the bank alone or stay here. I suppose I have got to stay here with you, but I really ought to leave you. Somehow, I'm not mean enough to do it, but I want to."
Teddy stretched out on the grass in the bright sunlight to dry himself, for he was still very wet, while Marie sat down helplessly and shook out her hair.