CHAPTER IV

THE PERIL OF THE CIRCUS

Mrs. Howells pressed the boys to remain for supper, saying they would find it much more pleasant to eat in the house than to cook by the roadside somewhere. It had got quite dark at this time, and so they decided to accept the invitation so cordially given.

The fine meal was soon served, and as they ate, Garry told of some of their adventures with Jean LeBlanc, in order to explain why they were so startled when that name was first mentioned by Howells.

Supper over they talked for some time and then Garry proposed to his chums that they get their packs and journey on for a bit till they could find a place to throw their blankets for the night.

The Howells protested vigorously at this, but could offer them nothing as their cottage was not large enough to accommodate them.

The boys laughed and said they were so used to sleeping in the open that it would never hurt them. "If you are bound to sleep outdoors you can use the back yard or you can spread your blankets on the living room floor," said Howells. "One can take the couch there. You'll have to toss for it, though."

After much pressure the boys decided to do this, and accordingly goodnights were said. It was a custom of the boys to draw lots to settle all arguments, so hustling into the kitchen Garry raided the broom of three straws of unequal length and then brought them back for his chums to draw.

Dick was the lucky chap to get the couch. With a grin he spread his blankets and remarked to the others that he hoped the floor would not be too hard.

"What's the diff?" inquired Phil. "There isn't much difference between the ground and a floor and we aren't in the woods so we can't cut branches to make one of nature's mattresses with. Stop your chatter. I'm off to sleep," and indeed he was in a few moments.

To Garry however, sleep did not come so easily for he was thinking of the events of the evening, and wondering what he and his chums could do to checkmate the schemes of the unknown enemies that were causing all the trouble at the lumber camp. But Garry was a healthy growing boy, and not to be denied his sleep, so soon he consigned the cares of the day to oblivion and in a few moments was fast asleep.

Howells was up before the boys, and started the coffee, and in a few moments his wife was downstairs and busying herself about the breakfast. They let the boys sleep until it was almost ready, then awoke them. The boys protested against all the trouble they were causing their hosts, but their protests were only half hearted for the smell of the boiling coffee and the frying bacon were so tempting that it would have taken a team of horses to drive them away without eating.

Breakfast over, they took their leave, first inquiring about the way that lay ahead. They found that they would go nearly twenty-five miles before coming to another town, as the way ran through the last of the farming country before striking the edge of the big timber country.

"The camp is ten miles or so beyond the village that you will come to, and it will take you at least a day to get to the village, so you will not reach the camp until nearly noon of tomorrow. There's a good chance that you will get a lift, however, for there is a circus there today, and you should find a great many people on the road. Don't be bashful about hailing them and asking for a lift. It is a customary thing to do in this part of the country. I will see you in a couple of days, as I will go back on duty at the camp then," said Howells.

"Just one thing if you don't mind," interposed Garry. "When you come to the camp, do not let on that you are already acquainted with us, because if we are to work together we can do a lot better if there is no inkling of our acquaintance."

"That's a good idea, and that way it'll be," agreed Howells.

"What say, let's take this in a hurry and see how many miles we can cover this morning," suggested Dick.

The others stopped short in their tracks.

"Listen, Phil, unstrap your canteen while I feel his pulse. There's something the matter with Dick. He wants to hurry. If it was later in the day I would say that he had been a bit touched by the sun, but it is early and cool, and I think he is just sick," said Garry solicitously.

"Lazy Dick wants to hurry!" ejaculated Phil in amazement. "What's the big idea?"

Dick turned red and lunged at his chums. He was used to their ragging him on account of his willingness to take the easiest way of doing things. Of course they knew that he never shirked his duty when called upon, and they never questioned his bravery at any time, but he always got so fussed when they ragged him about his weight and his easy way of taking life, that they never let an opportunity pass to tease him about it. After a short scuffle, they stopped laughing and Garry said:

"Seriously, Dick, why do you want to hurry? We are well up on our schedule and you don't need to rush like mad."

"I just wanted to see what we could do if we had to," said Dick; "and furthermore, I wanted to show you for once that I could walk as fast and as long as either of you chaps, that's all. Let's go."

Dick set off at a swinging pace, and kept it up. The boys fell in and kept pace with him, thinking that he would soon tire of it; but when they had covered three miles, and Dick had not abated a whit his speed, Garry and Phil saw that he was in earnest. Not to be outdone by him, they bent to their walking and made excellent time. They were passing a barn, when suddenly Garry stopped dead short, gave a shout and then fell to laughter with all his might. This time it was Dick's turn to assume a sarcastic attitude, and make side remarks to Phil. Finally when Garry had controlled his laughter so that he could speak, he said to Phil:

"What do you think of me for a regular little Sherlock Holmes? I've found out why Dick is trying to set a pedestrian record this morning. Just look at that barn!"

Phil took one look at the glaring posters pasted on the wall, then gave a shout.

"Aha, the boy wants to go to the circus!"

"Marvelous," grunted Dick. "Own up, wouldn't you fellows like to see it yourself?"

The boys teased him for a few minutes, then they perceived that there was method in Dick's madness and they decided that it would be good fun to see the circus if they could get there on time.

"Only reason I wanted you chaps to hurry a little was because I figured that if we covered a good number of miles we would get to a point where people would be on the way to the circus and we could get a lift and arrive in time to see the show this afternoon. Then we could get another start right after it let out, and so fix it as to arrive at the camp fairly early in the morning, covering our last ten miles while it was early and cool," he explained.

"That's pretty good dope at that, Dick. Let's go. We'll see the circus and not waste any time doing it, either." And Garry set the pace as he finished talking.

They stopped at noon and prepared a hasty lunch by the side of the road, after Dick had stopped at a farm house and had his canteen filled with fresh milk.

By this time scores of automobiles and teams were on the road, but practically every one of them was filled to overflowing with adults and children, all presumably bound for the circus. Finishing their meal, they rested fifteen minutes, then Garry, glancing at his watch, remarked: "We have still ten miles to go, and it is now half-past twelve. The circus probably begins at half-past two, so that unless we get a ride we won't get there in time to see the show. We couldn't cover the ten miles in two hours, especially after having come as far as we have this morning."

"I'm going to see that circus, though, even if we have to wait for the evening performance," announced Dick. "What do you fellows think?"

"I guess it would be all right," answered Garry. "There is no life or death matter to make us arrive early in the morning at the camp, so we might as well take it easy for the rest of the way." Luck was with them, however, for they had gone little more than a mile when they heard a car coming behind them. It proved to contain only a single occupant who, as he neared the boys, slowed down and asked if they did not want a ride. They were unanimous in their answer.

"On the way to the circus?" asked the driver.

"We're going beyond that, but we thought that we would stop and see it if we reached there on time, otherwise we would have seen the evening performance."

"Lucky thing that I came along and happen to be going to that place myself then," chuckled the driver, "for there isn't going to be any evening show. You see I happen to be connected with the circus, and we have such a long jump for tomorrow's show that we cannot give a performance here tonight."

"Good thing you came along then, for if we had walked all this distance for nothing, I would have given up in disgust," remarked Dick.

"How far have you come?" asked the circus man.

"We left Hilton this morning," answered Garry.

The driver looked somewhat incredulous at this statement, then sizing up the appearance of the boys, who were wearing their customary khaki semi-uniform that they used as Rangers in the forest, decided that they were hiking for the summer and probably used to walking good distances in a short time.

"What are you chaps doing, walking across the state or something?"

Garry explained that they were forest rangers off duty temporarily and were bound for a lumber camp to pay it a visit.

As they drove along they asked several questions about the circus and circus life, and considerably amused the man by referring to many things in a way that circus people did not. The circus man told them of the many strange phrases employed by circus people, and the boys learned much of the talk of the circus.

They found, for instance, that circus people never speak of the tent. It is always called a top. There are the big top and the little tops. The only thing on the circus lot to be called a tent is the cook tent.

Several of the names applied to the performers were amusing. A clown is always called a joy, and if he is a new man with the circus he is called a First of May, because it is on that date that many contracts are made in the circus. Acrobats are called kinkers, and the people who do work on the high trapeze are called casters, and their work is called a casting act.

"Then there is the high diver, only we call it a tank diving act. You won't see that this afternoon, for the diver fell a couple of days ago and broke his arm. Funny; he's been diving forty feet into an eight foot tank for several years, and never got a scratch, and then he slips on a banana peeling and breaks his arm. It's too bad, too, for the diving act always goes big in these small towns. I'd give twenty-five dollars for a diver this afternoon," concluded the man.

"Hand over the twenty-five," said Dick suddenly.

"What do you mean," asked the circus man in surprise.

"Just that you give me the twenty-five dollars and I'll do your high dive for you this afternoon."

The circus man looked at the other two boys as if he doubted his ears, and Garry and Phil immediately assured them that Dick was a first class swimmer and diver.

"Forty feet is not so much to Dick. He's often done better than that in the river at home," Garry told the circus man.

"Yes, but you want to remember that this is an eight foot square tank, and only eight feet deep," he told Dick.

"That's nothing, I'll turn easily in eight feet. Have done it in a little less," Dick assured him.

"All right. I'll take you to see the owner when we get there, and he and you can fix things up. He'll be glad to pay you that amount for the work, for it's a big attraction and we have advertised it a lot. That's my business with the circus--to do the advertising."

In a little less than half an hour they had arrived at the circus lot, and true to his word, the advertising man carried Dick round to the ticket wagon and introduced him to the manager and owner.

It took Dick but a short time to convince the owner that he could dive, particularly when he offered to give an exhibition for him before the show started. The only thing that the manager insisted on was that Dick sign a statement relieving the circus from any responsibility in case any accident occurred.

Dick readily signed this, and then promising to be back in a short time to get some tights and get dressed, they wandered around the lot. They left their rifles and knapsacks in the ticket wagon, but Garry kept his lariat with him.

"What's the idea?" asked Phil.

"There's very little chance of anything happening, but I don't want any of those riders to walk off with this lariat by mistake," he replied.

This decided the boys to keep theirs with them also, and accordingly they slung them over one shoulder. Several curious glances were cast at them as they wandered from show to show. The owner had given them passes to everything, and they didn't waste any of them.

Soon a bugle was heard blowing and in a moment they met the advertising man who informed them that called all the performers to be ready in a few moments. "Your act will be the fourth on the program, so you'd better go and get your togs on and be ready," he told Dick.

Garry and Phil elected to go to their seats and watch their chum do his act with the rest of the spectators.

"I'll come and hunt you up as soon as I do the dive and collect that twenty-five good old dollars. I can use it very nicely one of these days," Dick said as he turned to follow the circus man to the dressing place.

While the circus was a small one, it boasted of rather better things than the average road circus, and among other things was a fairly good menagerie. Garry and Phil looked at all the animals as they passed through to the "big top."

Two cages contained unusually fine specimens of lions, and near one was a caretaker, waiting for the lions to be taken into the big performing cage, after which he would clean the cage and have it ready on the shaggy maned animal's return from the ring.

"Wicked looking beast, isn't he," Garry remarked to the man who stood near the cage.

"He is that, boss," answered the man. "He's a a new one, and we don't know him very well. We had a nice old chap before him, too old and tired and toothless to do any harm, but this one is young and vicious. The trainer has a lot of trouble with him, too."

A sound of band music made the boys hurry to their seats, and soon the "Grand entry" was on.

Several of the usual acts were put on, and then razorbacks, as the circus workers are called, pulled away some of the planking of the platform in the center of the arena, disclosing a tank filled with water.

Soon the boys espied Dick advancing to the platform, his chubby body enclosed in a glaring red bathing suit. He mounted to the tank, and the chums could see him gazing about trying to locate them, but this he failed to do.

The ringmaster made a short speech, telling a lot of stuff about Dick that made the chums grin.

"Guess one has to be a blood relation of Ananias to be a ringmaster," laughed Garry. "The only diving Dick has ever done before the crowned heads of Europe was before they were crowned."

After the laudatory speech, Dick climbed up the high ladder and stood perched on the little square platform at the top. As he had been told to do outside the big top, he dropped a handkerchief which slowly fluttered down to the ground below. This is an old trick of high divers and is done merely to accentuate the distance.

Then the drummer started a long ruffle, and casting one downward look, Dick tipped off the platform. Both Phil and Garry were just a trifle nervous as he leaped, although they were well aware of his ability.

But Dick hit the water as clean as a knife, and it was only a matter of seconds before he appeared on the surface of the water and climbed out dripping. A mighty round of applause was given not only for the fact that he had made a fine dive, but his youth made him popular with the audience.

The acts went on, and in a little while Dick came wandering into the tent. The boys hailed him as he neared the place where they were sitting, and in a trice he had climbed up the rattling board seats to a place beside his chums.

"Well, I got my twenty-five, and we'll have a party with it some time. Also, I received an offer to stay with the circus, which, naturally, I turned down. So you see, Phil, you are not the only one to have jobs offered them." He alluded to the time that a big league baseball scout had offered a contract to Phil after seeing him pitch one game at Commencement time at high school in his home town. The music stopped and the ringmaster made his customary speech about the next act, which was the lion taming act.

The music had just started again, when there was a piercing shriek from a woman, and then some one screamed:

"The lion is loose!"