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{\LARGE\strut{Leo the Circus Boy}}
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\noindent
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the \hyperlink{project-gutenberg-license}{Project Gutenberg License}
included with this eBook or online at
{https://www.gutenberg.org/license}.
\par

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\noindent
Title: Leo the Circus Boy
\par

\noindent
Author: Ralph Bonehill
\par

\noindent
Release Date: April 10, 2011 {[}EBook \#35821{]}
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\noindent
Language: English
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\noindent
Character set encoding: UTF-8
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*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEO THE CIRCUS BOY ***
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Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at {http://www.pgdp.net}.
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{\centerleft{{\itshape{LEO’S FIRST APPEARANCE}}
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{\LARGE\strut{LEO THE CIRCUS BOY;}}
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or
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{\addfontfeature{Scale=1.2}{LIFE UNDER THE GREAT WHITE CANVAS}}
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BY CAPTAIN RALPH BONEHILL,
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{\addfontfeature{Scale=0.8}{Author of “The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview,” “The Rival}}
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{\addfontfeature{Scale=0.8}{Bicyclists,” “Gun and Sled,” etc., etc.}}
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CHICAGO:
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{\scshape{M. A. Donohue}} \& Co.
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{\scshape{Copyright}}, 1897.
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{\scshape{BY}}
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{\scshape{W. L. Allison}} Co.
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{\noindent}
CONTENTS}

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\item[] {\noindent}
\hyperlink{chapter-i-a-row-and-its-result}{CHAPTER I.—A ROW AND ITS RESULT.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-ii-capturing-a-runaway-lion}{CHAPTER II.—CAPTURING A RUNAWAY LION.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-iii-leo-leaves-the-farm}{CHAPTER III.—LEO LEAVES THE FARM.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-iv-leo-joins-the-greatest-show-on-earth}{CHAPTER IV.—LEO JOINS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-v-a-leap-of-great-peril}{CHAPTER V.—A LEAP OF GREAT PERIL.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-vi-leo-asserts-his-rights}{CHAPTER VI.—LEO ASSERTS HIS RIGHTS.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-vii-leo-gains-his-liberty}{CHAPTER VII.—LEO GAINS HIS LIBERTY.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-viii-among-the-clouds-in-a-thunderstorm}{CHAPTER VIII.—AMONG THE CLOUDS IN A THUNDERSTORM.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-ix-the-mad-elephant}{CHAPTER IX.—THE MAD ELEPHANT.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-x-capturing-the-elephant}{CHAPTER X.—CAPTURING THE ELEPHANT.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xi-a-criminal-compact}{CHAPTER XI.—A CRIMINAL COMPACT.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xii-the-stolen-circus-tickets}{CHAPTER XII.—THE STOLEN CIRCUS TICKETS.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xiii-leo-makes-a-change}{CHAPTER XIII.—LEO MAKES A CHANGE.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xiv-leo-makes-a-new-friend}{CHAPTER XIV.—LEO MAKES A NEW FRIEND.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xv-an-act-not-on-the-bills}{CHAPTER XV.—AN ACT NOT ON THE BILLS.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xvi-an-unpleasant-position}{CHAPTER XVI.—AN UNPLEASANT POSITION.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xvii-carl-shows-his-bravery}{CHAPTER XVII.—CARL SHOWS HIS BRAVERY.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xviii-a-wonderful-trick-explained}{CHAPTER XVIII.—A WONDERFUL TRICK EXPLAINED.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xix-wampoles-new-scheme}{CHAPTER XIX.—WAMPOLE’S NEW SCHEME.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xx-another-stop-on-the-road}{CHAPTER XX.—ANOTHER STOP ON THE ROAD.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxi-an-unexpected-bath}{CHAPTER XXI.—AN UNEXPECTED BATH.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxii-wampole-shows-his-hand}{CHAPTER XXII.—WAMPOLE SHOWS HIS HAND.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxiii-the-greatest-show-on-earth-once-more}{CHAPTER XXIII.—THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH ONCE MORE.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxiv-in-the-circus-ring-again}{CHAPTER XXIV.—IN THE CIRCUS RING AGAIN.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxv-another-balloon-trip}{CHAPTER XXV.—ANOTHER BALLOON TRIP.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxvi-adventures-amid-the-flames}{CHAPTER XXVI.—ADVENTURES AMID THE FLAMES.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxvii-escape-from-the-burning-forest}{CHAPTER XXVII.—ESCAPE FROM THE BURNING FOREST.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxviii-the-rival-balloonists}{CHAPTER XXVIII.—THE RIVAL BALLOONISTS.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxix-porlers-move}{CHAPTER XXIX.—PORLER’S MOVE.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxx-mart-keenes-story}{CHAPTER XXX.—MART KEENE’S STORY.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxi-a-fall-from-the-clouds}{CHAPTER XXXI.—A FALL FROM THE CLOUDS.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxii-mart-a-prisoner}{CHAPTER XXXII.—MART A PRISONER.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxiii-leo-to-the-rescue}{CHAPTER XXXIII.—LEO TO THE RESCUE.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxiv-the-end-of-porler}{CHAPTER XXXIV.—THE END OF PORLER.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxv-a-cowardly-attack}{CHAPTER XXXV.—A COWARDLY ATTACK.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxvi-on-the-elevated-tracks}{CHAPTER XXXVI.—ON THE ELEVATED TRACKS.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxvii-the-capture-of-griswold}{CHAPTER XXXVII.—THE CAPTURE OF GRISWOLD.}\par

\item[] \hyperlink{chapter-xxxviii-good-by-to-the-circus-boy}{CHAPTER XXXVIII.—GOOD-BY TO THE CIRCUS BOY.}\par
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CHAPTER I.—A ROW AND ITS RESULT.}

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{\noindent}
“Land sakes alive, Daniel, look at that boy!”\par

“Where is he, Marthy?”\par

“Up there on the old apple tree a-hangin’ down
by his toes! My gracious, does he wanter kill himself?”\par

“Thet’s wot he does, Marthy,” grumbled old
Daniel Hawkins. “He’ll do it, jest so ez we kin
pay his funeral expenses. Never seen sech a boy
before in my born days!”\par

“Go after him with the horsewhip, Daniel. Oh!
goodness gracious, look at thet now!”\par

And the woman, or, rather, Tartar, Mrs. Martha
Hawkins, held up her hands in terror as the boy on
the apple tree suddenly gave a swing, released his
feet, and, with a graceful turn forward, landed on
his feet on the ground.\par

“Wot do yer mean by sech actions, yer young
good-fer-nothin’?” cried Daniel Hawkins, rushing
forward, his face full of sudden rage. “Do yer
want ter break yer wuthless neck?”\par

“Not much, I don’t,” replied the boy, with a
little smile creeping over his sunburned, handsome
face. “I’m afraid if I did that I would never get
over it, Mr. Hawkins.”\par

“Don’t try ter joke me, Leo Dunbar, or I’ll break
every bone in your worthless body!”\par

“I’m not joking; I mean what I say.”\par

“Did yer put the cattle out in the cherry
pasture?”\par

“Yes, sir.”\par

“Feed the pigs?”\par

“Yes, sir.”\par

“Mend thet barn door! as I told yer to yesterday?”\par

“Mended it last night.”\par

“Wot about fixin’ thet scythe yer broke tudder
day?”\par

“I can’t fix that. I’ll have to take it down to
Joe Marks’ blacksmith shop.”\par

“O’ course! An’ who’s goin’ ter pay fer it?”
demanded Daniel Hawkins.\par

“You can take it out of my wages, Mr. Hawkins.”\par

“Out o’ yer wages?”\par

“That’s what I said, sir.”\par

The old farmer’s face grew darker than ever.
“Ain’t no wages comin’ to yer! You spile more
than yer earn.”\par

“According to my reckoning there are about
twenty-eight dollars coming to me,” returned Leo
Dunbar quickly. “I have kept the tally ever since
I came to live with you.”\par

“Ain’t a cent, boy; not a penny.”\par

“I beg to differ with you. And now while we
are at it, Mr. Hawkins, supposing we settle up?”\par

“Eh?”\par

“I say, supposing we settle up?”\par

“Settle up?” repeated the miserly farmer in
amazement.\par

“Yes. You can pay me what you owe me. My
month will be up to-morrow, and I don’t intend to
stay here any longer.”\par

“But yer will stay, boy! I’ve got a right on
yer. The poorhouse folks signed the papers.”\par

“Squire Dobb signed the papers, but to me that
doesn’t count. He never had any claim on me.”\par

“He settled yer father’s estate.”\par

“I know it—and kept me out of my money, too.”\par

“You—you——”\par

“No more compliments, Mr. Hawkins. I say he
kept me out of my money, and I mean it. And
now he and you are doing about all you can to
make me commit suicide.”
“Oh! jest to hear thet boy!” burst in Mrs. Hawkins,
who had just come up. “Daniel, why don’t
yeou birch him?”\par

“I will, ef he gives me any more sass,” replied
her husband. “He shan’t talk about me an’ the
squire.”\par

The old farmer was getting red in the face. He
knew that Leo Dunbar was telling the truth.\par

A year before, Leo’s parents had died, leaving
the boy alone in the world.\par

Mr. Dunbar’s property had been very much involved,
and Squire Dobb, the most rascally lawyer
in Hopsville, had taken the matter in charge.\par

At the end of six months he had announced to
Leo that there was no money coming to him.
Then, as manager of the poorhouse of the district,
the lawyer had bound Leo over to Daniel Hawkins
at four dollars a month and found.\par

“I will talk,” cried Leo spiritedly. “I think it
about time that I received my rights.”\par

This remark made Daniel Hawkins’ wrath boil
over. He ran toward the barn and presently returned,
carrying a heavy hide-bound whip.\par

“You ain’t had a dressing down in a month, an’
now I’m a-goin’ ter give it to yer good!” he exclaimed,
as he raised the whip and rushed at Leo.\par

Whiz! The heavy whip came down, the blow
aimed for the boy’s shoulder.\par

But Leo was not hit. Like a flash he moved to
one side at the last instant, and the whip only
circled through the empty air.\par

More enraged than before Daniel Hawkins rushed
forward again and caught the boy by the arm.\par

“You whelp! I’ll show you!” he snarled.\par

Again the whip was raised. But it never struck
the blow intended, for an interruption came as terrorizing
as it was unexpected.\par

There was a fearful roar out in the dusty road beyond
the house, a roar that echoed and re-echoed
among the hills around, and then a huge beast
bounded over the stone fence, landing directly at
Leo Dunbar’s feet.\par

It was a lion that had escaped from “The Greatest
Show on Earth,” the circus that was to perform at
Hopsville that afternoon and evening.\par

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CHAPTER II.—CAPTURING A RUNAWAY LION.}

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{\noindent}
If Leo Dunbar was startled at the sudden appearance
of this mighty monarch of the forest, what
shall be said of Daniel Hawkins and his wife,
Martha?\par

The farmer and his spouse gave one look and then
stood, fairly paralyzed with fear.\par

They were unable to utter a word, and, to tell the
truth, they both felt as if judgment was about to
fall on them for ill-treating Leo, and that the ends
of their miserable lives were at hand.\par

The lion crouched low, moving his heavy tail
slowly from side to side.\par

He had escaped from his steel cage but an hour
before, and as yet hardly knew what to do with his
freedom.\par

From the road he had not been able to see the
persons in the yard. But he had heard their voices,
and his brute nature had caused him to leap the
stone fence that he might rend some living creature
limb from limb.\par

That the lion was in an ugly humor was easy to
see. His mane was ruffled, his immense claws unsheathed,
and his eyes were full of blood-curdling
ferocity.\par

At first he gazed at Leo, but then swiftly turned
toward Mrs. Hawkins, taking a single leap that
brought him at the woman’s very feet.\par

“Oh! Daniel, save me!” she managed to gasp.\par

“Can’t nohow, Marthy!” spluttered the old
farmer.\par

And then, recovering just sufficiently to move, he
made a wild dash for the farmhouse, leaving his
wife to her fate.\par

“You coward!” cried Leo, but Daniel Hawkins
paid no heed to the remark. It is likely that in his
terror he did not hear it.\par

“Save me, Leo!” went on the woman. “The
beast is goin’ ter eat me up!”\par

The sound of her voice appeared to anger the
lion still more.\par

His tail moved quicker, and Leo saw that he was
on the point of leaping on the woman.\par

The leap once made it would be impossible to do
anything for Mrs. Hawkins. The lion would simply
rend and devour her.\par

Leo gazed about him for some weapon. He realized
that if anything was to be done it must be
done instantly.\par

His eyes fell on the whip the old farmer had
dropped. With a rapid movement he picked up the
article, and, whirling around, struck the lion fairly
and squarely across the eyes.\par

It was a telling blow, and, smarting with pain,
the brute let out a roar ten times louder than before.\par

Then he turned about and faced Leo.\par

“Run for your life!” sang out the youth to the
woman. “Run, I tell you!”\par

She stared at him, but when he gave her a shove
she realized what he was saying, and made such a
spurt as had never before been seen in that dooryard.\par

The lion watched her go, but made no attempt to
follow. His mind was on Leo and on the blow the
boy had given him.\par

He was an ugly brute, and around the circus was
known to be the most difficult to manage. Trainer
after trainer had tried to break him in, but without
effect. Instead of getting more docile, he grew
worse.\par

In his former days he had killed a man, and evidently
he was longing for a chance to repeat this
bloody tragedy.\par

He took several steps and tried to get behind
Leo.\par

But the boy was on the alert and ran backward
toward the apple tree.\par

Then the lion crouched for a leap. His immense
body was bent low, his tail gave a quiver, and forward
he shot toward the very spot where Leo was
standing.\par

But as the lion leaped so did the boy. He turned
a graceful curve to the left, out of the brute’s
reach, and caught the lowest branch of the tree
behind him.\par

The lion’s nose struck the tree trunk, and he let
out another roar of mingled pain and disappointment.\par

“Didn’t do it that time,” muttered Leo. “What’s
the use of banging your nose like that?”\par

Another roar was the only answer, and then the
lion left the vicinity of the tree and moved back
several yards beyond the branch to which Leo
clung.\par

The boy knew what was coming, and immediately
stood up on the limb.\par

He was none too soon.\par

Again the lion made a leap upward.\par

He reached the limb, but only to find that Leo
had taken a spring to the next above.\par

But now an accident happened which neither the
boy nor the brute was expecting.\par

The apple tree was old and somewhat rotted at
the roots. The weight of the boy and the sudden
shock from the heavy body of the lion were too
much for it to stand.\par

There was a crack and a loud snap, and then the
tree went over on the ground, carrying Leo and the
lion with it.\par

The lion was completely bewildered by the fall,
and, moreover, he was entrapped for the moment
by several limbs which came down on his back and
neck.\par

As the tree went over, Leo turned around and
landed on his feet directly beside the lion.\par

He saw how mixed up the brute was amid the
branches and this gave him a sudden idea.\par

With a lightness of foot that was surprising in a
mere farm lad, he ran to the woodshed.\par

Soon he reappeared carrying a wash-line, a well-rope,
and half a dozen leather straps.\par

He fastened an end of the wash-line to one of the
limbs of the tree and then to another, and so on all
around the lion.\par

Then he crossed the well-rope over the line, and
even fastened it around the lion’s left hind leg.\par

Then making a noose of the longest strap, he
watched his chance and dropped it over the brute’s
neck.\par

Of course, the lion roared and struggled to free
himself, but Leo was too quick for him.\par

The noose around his neck, Leo tightened it considerably,
and then fastened the end of the strap to
the tree trunk.\par

“Now, if you move you’ll take the whole tree
with you,” thought the boy.\par

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CHAPTER III.—LEO LEAVES THE FARM.}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
The savage lion was a prisoner.\par

In vain he tried to release himself. Turning over
merely tangled him up tighter, and in his struggle
he almost broke a hind leg and choked himself to
death.\par

He tried to run, and succeeded in carrying the
whole apple tree several yards.\par

But the load was too much for him, and, with a
roar of pain and rage, he at length became quiet.\par

In the meanwhile Daniel Hawkins and his wife
had gone into the farmhouse and locked all the
doors and lower windows.\par

They were now at an upper window watching
proceedings.\par

“He’s got him, Daniel!” cried Mrs. Hawkins.\par

“The apple tree is down!” groaned the old
farmer in reply. “Plague take the pesky critter!”\par

“Leo hez tied him fast!”\par

“Maybe he might git away an’ chew him up.
Wish he would,” continued Daniel Hawkins.\par

“It must be a lion from thet circus at Hopsville,
Daniel, an’ if so, they’ll come after him.”\par

“Well, they better take him away,” growled the
old farmer.\par

While they were talking a loud shouting was
heard on the road, and presently half a dozen men
on horseback came into view.\par

All were heavily armed, and several carried
lassoes and ropes.\par

They were a party from the circus on the search
for the lion.\par

Leo heard them coming and ran down the road
to meet them.\par

“Hi, boy! Seen anything of a lion around
here?” asked the leader.\par

“Indeed I have,” laughed Leo.\par

“Where is he?” demanded another of the crowd
quickly.\par

“Over in the dooryard of that farmhouse.”\par

“Has he hurt any one?”\par

“He has scared the wits out of that man and his
wife,” and Leo pointed to Daniel Hawkins and his
spouse.\par

“He’s enough to scare the wits out of any one,”
put in another of the crowd. “Come, boys, now
for a tussle with old Nero.”\par

“We ought to shoot him at once. We can’t capture
him alive,” growled a rear man.\par

“You won’t have to shoot him,” said Leo, with a
twinkle in his eye.\par

“Why not? You don’t mean to say he’s dead
already?”\par

“Oh, no! He’s alive enough.”\par

“Is it possible he has been captured?”\par

“Yes, I captured him and tied him to a tree.”\par

“Nonsense, boy, this is no time for fooling. The
lion may eat somebody up.”\par

“I’m not fooling, sir. I have captured him. If
you don’t believe me, come and see for yourself.”\par

Still incredulous, the party of men followed Leo
into the dooryard.\par

When they saw the lion under the fallen apple
tree they did not know whether to laugh, or praise
Leo the most.\par

“By Jove! but this is the greatest feat yet!”\par

“Old Nero has a cage around him now and no
mistake.”\par

“He can’t move a step unless he drags the whole
tree with him!”\par

“Say, boy, who helped you do this?”\par

“No one.”\par

“You did it entirely alone?”\par

“Yes, sir,” was the modest reply.\par

“Thet ain’t so; it wuz me as captured yer lion
fer yer,” came from Daniel Hawkins, who had joined
the party in the yard.\par

“Mr. Hawkins, how can you say that!” exclaimed
Leo in amazement. “You ran for your
life and locked yourself in the house, even before
your wife got away.”\par

“Tain’t so. I captured the lion, an’ if there’s any
reward it comes to me.”\par

“We have offered no reward, but we are willing
to pay for the capture,” replied the leader of the
circus men. “But if you caught the lion how is it
you were up in the house when we rode up?”\par

“Daniel! Daniel!” shrieked Mrs. Hawkins, still
in the window. “Come up again! Leo didn’t
fasten him tight enough an’ he’s gettin’ away!”\par

The alarm again terrorized Daniel Hawkins.\par

Forgetting all about his assumed bravery, he
made a wild dash for the cottage, leaving Leo and
the men alone in the yard.\par

“Does that look as if he had much to do with
catching him?” laughed Leo.\par

“No, it does not. But the woman is right. Nero
is getting ready to struggle for freedom. Come,
boys, put the harness over him while we have the
chance.”\par

The three circus men set to work. It was a dangerous
proceeding, but at last it was finished and
the escaped lion was a prisoner.\par

Then one of the men rode back to the circus
grounds to return with the cage in which the brute
belonged.\par

While this was going on, Daniel Hawkins again
came out, this time followed by his wife.\par

He tried to convince the circus men that he had
captured the lion, but no one would believe him.\par

“I reckon the credit goes to this boy,” said Barton
Reeve, the manager of the menagerie attached
to the “Greatest Show on Earth.”\par

“No sech thing. He only got the ropes fer
me.”\par

“If you were so brave, what made you run just
now?”\par

“I—I—went ter help my wife. She—she sometimes
hez fits, an’ I was afraid she would git one
and fall from the winder.”\par

All the circus men laughed at this explanation,
but not one believed it true.\par

“An’ another thing, thet apple tree hez got ter be
paid for,” continued the farmer.\par

“We’ll pay for that if the lion pulled it down.”\par

“He certainly did,” put in Mrs. Hawkins.\par

“Well, what was the old tree worth?”\par

“Fifty dollars an’ more.”\par

“Hardly,” put in Leo. “You said only day before
yesterday you were going to cut it down for
firewood, because it was so rotted.”\par

“Shet up, boy!” howled Daniel Hawkins. “The
tree is wuth fifty dollars an’ more.”\par

“I’ll pay you ten dollars,” said Barton Reeve.\par

“You’ll pay fifty.”\par

“Not a cent over ten. The tree is not worth
five.”\par

“I’ll have the law on yer fer trespass!”\par

“All right; if you want to sue, I guess we can
stand it,” was the circus man’s cool response.\par

Daniel Hawkins talked and threatened, but all to
no purpose.\par

At last he agreed to take ten dollars and two
tickets for the evening performance, and the bargain
was settled on the spot.\par

It was not long after that that the steel-caged
circus wagon came along, followed by a crowd of
men and boys, all eager to see the strange sights
connected with an escaped lion.\par

It was noised about that Leo Dunbar had captured
the savage brute, and the boys gazed at the
farm lad enviously.\par

“He’s a brave one, eh?” said one.\par

“I wouldn’t do it for a thousand dollars, would
you?” added another.\par

“I always knew he was a cool one, and there
isn’t a fellow around as limber as he is,” put in a
third.\par

And so the talk ran.\par

When the lion was safe in the cage once more,
Barton Reeve turned to Leo.\par

“Can you come with me to the circus grounds?”
he asked. “I would like to talk with you.”\par

“Certainly,” replied Leo quickly. “I was going
up there at the first chance I got to get away from
the farm, anyway.”\par

“Going up to see the show?”\par

“Not only that, but to see the manager.”\par

“What do you want to see the manager for?”\par

“I want to strike him for a job.”\par

“What sort of a job?”\par

“As a gymnastic clown.”\par

“A clown and a gymnast,” said Barton Reeve
slowly. “Well, you might be a clown, if you got
funny, but what do you know about gymnastics?”\par

“Quite a bit, sir, if I do say it myself. I have
liked the exercise all my life, and it seems to me I
was cut out for that sort of life.”\par

Leo’s earnestness kept Barton Reeve from smiling\par

He had often had boys and even men come to him
full of silly notions about joining the circus.\par

He saw that Leo was a level-headed youth, and
he noted, too, that the boy’s body was finely formed
and well developed.\par

“See here, what do you think of this?” suddenly
cried Leo.\par

Running forward, he turned several handsprings
and ended with a clear air somersault.\par

“That’s all right.” In fact, it was first-rate.\par

“If I had the apparatus I would like to show you
what I can do on the bar and with the rings,” went
on Leo.\par

“You can do that at the grounds. Come on.”\par

Barton Reeve rode off, with Leo behind him on
the horse.\par

Daniel Hawkins tried to call the boy back, but
all to no purpose.\par

“Has he any claim on you, Leo?” asked the man.\par

“Not a bit of a claim. He treated me like a dog,
and now I’m going to leave him whether I get in
with the circus or not.”\par

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CHAPTER IV.—LEO JOINS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.}

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{\noindent}
On the way to the circus grounds Leo told Reeve
much about himself.\par

He was seventeen years old, and for years had
had a nice home with his parents, and it was during
this time that he had taken a thorough course of
gymnastics.\par

His father had been a retired officer of the United
States army, and was supposed to be well to do at
the time of his death.\par

But Leo had never gotten a cent out of the estate,
and since becoming an orphan had known nothing
but hard work.\par

The boy was satisfied that Squire Dobb was
keeping him out of his money, but he had no proofs
to use in bringing a case against the rascally lawyer.\par

Life on the farm he could not endure, and it was
only the hope of getting some money out of Daniel
Hawkins which had kept him so long at the
drudgery there.\par

Now he was satisfied there was no money to be
had, and he intended to leave at the first chance.\par

By the time Leo’s story was told the party had
arrived at the circus grounds.\par

It was afternoon, and already the great white
tents were up, covering an entire block in the
southern end of the town.\par

The cage was properly placed in the menagerie
department, and then Barton Reeve led the way between
numerous empty wagons to the rear of a
large affair used as a ticket office.\par

This was not yet open, but a knock on the door
brought a quick response.\par

Two men were in the wagon, the treasurer, Mr.
Giles, and Adam Lambert, the traveling manager
of the show.\par

“Here is a young man who would like to see you,
Mr. Lambert,” said Barton Reeve, and he introduced
Leo.\par

“What is it?” asked the manager shortly. “My
time is valuable.”\par

“He would like a job in the ring.”\par

And then Reeve told about what Leo had done
and what the boy’s aspirations were.\par

Ordinarily the manager would not have listened
to such an application, having hundreds of such
made to him every week.\par

But he liked Leo’s looks, and besides, a boy who
could capture a lion was certainly worth talking to.\par

“Don’t you know it’s a hard life, my boy?” he
said.\par

“I’ll warrant it is no harder than life on the
Hawkins’ farm, sir.”\par

“It’s not as rosy as it looks from a seat outside of
the oval.”\par

“I know that. But I am willing to put up with
the roughness just for the chance to make something
of myself,” returned Leo.\par

Adam Lambert thought for a moment.\par

“Come with me into the ring,” he said.\par

Leo followed him gladly.\par

The rings, two in number, were empty, and so
were the hundreds of seats, making the tent look
vast and gloomy.\par

“Now show me what you can do.”\par

“Yes, sir.”\par

Off came Leo’s coat vest, and shoes. Then followed
a number of handsprings, forward, backward,
and sideways, and somersaults and curious attitudes.\par

“Can I use that bar up there?”\par

“Certainly, but there is no rope to get to it.”\par

“Never mind, sir.”\par

As he spoke Leo ran to the centerpole, and up
this he went like a flash.\par

Then he gave a sudden leap and sat down on the
bar several yards off.\par

“By Jove, there is something in that boy!”
murmured Adam Lambert to Reeve. “He has
just daring enough to succeed.”\par

“So I would say, Mr. Lambert. Hullo! Look
there!”\par

Leo was turning rapidly on the bar.\par

He went through a dozen gymnastic movements,
and then slid down the center pole.\par

“That will do,” shouted the manager. “I’ll give
you a trial. You can place yourself under Dick
Pomeroy, the head tumbler and bar man. Mr.
Reeve, take him to Dick.”\par

Adam Lambert had scarcely spoken when a tall,
finely-built fellow rushed into the ring from one of
the dressing-rooms.\par

“Mr. Lambert!”\par

“Well, Dick.”\par

“Broxton is intoxicated again!”\par

“Indeed! Didn’t you warn him as I told you?”\par

“Yes, but it did no good. He is so intoxicated
he can’t stand.”\par

“Then he can’t do his brother clown act with
Snipper?”\par

“No, sir, we’ll have to cut it out.”\par

“Too bad, with Nash on the sick list, too.”\par

“See here,” put in Barton Reeve. “This boy
wanted to do clown as well as acrobatics.”\par

“Is that so, Dunbar?”\par

“Yes, sir, if I can help you out I’ll do my best.”\par

“It’s short notice,” mused Adam Lambert.\par

“Snipper can instruct him and cut out anything
difficult,” suggested Barton Reeve.\par

He had taken a strong liking to Leo and wished
to get the boy a place.\par

“Well, fix it up, Dick, the best you can,” said the
manager. “I must go back and see about those
stolen tickets.”\par

And off went the manager, followed a minute
later by Barton Reeve, leaving Leo alone with Dick
Pomeroy, who had charge of the clowns and tumblers
connected with the “Greatest Show on
Earth.”\par

Pomeroy at once led Leo around to a dressing-room.
In a corner sat Jack Snipper, a clown and
gymnast, his face drawn down.\par

“Here’s a man to take Broxton’s place,” explained
Pomeroy.\par

“Why, he’s a boy!” exclaimed Snipper.\par

“Never mind, you must drill him in the best you
can.”\par

“Can he do anything on the bar?”\par

“I reckon so.”\par

“I don’t like this drilling in new fellows every
couple of weeks,” growled Snipper, who was not a
man of cheerful disposition.\par

As a matter of fact, he was what is commonly
called a crank, and very jealous of his reputation.\par

He told Leo where he could obtain a pair of
tights and a clown’s outfit, and made up the boy’s
face for him.\par

Then he gave Leo a long lesson.\par

The two were to do a clown act, and then, while
on the bars, throw off their clown dresses, and go in
for a brothers’ gymnastic act.\par

Leo worked hard, and by the time the circus commenced
he was ready to go on, although it must be
admitted he was extremely nervous.\par

The grand {\itshape{entrée}} was the first thing on the programme.
It included the rulers of all nations,
savage tribes, elephants, camels, chariots, and a
hundred and one other things impossible to mention.\par

“Come on now!” suddenly said Snipper, and
then he and Leo ran out into the ring and fell down
and bounced up as if they were a couple of rubber
balls.\par

“Ho! ho! look at those two clowns!” shouted the
crowd.\par

The tumble over, the clowns chased each other
around the ring, knocked each other down, and did
a dozen other funny things.\par

While the two clowns were cutting their capers a
young lady bareback rider rode into the ring.\par

Her name was Natalie Sparks, but she was
known on the bills as Natalie the Fire Queen.\par

Her great act was to dive through numerous
hoops of fire while on horseback.\par

As she began to perform, Leo commenced to
climb the centerpole of the tent, doing so in a way
that nearly choked the crowd with laughter.\par

“See him twisting like a monkey!”\par

“He ain’t a clown at all! See, he is throwing off
his clown dress!”\par

“Now he is dressed in tights!”\par

It was true. Leo was in full gymnastic costume
and was swinging gracefully from the high bar.\par

As Leo began to do his best on the bar, Natalie
the Fire Queen started to leap through rings of fire
held up by several ringmen.\par

The performances of the young gymnast and the
Fire Queen were in full swing when a cry of horror
arose.\par

In some unaccountable manner the fire from the
hoops had communicated to the tarred ropes running
up by the centerpole to the roof.\par

The great canvas had taken fire in several
places.\par

Before Leo could realize what had happened a
cloud of smoke seemed to envelop him.\par

The fire had reached the ropes supporting the
very bar upon which he was performing!\par

His escape in that direction was cut off, and the
distance to the ring below was fully half a hundred
feet!\par

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CHAPTER V.—A LEAP OF GREAT PERIL.}

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{\noindent}
Leo fully understood his great peril.\par

The entire canvas above him was in flames, and
in a very short while the ropes which supported
the bar upon which he had been performing would
be burned through.\par

And then? Leo hardly dared to think of the
consequences. The sawdust ring below seemed a
terrible distance away.\par

A leap to it would mean broken limbs, perhaps
death.\par

A panic arose among the audience.\par

“He can’t escape!”\par

“He must fall or jump!”\par

A rope and a net were sent for, but long before
they arrived Leo had made a move to save himself.\par

The smoke rolled around him a second time.\par

It was fearfully thick, and made him close his
mouth and eyes for fear of being either blinded or
suffocated.\par

As the smoke swept back in another direction
there was a snap above.\par

One of the ropes which held the bar had parted!\par

The end of the bar hung down, and below it the
end of the burned rope.\par

As quick as a flash Leo slid down to the very end
of the rope.\par

Thus suspended he began to swing himself back
and forth.\par

Soon he gave an extra swing, just as the smoke
again came down.\par

Like a curving ball he passed through the cloud,
past the centerpole, and on to the rings, on the
other side of the tent.\par

He caught hold of one of the rings and hung
fast.\par

Then after a pause in which to catch his breath
he let himself down to the ground.\par

A deafening cheer arose.\par

Leo had actually saved himself from death, for as
he touched the sawdust the heavy ash bar high
above fell with a crash, just missing those who
came on with the net.\par

“He’s safe!”\par

The ushers and others now ran around asking the
vast audience to leave the tent as quietly as
possible.\par

But every one was afraid of the falling of the
huge centerpole, and all made a great rush for the
openings.\par

In this stampede many women and children were
knocked down, and it was a wonder that some of
them were not killed.\par

The fire brigade of the circus went to work as
speedily as possible. The nearest hydrant of water
was some distance away, but soon a hose was
attached and a stream poured on the burning
canvas.\par

In less than half an hour the excitement was
over. Without delay the canvasmen went to work
to repair the damage done.\par

A good many people grumbled at not having
seen a full performance. To these were given
tickets of admission to the evening performance.\par

With the others from the ring, Leo hurried to
the dressing tent. It was not long before he was
joined by Barton Reeve.\par

“A great leap, my boy,” said the manager of the
menagerie. “I never saw anything so neat.”\par

“It was a big undertaking,” smiled Leo. “I
don’t think I would care to try it at every performance—at
least not yet.”\par

“It would be the hit of your life to have that on
the bills,” put in Natalie Sparks.\par

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{\centering
{[}image{]}
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{\centerleft{{\itshape{THE FIRE SWEPT DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO LEO.}}
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“Oh, that wasn’t so very wonderful,” remarked
Jack Snipper, the brother clown and gymnast.\par

“It wasn’t, eh?” cried Reeve. He could easily
see how jealous Snipper was of the attention bestowed
upon Leo. “I’ll wager you a round hundred
dollars you can’t make the leap with the rings ten
feet closer.”\par

“Stuff and nonsense!” cried Snipper; but all
noticed that he did not take up the offer and moved
away a second later.\par

“You want to keep one eye on Snipper,” was
Natalie’s caution to Leo.\par

“Why?”\par

“Can’t you see he doesn’t fancy the attention
you are getting?”\par

“Oh, I’m sure I don’t want to cut short his popularity,”
exclaimed the boy gymnast quickly.\par

“Popularity!” The Fire Queen burst into a laugh.
“You can’t, Leo.”\par

“Why?”\par

“Because he never was popular. Why, they
used to call him Sour Snipper.”\par

It was now announced that the afternoon performance
would not go on, and the different people
separated to take off their ring dresses and put on
their everyday clothes.\par

Leo was rather slow to make the change. He
began to practice around the tent on several turns
which as yet were difficult for him to do gracefully.\par

“You must love to work,” growled Snipper on
seeing him.\par

“I love the exercise,” returned Leo shortly.\par

“You won’t catch me doing any more of that
than I have to.”\par

“I want to become perfect.”\par

“Do you mean to say by that that I am not perfect?”
growled Snipper.\par

“We never get really perfect, Snipper.”\par

“Oh, pshaw! Don’t preach to me. Do you
know what I think you are?”\par

“I do not.”\par

“A country greeny with a swelled head.”\par

Leo’s face flushed at this. A laugh came from
behind the canvas, where other performers were
undressing.\par

“Thanks for the compliment, Snipper. I may
be a little green, but at the same time I’ll tell you
what you can’t do.”\par

“What?”\par

“You can’t stunt me. I’ll do everything you do,
and go you one better.”\par

“Oh, you’re talking through your hat,” growled
Snipper.\par

“Am I? Take me up and see.”\par

“I won’t bother with you, you greenhorn.”\par

“Because you are a braggart and nothing else,”
retorted Leo, stung by the insolent acrobat’s
manner.\par

With a cry of rage, Jack Snipper leaped toward
the boy, picking up a heavy Indian club as he did
so.\par

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CHAPTER VI.—LEO ASSERTS HIS RIGHTS.}

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{\noindent}
At once a crowd of performers surrounded the
pair. Very few of them liked Jack Snipper, and
they wondered what Leo would do should the gymnast
attack the boy.\par

“Call me a braggart, will you!” roared Snipper.\par

“Don’t you dare to touch me with that club!”
replied Leo calmly.\par

“I’ll teach you a lesson!”\par

And, swinging the Indian club over his head,
Jack Snipper made a savage blow at the young
gymnast.\par

Had the stick struck Leo the boy’s head would
have sustained a severe injury.\par

But as quick as a flash Leo dodged, and the
Indian club merely circled through the empty air.\par

“For shame, Snipper!”\par

“Do you want to kill the boy?”\par

“What harm has he done?”\par

And so the cries ran on.\par

“Mind your own affairs!” shouted the maddened
gymnast. “I’m going to teach the boy a
lesson!”\par

Again he sprang at Leo.\par

But now suddenly the Indian club was caught.
A dexterous twist, and it went flying out of reach
across the dressing tent.\par

Then, before Snipper could recover, he received
a stinging slap full in the face that sent him staggering
backward on the grass.\par

A shout of approval went up.\par

“Good for Leo!”\par

“That’s right, boy, stand up for your rights!”\par

The shout brought Adam Lambert, the general
manager, to the scene.\par

No sooner had he appeared than all the performers
walked away. It was against the rules to fight,
and every one present was liable to a heavy fine.\par

With the crowd went Snipper, who rolled over
and over until a neighboring canvas-wall hid him
from view.\par

“Who is fighting here?” demanded Lambert
severely.\par

“Jack Snipper attacked me with an Indian club
and I knocked him down,” replied Leo.\par

“Why did he attack you?”\par

“Snipper’s jealous of the lad,” came from behind
a side canvas.\par

“Yes, the boy only stood up for his rights,” said
another voice.\par

“We want no fighting here, Leo Dunbar,” said
Lambert. “Another such scene and you may be
discharged.”\par

And off went the general manager to inspect the
mending of the tent.\par

He might have spoken even more severely, but
he had seen Leo’s wonderful leap and realized what
fine mettle there was in the lad.\par

Snipper remained out of sight, nor did he appear
again until the evening performance.\par

Having finished changing his clothing, Leo
walked outside and mingled with the crowd of
town people.\par

He knew but few of them, as since he had worked
on Daniel Hawkins’ farm he had been to Hopsville
but seldom.\par

He wandered around to the museum, or side
show, and while looking at the gigantic pictures
displayed, was rather taken aback to see Daniel
Hawkins and his wife standing not two yards
away.\par

“My gracious!” murmured Leo to himself, and
he lost no time in moving back.\par

As will be remembered, Daniel Hawkins had received
two tickets for the show from the men who
had come after the escaped lion.\par

Under pretense of looking for Leo, the old
couple, who generally spoke of all shows as works
of the evil one, attended the afternoon performance.\par

They saw the young gymnast, but the paint on
his face as a clown so disguised him that neither
recognized their bound boy.\par

They were much disappointed to have the fire
cut short what proved to be so entertaining to
them, but the extra tickets for the evening performance
soothed their feelings greatly.\par

“We’ll take in this ’ere side show and then git a
bite an’ wait fer the next openin’,” said Daniel.
“It’s better’n goin’ over to the county fair.”\par

And Mrs. Hawkins agreed with him.\par

As soon as Leo saw the old couple an idea entered
his head.\par

At the Hawkins’ farmhouse he had several things
which he wished to get. Not clothing—he was too
poor to own more than what was on his back—but
mementos of former days, when he had had as
nice a home as any lad in the Hopsville district.\par

These mementos were secreted in the garret of
the old farmhouse, in a corner behind the wide
chimney, where Daniel Hawkins had never looked
for them.\par

“I’ll visit the house while they are here and get
those things,” Leo said to himself, and off he
started.\par

As we know, it was quite a distance. Leo
looked around for some sort of a vehicle which
might give him a “lift,” but unfortunately none
appeared in sight.\par

At last he reached the place, to find it tightly
locked up below.\par

In a twinkle Leo was up on the kitchen shed.
From there he clambered along the gutter of the
addition until he reached the window of a middle
room.\par

As he had surmised this window was unlocked,
and he crawled inside, although not without difficulty
and danger of breaking his neck by a fall.\par

No sooner had he entered than a most appetizing
smell greeted his nose.\par

“Huckleberry pie!” he cried. “By criminy!
but I must have a piece!”\par

Down the stairs went Leo. The pies set on the
kitchen table, two in number. A third, partly gone,
rested close at hand.\par

At first Leo thought, just out of mischief, to cut
a fresh pie. But then he reflected that this might
cause suspicion and trouble, and he let the whole
pies alone and satisfied himself on a juicy portion
of that which was cut.\par

A glass of milk washed down the pie, and then,
feeling much refreshed, the boy hurried upstairs to
the garret.\par

The mementos were done up in a flat pasteboard
box. There were pictures of his mother and father
and other relatives, and half a dozen letters and
other things, including a silver watch.\par

Daniel Hawkins had always wanted the watch
but Leo had never let on that he possessed it.\par

With the articles in his pockets Leo started downstairs
once more.\par

He had just reached the second story and was on
the point of descending the lower flight of stairs,
when an unexpected sound greeted his ears.\par

Daniel and Martha Hawkins had returned.\par

“So much cheaper ter git supper ter hum,” he
heard Mrs. Hawkins say, speaking from the kitchen.\par

“It’s a pity, though, yer Aunt Mariah wasn’t
hum,” returned Daniel Hawkins.\par

Leo was startled.\par

“Caught!” he muttered to himself, and then
added: “Not much!”\par

With great caution he left the hallway and entered
the side bedroom.\par

As noiselessly as possible he opened the window
again.\par

The distance to the ground was at least twelve
feet, but there was heavy grass below, and Leo did
not mind such a drop.\par

“It’s nothing to that leap I had to take in the
circus,” he said to himself, and crawled out on the
window-sill.\par

“Hi! hi! You young rascal! What are you
doing up there?”\par

Leo looked down. Beneath the window stood old
Daniel Hawkins.\par

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CHAPTER VII.—LEO GAINS HIS LIBERTY.}

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{\noindent}
Daniel Hawkins had just come out to care for
his horse. By sheer accident he had glanced up at
the window and beheld Leo in the act of dropping
out.\par

The young gymnast was as much surprised as
was his tormentor. But he knew enough to cling
fast to the sill, and not to drop into Daniel Hawkins’
clutches.\par

“Goin’ ter drop out, eh?” went on the old
farmer.\par

“I rather think not,” replied Leo, and popped
into the room again.\par

At once Daniel Hawkins called his wife.\par

“Marthy! Marthy!”\par

“Wot, Daniel?”\par

“Leo’s up in the house a-tryin’ ter climb out o’
the winder!”\par

“You don’t say!”\par

“Run up an’ catch him!”\par

“Why don’t you go?”\par

“I want ter watch out here fer him! If I go up
he’ll drop anyway.”\par

“Drat the boy!” muttered Mrs. Hawkins, and
she went for her old-time weapon, the broom.\par

Armed with this, she ascended the stairs. She
entered the side bedroom, to which her husband
had pointed, only to find it empty.\par

“He ain’t here!” she cried from the window.\par

“He’s somewhere? Root him out!” shouted
Daniel Hawkins.\par

So Mrs. Hawkins ran around from room to
room.\par

But she did not find Leo, for the simple reason
that the young gymnast had, by running through
two rooms, reached the stairs and gone down to the
front door.\par

He opened this and ran outside just as Daniel
Hawkins appeared around the corner of the porch,
whip in hand.\par

“Stop, Leo!”\par

“Not to-day!” retorted the boy.\par

And away he went, Daniel Hawkins lumbering
after him.\par

The farmer was no match for the young gymnast.
Soon Leo was out of his sight, and he returned to
the farmhouse to talk the matter over with his
spouse.\par

“I’ll fix him yet, see ef I don’t!” he said to
Martha.\par

Soon his bony nag was hitched up to a buckboard,
and away went the farmer in pursuit of the
lad, who was doing his best to get away.\par

“I’ll teach him a lesson he won’t forget in a
hurry when I collar him,” thought the miserly man
savagely.\par

On went the boy until nearly half the distance to
Lendham, the next town, was covered. Wishing
to throw the farmer off the scent, Leo did not head
for the circus grounds.\par

As it was a hot day he was soon pretty well
winded and he dropped into a walk.\par

On looking back he was chagrined to see the
buckboard approaching.\par

“He means to catch me, after all!” he thought.\par

The young gymnast hardly knew what to do.\par

It was useless to think of going on, for his pursuer
would sooner or later overtake him.\par

On both sides of the road were open fields, offering
no place where he might conceal himself.\par

Suddenly an idea struck him.\par

He was approaching the inclosed grounds of the
County Agricultural Society.\par

The county fair was in progress and thousands of
people were in and about the inclosure.\par

Could he not lose himself in the crowd?\par

He resolved to make the attempt.\par

But he had not the price of admission, even
though it was but twenty-five cents.\par

Yet this did not stop the youth.\par

“Necessity knows no law,” and just as Daniel
Hawkins drove up within a hundred feet of him he
ran in among the carriages at the gateway and
entered the grounds before the gatekeeper could
stop him.\par

“Hi, boy, stop! Where is your ticket?”\par

The policeman near the gatekeeper made a dash
after Leo.\par

But the boy was not to be collared.\par

He sprang into the midst of a crowd, and that
ended the chase so far as the guardian of the law
went.\par

Leo did not remain near the gates, but following
the crowd, he walked to one of the main buildings
and then to the large field beyond.\par

Here was a small racecourse, and local horsemen
were running races for small purses and side bets.\par

At once something in the center of the racetrack
attracted Leo’s attention.\par

It was a very large balloon, swaying gracefully
to and fro in the light breeze that was blowing.\par

The boy was interested on the instant, as he had
not seen a balloon since he was a small boy.\par

“Father once went up in one of those things,”
he mused, as he moved forward. “I would like to
try it once myself.”\par

Around the balloon were half a dozen men, preparing
for the ascension, to take place half an hour
later.\par

Professor Williams, the aeronaut, had not yet put
in appearance.\par

The balloon was about filled with hot air and the
men were merely keeping the air warm until the
professor should arrive.\par

As Leo stood by watching the arrangements an
outsider came up.\par

“Too bad!” he said.\par

“What’s too bad?”\par

“The professor can’t get here to-day.”\par

“Why not?”\par

“He has been taken sick and is at the hotel in
New Haven.”\par

“That will be a big disappointment to this
crowd.”\par

“I admit it, but it can’t be helped.”\par

The boy listened to the conversation with
interest.\par

He pushed his way to where the man in charge
of the balloon stood.\par

“I’ll go up in the balloon for you, if you’ll pay
me,” he said.\par

“You!” the man looked at him in astonishment.\par

“Yes.”\par

“It won’t do, my lad. The crowd want somebody
who will make a parachute jump, and all
that.”\par

“I’ll make the parachute jump if you’ll give me
a few instructions.”\par

The man laughed.\par

“You’re a daring youngster, to say the least,” he
remarked. “Why, you might break your neck.”\par

“No, I wouldn’t,” returned Leo confidently.\par

“Well, I’m much obliged, but I can’t use your
services.”\par

“Let me get in the basket and see how it feels,
will you?” asked the boy, after a pause.\par

“Well, seeing as you are so anxious, I’ll oblige
you,” laughed the man.\par

The basket rested on the ground, directly to one
side of the fire, with which the air in the swaying
monster was kept hot.\par

Hardly had the man given permission than Leo
entered the wicker inclosure.\par

It was about six feet in diameter and filled with
bags of sand for ballast.\par

To one side of the basket was attached a parachute.
This the balloonist used in making his
daring jumps from the clouds.\par

As Leo sat in the basket the crowd gathered
around him.\par

“Hullo, Leo Dunbar! what are you doing in that
basket?” asked Ben Barkley, one of the rich boys
of Hopsville.\par

“Going to make an ascension,” returned Leo
jokingly.\par

“Bet you ten dollars you are not,” laughed Ben.\par

“All right; I’ll take you up. But you must loan
me the money, Ben.”\par

“How is it old Hawkins gave you a day off?”
went on Ben. “Thought he was too mean to give
anybody a holiday.”\par

“So he is, Ben. I took a day off and I’m going
to take more.”\par

“Phew! What do you mean? Have you and
the old man parted company?”\par

“We have.”\par

“It is a wonder he would let you go—he got so
much work out of you.”\par

“He didn’t let me go. I ran away.”\par

Ben Barkley’s eyes opened widely.\par

“You don’t mean it!”\par

“I do! I’m tired of being his slave.”\par

“I don’t blame you a bit for leaving,” was Ben’s
decided reply. “I know what a hard-hearted man
he is.”\par

“I’m going to carve my own way to fortune.”\par

“What are you going to do?”\par

Leo was about to answer when Ben was pushed
to one side and the portly form of Daniel Hawkins
appeared.\par

“Ha! ha! So I have found you at last, you
scamp!” he cried in a rage. “A pretty run you
have given me! And made me pay out twenty-five
cents, too, to come in the fair after you!”\par

Leo was taken completely aback. He had not
dreamed that the farmer would follow him into
the grounds.\par

“I’ll skin you!” stormed the man, seeing the boy
did not immediately answer him.\par

“Not much you won’t,” put in Ben Barkley.\par

“What have you to do with this?” howled
Daniel, turning to the rich boy.\par

“You have no right to abuse Leo,” responded
Ben.\par

“This is none of your business!”\par

“Hold him a minute, Ben!” suddenly shouted Leo.
“Hold him!”\par

As the boy spoke he drew from his pocket a clasp-knife.\par

Quickly he opened the largest blade.\par

Slash! slash! slash!\par

He was cutting the ropes which held the balloon.\par

“Here! What are you doing!” screamed the
man in charge.\par

“I’m going to escape a tyrant!” responded Leo,
as he cut the last rope.\par

For an instant the balloon continued to sway
from side to side.\par

Daniel Hawkins fought off Ben Barkley and
leaped forward.\par

Too late!\par

Up shot the balloon, dragging the basket after it.\par

In less time than it takes to tell it, Leo Dunbar
was five hundred feet up in the air!\par

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CHAPTER VIII.—AMONG THE CLOUDS IN A THUNDERSTORM.}

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{\noindent}
A cry arose.\par

“The balloon has gone up!”\par

“Why, the balloonist is nothing but a boy!”\par

“My! but ain’t it going up fast!”\par

Daniel Hawkins could do nothing but stare after
the balloon.\par

“Foolish boy, he will be killed!” he gasped.\par

Ben Barkley was also amazed.\par

“He said he would go up,” he murmured, “but I
never supposed that he meant it.”\par

The crowd continued to shout. They wondered
what it all meant, and some asked the men who
had had the balloon in charge, but those individuals
had no time to explain.\par

They sprang into a wagon and prepared to follow
the direction of the balloon, supposing it would come
down as soon as the hot air began to cool off.\par

Meanwhile, what of Leo?\par

So sudden was the upward rush of the balloon
that the boy was thrown to the bottom of the
basket ere he was aware.\par

He clutched the sides and then ventured to look
down. The earth seemed to be fading away
beneath him.\par

For a few minutes he was deadly sick at the
stomach and there was a strange ringing in his
ears.\par

The balloon was moving in the direction of Hopsville.
Soon it passed over the town.\par

Leo could see the few streets and the brook laid
out like a map beneath him.\par

He was growing accustomed to his novel situation.\par

On and on went the balloon.\par

The wind appeared to blow stronger the higher
he went.\par

Then he looked ahead and saw he was rushing
rapidly toward a dense mass of clouds to the southeast.\par

The boy had noticed the clouds while running
toward Lendham.\par

They betokened a thunderstorm, and already the
mutterings of thunder came to his ears.\par

“A storm would be more than I bargained for,”
he thought. “I wonder if I can’t get away from
it?”\par

Leo had heard tell of going up above a storm
when the latter hung low.\par

He did not know if he could make a hot-air balloon
go up, but he resolved to try.\par

With great rapidity he threw out one sandbag
after another.\par

Lightened of a great part of its load, the balloon
shot up a hundred feet or more.\par

Then the boy noticed a large sponge tied to the
side of the basket and beside a can labeled alcohol.\par

At once he saturated the sponge and placed it on
the stick for that purpose.\par

When the sponge was lit he held it up to the
mouth of the balloon.\par

The cooling air began to grow hot again, and
once more the balloon went up slowly, but steadily.\par

But now the wind made the basket rock violently
from side to side.\par

Soon Leo had to extinguish the sponge and put it
away.\par

A gust sent the basket almost over to one side,
and he had to let everything go in order to cling
fast.\par

Sizz! A jagged streak of lightning crossed
directly in front of the balloon!\par

He was now in the very midst of the storm and
all grew black around him.\par

The change from the bright sunshine was terrible
to the boy and he almost gave himself up for lost.\par

Back and forth rocked the balloon and the basket,
and many were the times that he was in danger of
being hurled to death.\par

Then the balloon began to descend.\par

The clouds were left behind, and there followed
a deluge of rain which drenched Leo to the skin.\par

He fell so rapidly that a new danger presented
itself.\par

Where or how would he land?\par

Would he break his neck or a limb?\par

Down, down he went! There were trees or
bushes under him, he could not tell which.\par

Crash! The basket settled in the top of a tree.\par

Down came the folds of the balloon on top of it,
and the boy was nearly smothered.\par

Yet he was exceedingly thankful that his life had
been spared.\par

He crawled from the basket and carefully made
his way down the tree to the ground.\par

The storm still raged, but gradually it moved onward,
and the sun broke from beneath the scattering
clouds.\par

Leo had traveled at least eight or ten miles, and
he wondered what he should do next.\par

He had half a mind to run off and leave the
balloon men to find their property as best they
might.\par

But he soon changed his mind on that point.\par

“I’ll aid them all I can,” he said to himself.\par

The boy knew there was a road through the
woods which ran almost directly to the fair
grounds.\par

He made his way to this and walked on through
the mud and wet.\par

It was not long before he came up to the men in
the wagon.\par

At first they were inclined to be abusive, and
they thought to have the boy locked up.\par

But Leo soon changed all this.\par

“Your balloon is all right,” he said. “And by
going up I reckon I saved you the amount you were
to get from the fair people. You wouldn’t get a
cent if somebody hadn’t gone up.”\par

This was a new way of looking at it.\par

“Well, we won’t get paid for a parachute jump,”
said the balloon manager. “But we can claim half
money, true enough.”\par

The boy showed the men where the balloon was,
and helped them load it on their wagon.\par

The men took to Leo, and as he helped them at
the hardest work, they readily answered his questions
about the circus and gave him full directions
by which he could take a short cut to the grounds.\par

“That was a narrow escape,” murmured Leo to
himself as he made his way back to the “Greatest
Show on Earth.”\par

Arriving there, he had another long talk with
Barton Reeve, who, as before stated, had taken a
sudden and strong fancy to the brave lad.\par

The upshot of the matter was that Reeve bought
Leo a trunk and advanced him money for several
changes of clothing.\par

The next day, at Lendham, the circus tents were
jammed with people.\par

Everything was again in order, and all the acts
went off with a dash that drew round after round
of applause.\par

Snipper was as sour as ever, but he took good
care not to interfere with Leo.\par

As for the boy, he appeared perfectly at home;
so much so that many said he was a born circus
performer.\par

As a clown he caused the people to laugh heartily,
and when he threw off his trunks and performed on
the bars and rings he got more than a share of the
applause.\par

As soon as the performance was over the circus
packed up, and at half-past eleven began to move
from Lendham to Middletown, seven miles distant.\par

Leo spent the night at the Middletown Hotel
with Barton Reeve. The boy was now a {\itshape{protégé}}
of the menagerie manager.\par

Before going to bed, Leo told Reeve much about
his former life, and showed the manager the pictures
of his folks.\par

Reeve became interested.\par

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do, Leo,” he said. “I’ll
go to this Squire Dobb and get him to release you
in a lawful way. Then you will have nothing to
fear from Daniel Hawkins.”\par

“But supposing Hawkins won’t let the squire
release me?”\par

“I don’t believe he has any claim on you that
would hold good in a court of law. I’ll make the
squire show his authority over you first.”\par

“I wish you could get Squire Dobb to make a
settlement of my parents’ estate,” went on Leo
earnestly.\par

“You think he is holding money from you?”\par

“I know he is.”\par

“Well, I’ll investigate.”\par

Bright and early the next day the young lad and
Barton Reeve drove over to the home of Nathan
Dobb.\par

They found the squire busy in his office, looking
over some legal papers.\par

Without preliminaries Barton Reeve introduced
himself. The squire listened in silence, at the same
time scowling at Leo.\par

“Want to quit the farm and become a circus
performer, eh?” said Dobb at last. “Can’t let you
do it. You’ll have to go back to Daniel Hawkins’
farm.”\par

“I never will!” returned Leo warmly. “I’ll run
away entirely first.”\par

“We’ll see,” sniffed Squire Dobb.\par

Barton Reeve had sized up the lawyer at a
glance. He saw that the man was a crafty villain,
not to be trusted.\par

“Squire, would you mind showing me your
authority over this boy?” he remarked firmly.\par

“Wh-what?” was the surprised exclamation.\par

“I would like to learn your legal authority over
Leo.”\par

“It’s none of your business!”\par

“I shall make it my business.”\par

“Going to pry into matters, eh?”\par

“Yes, unless you consent to release Leo. He has
been misused on the Hawkins’ place.”\par

The face of Nathan Dobb was a study. If there
was one thing he feared it was the exposure of the
past. Why he feared this will be explained later.\par

“I’ll have to see Hawkins first,” he said at last.\par

“When will you see him?”\par

“To-day. But what is Leo to do?”\par

“He is going to travel with me and perform in
the circus.”\par

“He can’t do anything.”\par

“Never mind. I’ll teach him a thing or two,”
replied Barton Reeve.\par

He was afraid if he told Squire Dobb what Leo
could really do that the miserly lawyer would
want money for the release.\par

After a little more talk Leo and Reeve left the
squire’s house.\par

On the next day Reeve got a short note from
Dobb. It read:\par

“I have given up all claim to Leo Dunbar, and so
has Daniel Hawkins.”\par

Leo was much pleased. Barton Reeve smiled to
himself.\par

“There is something in all this, Leo,” he said.
“Next week, when I get time, I’ll look into your
past and Squire Dobb’s doings.”\par

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CHAPTER IX.—THE MAD ELEPHANT.}

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{\noindent}
From Middletown the circus went to Dover, and
then to Grasscannon.\par

At each of these places a big business was done,
and at every performance Leo did better.\par

The young gymnast became a great favorite
with all but two people in the “Greatest Show on
Earth.”\par

These two people were Jack Snipper, who remained
as overbearing as ever, and Jack Broxton,
the fellow discharged for intoxication.\par

Broxton had been following up the circus ever
since his discharge, in the vain hope of being reinstated.\par

But the rules in the “Greatest Show on Earth” are
very strict, and no intoxication is allowed.\par

After leaving Grasscannon, the circus struck up
through New York State, and at the end of the
week arrived at Buffalo.\par

It was while at this place that Broxton tried
to play a dangerous trick upon Leo.\par

He met the young gymnast on the street one
night after the performance.\par

He was under the influence of liquor at the time,
and in his pocket he carried what is known by the
boys as a giant torpedo.\par

As Leo turned a corner he threw the torpedo
at Leo’s feet.\par

Luckily the torpedo failed to explode.\par

Had it gone off the young gymnast would have
been sadly crippled.\par

“You rascal!” cried Leo, and he made for Broxton
and landed him in the gutter.\par

Some of the other performers then came up.\par

“What’s the row, Leo?”\par

“Look what Broxton threw at me,” he replied,
and handed the torpedo around for inspection.\par

While the explosive was being examined, Broxton
sneaked off, and it was well for him that he did
so, for otherwise the crowd would have pounced
upon him and given him the greatest warming up
of his life.\par

But that ended Broxton’s hope of rejoining the
circus. The story of his attempt on Leo circulated,
and he did not dare to show his face anywhere
around the dressing tents.\par

After leaving Buffalo the circus turned southward
toward Pennsylvania.\par

One night they arrived at Harmony Falls.\par

“To-morrow, if all goes right, I am going to take
a train for Hopsville and see Squire Dobb,” said
Barton Reeve to Leo.\par

“I hope you have luck,” replied the boy. “If he
is keeping any of my property back from me I want
to know it.”\par

The day in Harmony Falls opened very warm.
A haze hung over the mountains to the westward.\par

“We’ll have a storm by night,” said Natalie
Sparks to Leo.\par

The two were now warm friends.\par

“That will make it bad for the ticket-wagon,”
laughed the young gymnast.\par

“Oh, I hate a storm during a performance,” went
on the girl, “especially if it thunders and lightens.”\par

“Well, that’s what it’s going to do.”\par

“How do you know?”\par

“Oh, didn’t I live on a farm?”\par

“That’s so!” Natalie laughed merrily. “You
don’t look much like a farm hand now.”\par

“Thanks for the compliment,” and Leo blushed.\par

During the afternoon it grew hotter and hotter.
Under the big tents it was suffocating.\par

“Dandy weather for lemonade,” said the owner
of the main drinking stand, but he was about the
only person who appreciated the sudden rise in the
thermometer.\par

At seven o’clock the circus tents were again
crowded, and amid the general excitement but few
noticed the flashes of lightning over in the west.
The low rumblings of thunder they attributed to
the lions in the cages.\par

At last the grand {\itshape{entrée}} was over, and then the
performance settled down to the various specialties.\par

Then, as Leo and Snipper came on, a louder peal
of thunder attracted every one’s attention.\par

To quiet fears the band struck up. Of course Leo
and Snipper could not talk against the music, and
so they tumbled around instead, Leo casting himself
into the most awkward of shapes.\par

The rain began to fall, but as the canvases were
waterproof this did no great harm.\par

Then the wind freshened up, and every one realized
that a big storm was at hand.\par

Leo had just thrown off his clown’s dress and
mounted up to a pair of rings when a fearful crack
of thunder caused every one to leap up in terror.\par

The lightning had struck a pole in the menagerie
tent!\par

Down came the heavy stick, straight across the
backs of three of the largest elephants.\par

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The thunder and the fall of the pole frightened
the huge beasts. They roared and plunged and
finally broke from their fastenings.\par

Two of them were secured without much difficulty,
but the third, the largest, could not be managed.\par

With a fearful roar he rushed into the main
circus tent, under the spot where Leo was performing,
and directly in the faces of the crowd, which
tried in vain to flee from his path.\par

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CHAPTER X.—CAPTURING THE ELEPHANT.}

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{\noindent}
For the moment it looked as if the mad elephant
would crush a dozen or more of the audience.\par

He was making straight for the crowd, which
tried in vain to clear a path for him to pass.\par

The uproar was terrible, but it was nothing compared
to the trumpeting of the gigantic beast.\par

Several attendants rushed toward the elephant
with prods, but he was too angry to notice them.\par

“Turn him back!”\par

“He’ll walk right over the crowd!”\par

“Lasso him!”\par

“Shoot him!”\par

And so the cries went on.\par

The uproar had caused Leo to stop his performance;
indeed, it had stopped everything but the
stampede of the audience.\par

Suddenly the elephant ran directly under the
young gymnast.\par

As he did so there came another crash of
thunder.\par

The elephant raised up on his rear legs, and his
trunk went up to where Leo swung.\par

And then a startling thing happened.\par

Leo dropped directly upon the beast’s head. With
remarkable rapidity he slid back on to the neck.\par

“Throw me a rope!” he yelled to the nearest
attendant, and the fellow did so.\par

Then the end of the elephant’s trunk came up
angrily. He intended to catch hold of the young
gymnast and hurl him to the earth, there to trample
on him.\par

But Leo slipped further back, and at the same
time threw the noose of the rope over the uplifted
proboscis.\par

He hauled it taut, and with the end of the rope
in his hand, sprang down and ran at lightning
speed to the nearest centerpole.\par

Around this he went half a dozen times.\par

“Now keep him back with your prods!” he sang
out.\par

More enraged than ever, the elephant tried to
pull himself free.\par

But the rope held, and he was forced on his knees,
roaring with pain, for an elephant’s trunk is his
most sensitive organ.\par

A shout of approval went up, and the crowd
paused in its hasty flight.\par

But the elephant was not yet a prisoner. He
pulled and tugged, and had the centerpole not been
so strong and so deeply set in the ground, he would
surely have either broken it off or pulled it up.\par

But now he hesitated, and in that moment more
attendants came up. One began to soothe him,
while the others slipped a leather and iron harness
over him. Soon he was a complete prisoner, and
realizing this, he shambled back to the menagerie
tent as mildly as a lamb.\par

The rain was now coming down in a perfect
deluge, and the audience would not remain. In less
than a quarter of an hour the circus grounds were
deserted, saving for those who had to remain on
duty, and the performers in the dressing-tents.\par

Every one praised Leo for what he had done;
every one, that is, but Snipper. He had not a word
to say, but looked more morose than ever.\par

Leo did not wait, however, to hear all that the
others had to say. He donned his regular clothing
just as quickly as he could, and with Natalie Sparks
rode from the grounds to the hotel at which they
were stopping.\par

Barton Reeve was nowhere around. He had
gone off to Hopsville to see Nathan Dobb.\par

He came in about half-past ten, and then Leo and
he had a long discussion concerning the boy’s past
and future.\par

“The squire is a sly one,” said the menagerie
manager. “It was about as easy to get information
out of him as it is to get milk out of a stone.”\par

“Then you learned nothing?” returned Leo,
much disappointed.\par

“I did and I didn’t. He admitted that your
folks were once wealthy; but he said the money
was lost in speculations before you were left an
orphan.”\par

“I don’t believe that.”\par

“Nor I. I asked him for some proofs, but he
would give me none. Then I asked him flatly how
much there was coming to you when your folks
died, and he said not more than a couple of hundred
dollars. I wanted to see the papers, but he
wouldn’t show them.”\par

“Didn’t you tell him we would take the matter
to court?”\par

“I did, and it worried him a good bit. That is
what makes me think there is considerable at stake.
If he had nothing to hide, what is he so scared
about?”\par

“Just wait till I have money enough, I’ll stir him
up!” cried Leo.\par

He had not yet forgotten how Nathan Dobb and
Daniel Hawkins had mistreated him.\par

“We’ll both stir him up, Leo. But I guess before
we go much further we had better get a
lawyer’s advice. In a few weeks the circus will
make two three-day stops and that will give us
a little time, certainly more than we get when we
go to a new town every day.”\par

They talked the matter over for some time longer,
and when Leo went to bed it was with the fixed
determination to make Squire Dobb “toe the
mark.”\par

And while the young gymnast was meditating
thus, Nathan Dobb was walking up and down his
office, his face dark and full of cunning.\par

“The boy’s getting too big and he’s making too
many friends,” he muttered to himself. “Why
couldn’t he remain a simple farm hand, without
trying to rake up the past and make a place for
himself?” He took a turn or two and clenched his
bony hands. “I wish I had stuck to my original
idea and sent him to Africa on that freight steamer
without a cent in his pocket.”\par

Then Nathan Dobb dropped into the chair beside
his safe, and from the strong box took a package of
documents. These he looked over for nearly half
an hour.\par

“Ten thousand dollars!” he muttered. “It
would be a fortune to him! But he shan’t have it.
I’ve worked too hard for it to have it slip through
my fingers at this late day. I had better burn all
these papers and then concoct some scheme for getting
him out of the way.”\par

Nathan Dobb’s soliloquy was interrupted by a
crash in the rear of the house. Some one had
broken into the kitchen, most likely a burglar.\par

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CHAPTER XI.—A CRIMINAL COMPACT.}

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{\noindent}
There had been several robberies in Hopsville
lately, so the squire was certain the burglar had
now come to his house.\par

Instantly he turned out the light in the office.
Then opening the door to the hall he listened attentively.\par

He was right; some one was moving cautiously
about the kitchen.\par

Moving back to his desk the squire secured his
pistol and also a club.\par

When he came out into the hall on tiptoe he heard
the would-be burglar moving around the dining-room.\par

Presently the fellow struck a light, which he set
on the table.\par

Then he began an examination of the silverware
on the sideboard.\par

By the light the squire got a good look at the
would-be burglar.
He was astonished beyond measure.\par

“Hank Griswold!” he muttered, half-aloud.\par

The man whose name he mentioned had formerly
been a tavern-keeper in Hopsville.\par

But he had been sent to jail for robbing and
beating a drunken man. His discharge had taken
place but two weeks before.\par

As Squire Dobb spoke, the would-be burglar
turned swiftly.\par

“Collared!” he muttered laconically.\par

Then he tried to escape by a rear door, but
Nathan Dobb covered him with the pistol.\par

“Stop, Griswold!”\par

“Confound the luck! The game is up!”\par

“It is. Stop where you are.”\par

“Don’t be hard on me, squire.”\par

“So you were going to rob me, eh?”\par

“Let me go this time, squire,” went on the man
pleadingly.\par

“What for? So you can rob somebody else?”\par

“I ain’t got a cent to my name, squire.”\par

“I can’t help that.”\par

Suddenly a thought flashed over Squire Dobb’s
mind.\par

“Griswold, step into my office.”\par

“Don’t lock me up, squire.”\par

“I won’t—if you will do as I wish you to.”\par

“I’ll do anything you say, only don’t arrest me
again.”\par

“Step into the office, and see to it that you don’t
wake up the whole household.”\par

Hank Griswold complied. The squire followed
him, still, however, keeping his pistol ready for
use.\par

But when the office was reached, and the door
shut, Nathan Dobb’s manner changed. He took
Griswold’s hand.\par

“Griswold, you are just the man I want to see.”\par

“I—I—don’t understand,” was the confused
reply.\par

“I’ll explain. Sit down and take it easy. You
love to smoke? Have a cigar,” and a box was
shoved toward him.\par

“See here, Nathan Dobb, what’s your game
now?”\par

“I want to throw some work in your hands,
work that will pay well.”\par

“What kind of work?” asked Griswold suspiciously.
He was half-inclined to believe Nathan
Dobb was out of his mind.\par

“You just said you would do anything for me if
I didn’t have you arrested.”\par

“So I will.”
“Supposing I put a job in your way that will
pay you an even hundred dollars——”\par

“You’re foolin’ me, squire.”\par

“I mean it, Griswold, a hundred dollars. Would
you do the work and say nothing?”\par

“Yes.”\par

“It’s a—a—job that isn’t strictly—ah—all right,
you know.”\par

“I don’t care what it is,” returned Griswold
recklessly. “I’ll do anything you say. You can
trust me.”\par

“Will you?” cried Nathan Dobb eagerly. He
hesitated. “I want to get a boy out of my way.”\par

“Who?”\par

“Leo Dunbar, who used to live with Dan
Hawkins.”\par

“I know him. Didn’t his father once have my
tavern shut up as a disorderly house?”\par

“Well, as I said, I want to get that boy out of
my way.”\par

“Where is he now?”\par

“He is traveling as an acrobat with that circus
which performed here a week or so ago.”\par

“And you want me to—to—?” Griswold hesitated.\par

“I want him removed from my path. I never
want to see him around here again.”
“And you’ll give me a hundred for the job?”\par

“I will.”\par

“It’s not enough. Make it two hundred.”\par

“Well, I will.”\par

“In cash?”\par

“Yes.”\par

“When can I get the money?”\par

“You can get it right here as soon as—well, I’m
sure Dunbar won’t bother me any more.”\par

“You’re a cool one, Dobb. But I said I’d go
you, and I will. But, say?”\par

“Well?”\par

“You must let me have fifty dollars on account.
I’ll have to hang around the circus for awhile and
lay my plans. It’s no fool of a job to do as you
wish.”\par

“Here are thirty dollars. And one word more,
Hank. Never mention my name in this, and if I
were you, don’t ever let Leo Dunbar see you.”\par

“I’ll remember,” replied Griswold.\par

Ten minutes later he left Nathan Dobb’s house
as secretly as he had entered it.\par

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CHAPTER XII.—THE STOLEN CIRCUS TICKETS.}

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{\noindent}
ON the following week the circus moved down
through Pennsylvania. Fine weather favored the
show, and the crowd at each performance was very
large.\par

“This is going to be a banner season,” said Giles,
the treasurer, “unless we get tripped up as we were
last season.”\par

He referred to a serious matter, namely, that of
thousands of stolen tickets, which during the previous
summer had been secured and sold by outside
speculators.\par

This season a few tickets had thus far been missing,
but the number was not sufficient to cause a
serious loss.\par

Leo’s performances in the ring improved every
day. Already was he as good as Jack Snipper, and
soon he would outrival the other acrobat in every
way.\par

Leo’s acts, while disguised as a clown, were highly
amusing, even better than some of the regular
clowns, of which there were eight.\par

“He could do clown and get big wages, even if
he didn’t know a thing about gymnastics,” remarked
Natalie Sparks.\par

Natalie was now a warm friend to Leo, much to
Snipper’s disgust.\par

The second-rate gymnast had always been enamored
of the Fire Queen, but he could make no
progress in his suit.\par

One day he met Natalie in the dressing-tent when
no one else was present.\par

He began to talk familiarly to her, and then
attempted to kiss her.\par

“Don’t you dare!” she cried angrily.\par

“I guess you won’t mind very much,” said
Snipper, and then, despite her struggles, he bent
over and stuck his repulsive face close to her fair
cheek.\par

But just then Leo came on the scene. For a
moment he stood in amazement.\par

“Leo, make the horrid fellow go away!” panted
Natalie.\par

“Do as Miss Sparks wishes, Snipper!” cried the
young gymnast.\par

“Mind your own business!” grumbled Snipper.\par

“This is my business,” returned Leo warmly.\par

And rushing up, he collared the second-rate
gymnast and hurled him halfway across the tent.\par

Snipper was clearly in the wrong, and, as Natalie
had called on Leo for assistance, he did not dare
raise a row.\par

He sneaked out, shaking his fist at Leo as he
did so.\par

“Oh, Leo, I am very thankful you came in,”
panted Natalie as soon as she could recover.\par

“So am I,” went on the boy honestly, and then,
as he looked at the beautiful girl, both blushed.\par

Following the scene just recorded, Jack Snipper
was more ugly than ever. Whenever he met or
passed Leo he would mutter something under his
breath.\par

“Look out for him, Leo,” said Dick Pomeroy,
the tumbler, one day. “He’s cutting a club for
you.”\par

“I’ve got my optics peeled,” laughed Leo.\par

That afternoon, after the performance, Leo was
walking around outside, near the side-show.\par

Presently he saw something that at once interested
him.\par

A “flim-flam worker,” as such criminals around a
circus are called, was trying to swindle a countryman
out of twenty dollars.\par

He was working an old game, which consists in
getting an outsider to hold the stakes in a bet with
another flim-flammer.\par

The game is to mix the stakeholder up and make
him put up his own money, and then secure all the
cash in sight.\par

Leo was interested for two reasons.\par

In the first place, he did not wish to see the
countryman swindled.\par

In the second place, he knew that swindlers of
any kind were not allowed to work in the vicinity
of the “Greatest Show on Earth.”\par

The flim-flam man was about to receive the
countryman’s money when Leo stepped up.\par

“Drop this,” he said quietly.\par

“Wot yer givin’ us, sonny?” came in a hoarse
growl from the swindler.\par

“I say drop the game.” Leo turned to the
countryman. “Put away your money, or you will
be swindled out of it.”\par

“By gum! Is thet so?” ejaculated the farmer,
and he at once thrust the cash out of sight.\par

At this the would-be swindler turned on Leo.\par

“I’ll thrash you for that!” he howled, and
rushed at the young gymnast, while the two partners
in the deal did the same.\par

Leo knew it would be foolish to attempt to stand
up against all three, so he gave a peculiar whistle,
known to all circus hands.\par

A cry of “Hi! Rube!” arose and soon several
circus detectives reached the spot. But the swindlers
vanished before they could be captured.\par

The countryman, whose name was Adam Slocum,
was much pleased over what Leo had done, and insisted
on shaking hands. He invited Leo to call on
him when the circus came to the next town.\par

“Thank you, I’ll call,” said Leo.\par

Snipper had witnessed the scene between the
swindlers and Leo. When the three men went off
he followed them.\par

All four met at a low resort half a dozen blocks
from the circus grounds.\par

Snipper knew the men. As a matter of fact, he
would have left the circus and joined them in their
work, but he had his reasons for remaining as an
employee of the “Greatest Show on Earth,” as will
be seen later.\par

The four men had a conference, which lasted
over an hour.\par

Then Snipper and one of them called on a local
locksmith.\par

The swindler told a long story of having lost the
keys to his trunk, and he ordered the locksmith to
make him three keys from impressions furnished by
Snipper.\par

With these keys in his possession, Snipper went
back to the circus grounds.\par

On the following day, toward evening, there was
a commotion at the entrance to the main tent of
the circus. One of the managers of the great
aggregation had discovered that hundreds of circus
tickets had been sold throughout the district at a
discount from the regular price, fifty cents.\par

A hurried examination was made, and then it
was learned that two thousand tickets had been
stolen from one of the box-office wagons.\par

These tickets were now either sold to individuals
or in the hands of the outside speculators.\par

Who could have stolen the tickets was a mystery,
until a slip of paper was handed to Giles, the treasurer,
which read:\par

{\advance\leftskip\parindentamount{}\advance\rightskip\parindentamount{}
\vs{1}
{\noindent}
“Leo Dunbar was hanging around the ticket
wagon last night. Better watch and search him.\par

{\raggedleft
“A Friend.”
\endgraf}
\par}

\vs{1}
{\noindent}
Giles lost no time in acting upon the suggestion
given in the note. He ran to the dressing-tent and,
finding a key to fit Leo’s trunk, opened it.\par

A first examination of the contents revealed
nothing, but then the treasurer brought to light
three heavy strips of red paper, each marked 100—50s.\par

They were the strips used around bundles of
tickets.\par

This was sufficient proof against Leo for Giles.
He told several of the others, including Mr. Lambert,
the general manager, and then waited for the
boy to come in from his performance in the ring.\par

Amid a generous round of applause, the young
gymnast finished his turn and bowed himself out.\par

On his appearance in the dressing-tent, Giles at
once placed his hand on our hero’s shoulder.\par

“Consider yourself under arrest, Leo Dunbar,”
he said sternly.\par

Leo was much startled.\par

“What for?”\par

“For stealing two thousand circus tickets.”\par

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CHAPTER XIII.—LEO MAKES A CHANGE.}

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{\noindent}
Leo stared at the circus treasurer in amazement.\par

“For stealing two thousand circus tickets?” he
repeated.\par

“Exactly, young man.”\par

“I am innocent.”\par

“I don’t believe Leo would steal a pin,” put in
Natalie Sparks, who had just come up.\par

“That’s not for you to decide, Miss Sparks.” said
Giles sharply. “We found evidence against you
in your trunk, young man. You may as well confess.”\par

“What evidence?” asked Leo, bewildered.\par

The circus treasurer mentioned the red strips.\par

“I never placed them there,” declared Leo.
“Somebody has been tampering with that trunk.”\par

“That’s too thin,” sneered Giles.\par

“Of course it’s too thin,” put in Snipper, who
was watching the scene with an ill-concealed smile
of triumph on his face.\par

Leo looked at the gymnast sharply. Then he
suddenly bounded toward Snipper and ran him up
against a pile of boxes.\par

“You scoundrel! This is some of your work! I
can see it in your face.”\par

He choked Snipper until the man was red in the
face.\par

“Let—let me go!” gasped the second-rate gymnast
finally.\par

“Let him go, Dunbar,” ordered Giles, and caught
Leo by the collar.\par

The noise of the trouble had spread, and now
Barton Reeve appeared on the scene.\par

“What’s the meaning of all this?” he demanded.\par

He was quickly told by Natalie Sparks.\par

“I do not believe Leo is guilty, in spite of the
red strips found in the trunk,” he said.\par

He talked the matter over with Giles, and finally
Leo, Giles, and Barton Reeve went off to interview
the manager.\par

They found Adam Lambert in the main ticket
wagon, counting tickets and cash. He was much
disturbed.\par

“I don’t know much about you, Dunbar,” he said
coldly. “The thing looks very black, and——”\par

“Mr. Lambert, I am innocent!” cried Leo. “I
believe this is only a plot against me.”\par

“A plot? Whose plot?”\par

“This man Snipper——”\par

“You and Snipper seem to be fighting continually,”
broke in the manager.\par

“It is not my fault. He——”\par

“He always got along well enough before you
came, Dunbar. I won’t have this continual quarreling
around the show. It sets a bad example for
the others.” The manager pulled at his mustache
for a few seconds. “Can you prove you are innocent
of the theft of the tickets?”\par

“Perhaps I can.”\par

“Aren’t you sure you can?”\par

“No, sir. I hope to be able to do so later on,
though.”\par

“Well, then, until that time arrives you can consider
yourself suspended from duty. I am going to
get to the bottom of this affair.”\par

“I am discharged!” gasped Leo.\par

“Mr. Lambert, aren’t you a bit hard on the lad?”
put in Barton Reeve.\par

“I don’t think so. Most men would have him
arrested. But I’ll let him go, and that will give him
a chance to clear himself—if he can.”\par

There was a sneer in the last words which cut
Leo to the quick. He drew a long breath.\par

“Very well, sir, I’ll go,” he said in a strained
voice. “But, sir, let me tell you that you are doing
me a great injustice.”\par

Unable to control his feelings any longer, Leo,
left the ticket wagon and hurried to the dressing
tent.\par

Here his friends surrounded him and tried to
pour words of sympathy into his ears. But he
would not listen. Sick at heart, yet burning with
indignation, he packed his trunk and prepared to
leave.\par

“Where are you going?” asked Natalie Sparks,
with something like a tear in her eye.\par

“I don’t know, Natalie—I’m too upset to think,”
responded Leo, and that was all he could say.\par

Just before he left Barton Reeve brought him
the wages due him, which Leo thrust into his
pocket without counting.\par

“Lambert has got ’em on to-day,” he said. “In
a day or two, when he cools down, he’ll be sorry he
let you go.”\par

“It was a mean way to act,” answered the boy
bitterly; and then he walked away from the circus
grounds. A few blocks off he met a man with an
empty wagon and hired him to go and fetch his
trunk. When the man came back he asked if there
was any hotel or boarding-house on the other side
of town, conscious, in a way, that he must put up
somewhere.\par

“Yes, there’s the Eagle Hotel,” said the man.
“A good place and very reasonable.”\par

“All right; take me there.”\par

This was done, and then Leo sent the man to the
other hotel, at which the higher class of circus performers
were stopping, for the valise which contained
his ordinary clothing.\par

He was still so upset in mind that he knew
not what to do. Having engaged his room, he
entered it and locked the door, and gave himself up
to his reflections.\par

What should he do? Ah, that was the question.
He had said that perhaps he could clear himself.
How should he go to work to do it?\par

For fully an hour Leo pondered over the
situation. Then he walked downstairs, left the
hotel, and sauntered back to the circus grounds.\par

He kept his eyes and ears open in a vain endeavor
to learn something to his advantage. The ticket
thieves had taken warning, and not the slightest
clew to them could be unearthed.\par

Leo passed a sleepless night at the hotel. Before
he arose the “Greatest Show on Earth” had left
the town.\par

“I’m out of it now,” he sighed. “Out of it, too,
with a stain upon my name.” He bit his quivering
lip until the blood came. “I can’t keep on following
the circus around trying to clear myself, for
I haven’t money enough.”\par

Yet Leo was not willing to give up, and that
afternoon he took the stage to the next town, where
the “Greatest Show on Earth” was stopping. Once
more he hung around, and again nothing came of
it. Sick at heart, he returned to the Eagle Hotel,
wondering what he should do next.\par

At the hotel he found a man awaiting him—a
sharp, shrewd individual, who introduced himself
as Nathan Wampole.\par

“This is Leo Dunbar?”\par

“That is my name,” replied the young gymnast.\par

“I am the proprietor of ‘Wampole’s Trans-Continental
Specialty Company,’ which opens in this
place to-night. I was over to Cokeville this afternoon,
where I met a friend of mine, Jack Giles, who
belongs to the circus. He told me that you were
out of a position, and as I need an extra performer
or two, I thought I would call around and see you.”\par

“Did Mr. Giles send you to me?” queried Leo.\par

“Well, not exactly. But he said that probably
you would be glad to obtain a position on the stage.
He said you were a very fair gymnast and tumbler.”\par

“They used to think so at the circus.”\par

“I’ve no doubt you could do a very good turn or
two.” Nathan Wampole coughed slightly and lowered his
voice. “I heard of your trouble on
account of some circus tickets, but of course that
makes no difference to me,” and he looked at Leo
suggestively.\par

“I had trouble, but I’m not guilty of any crime,”
replied the boy quickly.\par

“Of course not, of course not! I merely thought
to mention it. What do you say, would you like to
join my company? We have a splendid route laid
out and, consequently, we are sure of a very successful
season.”\par

“What would you pay me, Mr. Wampole, if I
joined you?” asked Leo cautiously. He did not
like the man’s looks, but still thought it would be
foolish to throw a chance of work aside.\par

“I might pay you ten dollars per week.”\par

“That would be a very small amount for a performer
like myself.”\par

“Well, if you can do two good turns at each performance
I’ll give you fifteen dollars. Come, what
do you say?”\par

“I’ll take a look at the show first,” replied Leo.\par

In a few minutes more the pair were on the way
to the theater in which “Wampole’s Trans-Continental
Specialty Company” was to perform that
evening.\par

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CHAPTER XIV.—LEO MAKES A NEW FRIEND.}

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{\noindent}
Leo found that the specialty company numbered
fifteen people. The performers were, for the most
part, of very ordinary ability. There were several
song and dance men, a number of musicians who
drew tunes out of a variety of articles, several lady
vocalists, a comical fat man and a magician.\par

The magician was a young fellow, hardly older
than Leo. His name was Carl Ross, and he had
such a smiling face and gentlemanly manner that
Leo took to him instantly.\par

“We want a good all-around gymnast and
tumbler,” said Carl Ross. “As it is the show is
lop-sided—too much singing and dancing.”\par

Leo was asked to give an exhibition of what he
could do, and readily complied, performing at first
on the floor of the stage and then on a bar let
down from the flies.\par

“Very good!” said Nathan Wampole, highly
pleased, and Carl Ross also smiled his approval.\par

At the conclusion of the show that evening Leo
decided to join the company, and from that moment
on he and Carl Ross became warm friends.\par

From Cokeville the company proceeded to Lumbertown
and then to Wimblerun. For the time
being Leo lost track of the circus and devoted himself
entirely to his new position. His acts on the
stage were well received, yet Carl Ross remained,
as heretofore, the star of the combination.\par

“I wish I could do tricks,” said Leo, as he
watched the young magician at practice. “But I
don’t believe I could learn.”\par

“You could learn as easily as I could learn to
act on the trapeze,” laughed Carl. “If I tried that
I would get dizzy and fall sure.”\par

“Every one to his own line,” concluded Leo. “I
can go up any distance into the air and not be
afraid.”\par

“Up in a balloon?”\par

“Yes, even up in a balloon,” and Leo told of his
adventures along that line.\par

For several weeks matters ran smoothly, but then
they took a turn. Leo found out that Nathan
Wampole loved dearly to play cards, and every
dollar the manager could raise was staked and lost
at the gaming-table. For two weeks he could not
get a cent of salary.\par

“I don’t like this,” he said to Carl Ross, when
the pair talked the matter over.\par

“I don’t like it myself, Leo. But what can we
do about it?”\par

“That is what I would like to know. I am half-inclined
to go on a strike.”\par

“I doubt if he has any money. Business was
poor last week on account of the rain. I imagine
we are lucky to get our traveling expenses and
board bills paid.”\par

“You don’t know if the board bills really are
paid,” was the suggestive response. “I haven’t
seen Wampole pay Mrs. Gerston a cent.”\par

“Well, if he doesn’t pay we’ll have trouble;
that’s a foregone conclusion,” said Carl. “He
ought—Here he comes now, and two strange men
with him.”\par

Carl broke off short as Nathan Wampole entered
the dressing-room of the little country theater at
which the company had been performing for the
past two nights.\par

“I’ve got to have my money, and that’s all there
is to it,” one of the men was saying. “You agreed
to pay for the theater after the first performance,
and you haven’t paid a cent.”\par

“I will pay to-morrow,” replied the owner of the
organization uneasily. He was naturally a closefisted
man, and bad business had made him more
miserly than ever.\par

“That don’t go. You pay this afternoon or this
theater will be dark to-night.”\par

A long war of words followed, and it soon transpired
that the second stranger was a constable,
brought to enter an attachment on the scenery and
other things, should Nathan Wampole fail to come
to terms.\par

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said the proprietor
finally. “I’ll pay you twenty dollars on account,
and the other fifty as soon as the money is taken in
at the box-office to-night.”\par

He held out the twenty dollars temptingly as he
spoke, and the landlord took it with but little
hesitation.\par

“Come on, Yentley,” he said to the constable.
“Remember, I’ll be on hand for the balance,” he
called to Nathan Wampole and departed.\par

Nathan Wampole growled something under his
breath, and was about to pass on to the empty
stage, when Carl and Leo stopped him.\par

“Well, what do you fellows want?” he demanded
angrily. “Be quick, for Lanning is sick, and I’ve
got to get up an act to fill in his time.”\par

“We want to know about our pay, Mr. Wampole,”
said Carl.\par

“Your pay? As if I didn’t have enough to
worry me with all this bad weather!”\par

“But we must have some money,” pleaded Leo.
“I’ve been promising to buy myself a new suit,
and——”\par

“I can’t help it. I can’t give you any now!”
snapped Nathan Wampole.\par

“Then I can’t go on any more.”\par

“Neither can I,” added Carl quietly.\par

“What! Do you mean to say you’ll leave me in
the lurch?” howled Nathan Wampole.\par

“We want our money, that’s all.”\par

“You shall have it.” Nathan Wampole paused
for a minute. “I’ll pay you both twenty-five
dollars on account to-morrow morning.”\par

“If you’ll do that I’ll be satisfied,” said Leo.\par

“So will I,” added Carl Boss.\par

“Good!” said Nathan Wampole; but as he turned
away a cunning smile crossed his wrinkled features.\par

It needed but an hour to the time for the performance
for the evening to begin, and soon after
Carl and Leo separated to fit themselves out for
their separate “turns,” as specialty performers call
their performances.\par

Carl Ross was an orphan, having lost both of his
parents six years before in a terrible railroad disaster
in the West.\par

Carl’s father had in his time been a juggler and
magician, and it was but natural that the son
should take up the same calling.\par

When left an orphan Carl had been placed under
the care of a well-known conjuror, who had taught
the youth many of the finest stage tricks ever performed.
A number of these wonderful tricks will
be mentioned and explained as our story progresses.\par

After the conjuror had had Carl under his care
for four years the man had been called to Germany.
He had left the youth with Nathan Wampole,
who had agreed to give him a good position
in his traveling company.\par

It did not take Carl and Leo long to shed their
street costume and don their stage dress. This
done they began to practice several new “turns”
for the stage.\par

Outside of the small theater a “barker” was
collecting quite a good-sized crowd.\par

“Walk up, ladies and gentlemen! The show is
just about to begin. Nowhere on the face of the
earth can you get so much for your money as right
here! Remember, it costs you but half or quarter
of a dollar to see our great company of sixty high-priced
and talented artists! Walk up and get your
tickets without delay!”\par

The barker succeeded in getting several scores of
people to enter the building. Nathan Wampole
was in the box-office, taking the money for the
tickets. He smiled as the cash came in.\par

“The more the better,” he muttered to himself.
“Won’t somebody be knocked out when they learn
the truth!”\par

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CHAPTER XV.—AN ACT NOT ON THE BILLS.}

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{\noindent}
The performance had been going on for half an
hour. Leo had done some very clever acts and
been well received, and now it was time for Carl to
make his bow.\par

The little orchestra struck up a grand flourish,
and suddenly the young magician bounded upon
the stage, bringing with him a small, square box.\par

He came down to the front, made a bow and
threw the square box into the air. Down it came
into his hands, and as he whirled around on his
heel the box disappeared from view.\par

“My, look at that!”\par

“Where did that box go to?”\par

“Must have gone up in smoke.”\par

Such were some of the remarks passed.\par

The trick was a decidedly clever one, yet as
simple as could be when explained.\par

True to our promise, we will let our readers into
the secret.\par

The box consisted of nothing but six perfectly
square and thin boards, all hinged together in such
a manner that it would collapse into a perfectly flat
mass when pressed on any two sides. With a little
study any boy can make such a box.\par

As the box entered Carl’s hands he flattened it,
and, as he whirled around, he slipped it into the
bosom of his costume.\par

This trick performed, the young magician brought
out several other tricks and then began to juggle
ten teacups, throwing them over his head and under
his arms. There was a perfect stream of teacups in
the air, and not a one was so much as cracked.\par

“He’s certainly clever-handed!”\par

“He’s the best part of the show!”\par

Hearty hand-clapping followed, and then Carl
threw the teacups to Leo, in the wings, and started
to do a great balancing act on four chairs.\par

He had just arranged the chairs in position when
he heard a commotion in the wings.\par

“I say the hall ain’t paid for, and the show can’t
go on!” he heard, in the angry tones of the theater
owner.\par

“Where is Wampole?” several asked.\par

“I can’t find him.”\par

“He was taking the money at the box-office.”\par

“Well, he’s not there now.”\par

“He must be somewhere around.”\par

“I’ll give you five minutes to produce him. If
you can’t, out go the lights.”\par

Realizing that matters had reached a crisis, the
young magician proceeded with his act as quickly
as he could. The orchestra struck up a lively air,
but scarcely had they played half a dozen bars
when the proprietor of the theater came out on the
stage and silenced them.\par

“This show can’t go on, ladies and gentlemen,”
he said. “I haven’t been paid for the hall, and the
head man of this company has skipped out with all
of the funds.”\par

“What’s that?”\par

“Skipped out?”\par

“No more of the show?”\par

“That’s a shame! Give me my money back?”\par

A hundred other cries arose on the air. The
owner of the place prudently retired, and in wonder
the orchestra did the same. A second later the
curtain came down, and the lights were lowered.\par

“Is it true that Wampole has skipped?” asked
Carl of Leo hurriedly.\par

“Yes; and he took every cent of the receipts
with him,” was the bitter answer.\par

Carl said no more. He followed Leo to the dressing-room
and hurried into his street clothing.\par

Overhead the pair could hear the tramp of many
feet. Presently came the crash of a breaking bench.\par

“Some of the audience are getting mad,” Leo
muttered to himself. “I fancy——”\par

“We must run for it,” gasped Carl, in a low
voice. “Hark! Some of the toughs that were in
the gallery have threatened to mob the entire company!”\par

“I am ready to go,” said Leo, as he picked up
his valise.\par

He turned to go out into the hallway. Then he
leaped back and slammed the door shut and
locked it.\par

“Too late. They are coming; they are here!”\par

The young gymnast spoke the truth. Heavy
footsteps came up to the door. A hand tried the
knob.\par

“Open that door, you confounded fakirs, or we’ll
smash it down!” was the cry. “You can’t escape
us! We are bound to get square with you!”\par

“Shall I open for them?” whispered Leo.\par

“No, no!” cried Carl. “They would half kill
us, they are so enraged over the loss of their admission
money.”\par

“But what’s to be done?”\par

“Here I have it—the window. Out you go.”\par

“And you?”\par

“I’ll follow. Quick!”\par

Leo leaped for the window, a small affair,
opening on a narrow and dirty alley.\par

The opening was barred, but he easily wrenched
the irons from their rotted fastenings and crawled
through the opening.\par

As Carl followed there was a crash, and the door
fell in.\par

Half a dozen young men, the worst in the town,
swarmed into the apartment, only to find it empty.\par

Up the alleyway sped Leo and his companion, nor
did they stop until the theater had been left several
blocks behind.\par

Deeming themselves now safe, they dropped into
a walk and began to discuss the situation.\par

Soon they met several other members of the
company. From these they learned that Nathan
Wampole had indeed run away, carrying every
cent of the box-office receipts with him.\par

“The scoundrel!” burst out Carl. “What are
we going to do here, penniless and over two hundred
miles from New York?”\par

No one could answer that question, and, as there
was nothing else to do, Leo and Carl turned their
steps toward the boarding-house at which they had
been stopping.\par

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CHAPTER XVI.—AN UNPLEASANT POSITION.}

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{\noindent}
The bad news had preceded Leo and Carl Ross,
and they found Mrs. Gerston, the landlady, waiting
at the front door.\par

“So Mr. Wampole has run away, eh?” she said
sharply.\par

“It seems so,” said Carl soberly.\par

“And who is to pay me?”\par

“He is responsible, madam,” replied Leo.\par

“Well, you’ll not come in this night, unless you
pay,” cried the landlady, blocking up the doorway
with her portly form. “I’m not running a boarding-house
for fun.”\par

“I have no money to pay with.”\par

“Neither have I,” added Carl.\par

“Then you can just leave.”\par

“Very well; give us our baggage and we will.”\par

“I’ll not give up a thing until I’m paid,” was the
determined reply.\par

Both Carl and Leo were nonplussed. They could
not blame the woman, yet it was a hard situation
to face.\par

“We have lost more than you,” said Carl. “Mr.
Wampole owes us both three weeks’ salary.”\par

“That’s not my affair. When you pay the ten
dollars due me you can both have your traveling
bags, and not before.”\par

And with this the boarding-housekeeper shut the
door in their faces.\par

“Knocked out all around,” said Leo, with a grin.\par

It was not in his nature to grieve over misfortune.\par

“Where shall we go for the night?”\par

“I don’t know. Let us look around for
Wampole.”\par

The two set out on a search. It availed nothing,
and by midnight they were worn out.\par

Fortunately the night was warm, and coming to
a deserted mill on the outskirts of the town, they
determined to remain there and rest. They found
some old sacks, and on these made their bed.\par

Carl awoke with a start the next morning. Looking
up he saw a young man of eighteen standing near
him. The young man had a pleasant face, and
he was smiling.\par

“Thought I’d wake you up,” he said. “How is
it you are bunking here for the night?”\par

“We are out of funds,” replied the young magician.\par

“Tramping?”\par

“Hardly that; but we may be soon.”\par

“We belonged to the specialty company that
went to pieces last night,” explained Leo, who had
roused up.\par

“Oh! Were you on the stage?” the young man
asked of Carl.\par

“Yes.”\par

“Are you the magician?”\par

“Yes.”\par

“And he is the gymnast, isn’t he?”\par

“I am,” replied Leo.\par

“I saw you both. You did finely. So you are
out of money and out of a job?”\par

“We are.”\par

“It’s strange. Do you know I intended to call
on you to-day.”\par

“On us?” cried Carl in wonder.\par

“Yes. You see I am from Raymondsville, the
next town. My name is Walter Raymond, and my
father owns about half the place. My brothers and
sisters are going to give a lawn party this afternoon,
and I promised to see if I couldn’t get some of the
members of your company over to liven things up.”\par

“I would like to appear for you, first rate,” said
Carl quickly, thinking he saw a chance to make a
few dollars.\par

“So will I appear,” added Leo.\par

“How much will you charge for an entertainment
lasting say an hour?”\par

Carl looked at Leo. They did not wish to ask
too much, and at the same time wanted to make all
they could.\par

“Two city performers generally get twenty dollars,”
said Leo; “but we might go a bit cheaper.”\par

“I wouldn’t mind giving twelve dollars,” replied
Walter Raymond. “If you can come for that, I’ll
drive you over as soon as you can get ready.”\par

A bargain was struck, and then the two performers
returned to the vicinity of the theater. Nothing
could be learned of Nathan Wampole, and an
hour later they left for Raymondsville.\par

They found Walter Raymond very kind. He
treated them to a liberal dinner, and aided them to
get their stage things into proper shape.\par

“It’s lucky we got our stuff from the theater,”
said Leo. “We may pick up quite a little money
by giving private performances throughout this
district.”\par

“That twelve dollars will help us to get our baggage
from Mrs. Gerston,” said Carl.\par

The Raymond homestead was surrounded by
beautifully laid out grounds, and directly after the
noonday hour the guests began to arrive, to the
number of a dozen or more. Carl and Leo had been
given a dressing-room in the mansion, and here
they prepared for their acts.\par

Leo was the first to perform, and at the conclusion
of his initial act he was loudly applauded.\par

Then Carl appeared, followed by one of the
house servants, who brought his paraphernalia.\par

“Isn’t he handsome!” whispered several of the
girls.\par

Carl began to juggle with several balls and a
hoop. He threw the balls through the hoop and
around it. Then he brought forth several daggers
and juggled them in one hand, while he kept the
balls going with the other. The hoop he balanced
on a stick set on the end of his nose, and placed a
ball on top of all.\par

This was a remarkable feat, requiring great delicacy
of touch and a keen eye. The boys and girls
watched him breathlessly, and then began to clap
their hands.\par

“Wonderful! wonderful!”\par

“I never saw anything to equal that!”\par

“It’s as good as a performance in a circus or a
theater!”\par

The juggling continued, Carl getting down on
one knee and also on his back, without making a
miss of anything that was in motion.\par

At the very height of the act came a loud cry
from the house.\par

“Help! help!”\par

“Look out for Jack Darrow’s dog!”\par

“The brute is mad!”\par

The cry was taken up on all sides. The boys and
girls looked around in terror.\par

And well they might, for a few seconds later an
ugly-looking bulldog with glaring eyes and mouth
dripping with white foam leaped into their very
midst.\par

For an instant he stared at the spectators—the
next he turned toward Carl, and with a loud snarl
leaped straight for the young performer’s throat.\par

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CHAPTER XVII.—CARL SHOWS HIS BRAVERY.}

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{\noindent}
“A mad dog!”\par

“He is going to bite the young juggler!”\par

Shriek after shriek arose on the air and several
of the boys and girls fled from the scene.\par

It was truly a thrilling moment, and a youth
with less nerve than Carl Ross would have been
paralyzed with terror.\par

But in knocking around during the past few
years of his life the boy juggler and magician had
more than once been thrown into a position of
peril, and he realized that to lose his nerve would
perhaps cost him his life.\par

As the mad beast leaped for his throat Carl
dodged to one side and caught the animal by the
left hind leg.\par

He whirled the body in the air and flung it with
great force against a neighboring tree.\par

The shock was such that for the moment the enraged
beast was stunned. It lay panting upon the
grass, its glassy eyes rolling frightfully.\par

“Get into the house, all of you!” cried Leo, and
picked up a wee bit of a girl that was standing
near. She was too young to realize her peril, and
gazed at him in wonder.\par

The crowd started pellmell, with Leo and his
burden in the rear.\par

Scarcely had Leo moved when the dog recovered
and stood up. He had his eyes on Carl, and leaped
once more for him.\par

Carl ran to where he had been performing. The
four daggers he had used were still on the ground
and he picked them up.\par

Swish! One of the daggers flew through the air
with lightning-like rapidity. It struck the brute in
the forehead, inflicting a telling injury.\par

“He has knifed the dog!”\par

“That was a clever throw!”\par

Seriously wounded, the bulldog, with the tenacity
of his race, still showed fight. He crouched down,
then made another leap for our hero.\par

As he did this his breast became exposed, and
launching forth a second dagger the young magician
struck him fairly between the ribs. The shining
blade sank deep into the flesh, and with a snarl and
a yelp the mad bulldog rolled over—dead.\par

A shout went up from the neighborhood of the
mansion. Nearly all who had attended the party
had seen the skillful way in which the dangerous
animal had been dispatched. Leo was the first to
reach Carl’s side.\par

“By jove! Carl, that was great!” he ejaculated.
“You did him up in jig time.”\par

“You are a brave young man and no mistake,”
put in Walter Raymond. “Not one man in a hundred
would have tackled that dog. I wouldn’t
have done it for a thousand dollars.”\par

“I don’t want any more of it,” answered the
young magician, as he wiped the perspiration from
his forehead. “Shall I go on with the performance?”
he continued to the young man of the house.\par

“I don’t know as the folks are in the humor,”
replied Walter Raymond.\par

“We’ll do a double act and make them forget
the dog incident,” said Leo quickly.\par

The gardener was called, and he removed the
body of the canine. As soon as this was accomplished
Leo and Carl set to work to do some sleight-of-hand
performances of a humorous nature.\par

Taking Leo by the nose, Carl pretended to extract
from his mouth a handkerchief, a baseball
cap, and then a live frog.\par

To those wishing to know how this was accomplished
he would say they were purely tricks of
dexterity. Carl had the articles mentioned about
his person and concealed them in his hand as he
reached for Leo’s mouth. A handkerchief and a
baseball cap can be rolled into very small balls
when it is necessary, and even a frog is small when
tightly held.\par

Then, because Leo would not let him get anything
else out of his mouth, Carl pretended to get
angry.\par

“I’ll bang myself against the tree!” he cried,
and, rushing up to the nearest hardwood tree, he
brought his forehead up against the bark. A
thump was heard and each time his head went
forward another thump followed.\par

“Oh, he’ll hurt his head!” shrieked several of
the girls.\par

But Carl did not hurt his head a bit. His head
struck the tree very lightly. The thump was made
by his fist, which, however, was kept concealed
from the audience.\par

In the meantime Leo did some funny work on
the ground, bending himself into an odd shape
backward and hopping around after the released
frog.\par

By this time a crowd had assembled in the
grounds, for the grown folks were not supposed to
come in until late. Seeing this, Carl stepped up on
a little bench.\par

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, I will give you an
exhibition of one of my most wonderful tricks,” he
said. “Is any one of you a good shot with a horse-pistol?”\par

There was a pause, and then an elderly gentleman
with but one arm stepped forward.\par

“I fancy I can accommodate you,” he said with
a smile. “I am considered a crack shot, and was
an officer in the cavalry.”\par

“Very well, sir; I will give you the pleasure of
shooting me.”\par

As Carl spoke he brought out a long pistol.\par

“Please examine this,” he went on, and as the
pistol went the round of the crowd he opened his
valise and brought forth a horn of powder and a
good-sized ball.\par

“I wish you would mark this bullet so you will
know it again,” he continued. “And will somebody
bring me a nice, ripe apple?”\par

The apple was brought, and Walter Raymond
marked the bullet with his knife. Then with great
gravity Carl proceeded to load the pistol.\par

“There goes the powder, here the paper, here
the ball, and here more paper. Did you all see it
loaded?”\par

“Yes, yes!”\par

“Good! Thanks for the apple—I’ll eat it after
I am shot. Now then, Mr. Cavalry Officer, kindly
take your station over there, aim straight for my
heart, and fire.”\par

“But—but I might kill you!” suggested the one-armed
man nervously.\par

“Never mind—I’m like a cat that has nine lives.
Go ahead. Ready?”\par

“Yes.”\par

Carl took the apple given him and held it on his
palm at arm’s length.\par

“Now aim for my heart. Ready? Fire!”\par

Bang! With a loud explosion the pistol went off,
and for a moment the spectators were enveloped in
smoke.\par

As it cleared away the young magician was seen
to be standing as before. There was a smile on his
face.\par

“I am much obliged to you for shooting me,” he
said. “But what has become of the bullet?”\par

Thus speaking he bit into the apple.\par

“Hullo! what’s this? The bullet, I declare!
Look!”\par

He was right; the bullet, with the mark still
upon it, was embedded in the heart of the apple!\par

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CHAPTER XVIII.—A WONDERFUL TRICK EXPLAINED.}

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{\noindent}
“Wonderful!”\par

“That’s the best trick I’ve seen yet!”\par

“Really a remarkable performance,” said the old
cavalry officer, who had done the firing. “How
did you do it?”\par

To this question Carl, of course, made no reply.
He was not in the habit of giving away his secrets.\par

But we will let our curious readers into the
mystery. The way the trick was worked was as
follows:\par

When Carl received the marked bullet back from
Walter Raymond he substituted in its stead a
similar-looking one made of amalgam of tinfoil and
quicksilver. This bullet was rammed into the pistol
so forcibly that it went to pieces beneath the paper.
Even if it had not gone to pieces the firing of the
weapon would have shattered it.\par

When Carl received the apple he split it partly
open and dropped the marked bullet inside on the
sly. The rest of the trick will now be readily
understood.\par

The remarkable performance with the pistol and
some additional acrobatic feats from Leo brought
the entertainment to a close, and the two performers
hurried to the house to get into their street
dress.\par

“You must have dinner here before you leave,”
said Walter Raymond as he paid them off. “It is
but a slight return for killing that mad bulldog and
saving the children.”\par

The performers were hungry, and readily
accepted the invitation. While they were eating
Walter Raymond sat close by.\par

“I wouldn’t mind knowing how to do some
tricks,” he said. “It must be lots of fun.”\par

“Not so much when one performs for a living,”
returned Carl. “To do tricks for your friends is
amusing.”\par

“Can you show me some simple ones?” Walter
pleaded.\par

Carl smiled.\par

“Let me have a cent,” he said, and after it was
produced he took a knife and cut a little nick in one
edge, turning the shaving of metal outward.\par

“Now this cent will stick on any door you place
it,” he said, and illustrated by sticking it up with
the metal shaving clinging to the woodwork. “Any
boy can do this with ease.”\par

“That’s a nice trick.”\par

After this Carl explained a number of other
simple tricks with coins and cards, and then he and
Leo departed with a cheer from the young people
as they walked away.\par

“Well, what’s to do now?” questioned Leo as
they hurried on.\par

“I move we get our baggage from Mrs. Gerston.
I need some of my clothing, especially if we are to
give garden exhibitions.”\par

“That’s true. All right; Mrs. Gerston’s it is.”\par

The walk back to town did not take long. At
first the boarding-house mistress frowned on them,
but when they explained that they intended to
settle up her expression changed.\par

It was too late to go anywhere that night, so a
bargain was struck whereby she agreed to let them
remain and have breakfast for one dollar more, or
eleven dollars in all.\par

“That leaves us with just a dollar capital,”
laughed Leo. “Not much, but a good deal better
than nothing. The question is, what shall we do
to-morrow?”\par

“We had better try to work our way from town
to town,” replied Carl. “Perhaps we’ll be fortunate
enough to give exhibitions on the way. Even
if we can’t strike garden parties, we can show at
country hotels and take up a collection. It’s not a
nice way to do, but it’s better than begging.”\par

The next morning found the pair up bright and
early. Their baggage—two satchels belonging to
each, for their trunks had been lost—were soon
strapped up, and after breakfast they set out to
shake the dust of the town from their feet.\par

Hardly had the last house in the place been
passed than Leo noticed that they were being
followed by a burly fellow, who carried in his hand
an ugly-looking rawhide whip.\par

The fellow soon caught up to them.\par

“Stop there, do yer hear?” he called out.\par

“What do you want?” asked Carl, coming to a
halt.\par

“I want ter talk to yer. Ain’t you the chap as
killed the dog over ter Raymond’s place?”\par

“I am.”\par

“I thought so. Do yer know I was the owner
of that dog, an’ that he was a valuable beast?”\par

“If he was valuable, it’s too bad. He was mad
and had to be killed,” put in Leo.\par

“He wasn’t mad—he only had a fit. He gits ’em
often. I want yer to pony up twenty-five dollars
fer him. If yer don’t I’ll fix ye, see?”\par

“I’ll not pay a cent,” cried Carl. “He was mad
and we can easily prove it.”\par

“No sech thing, boy! Are yer goin’ ter pay?”\par

“No.”\par

“Then take that!”\par

The fellow raised the rawhide whip and brought
it down with a whir over Carl’s head.\par

Had the rawhide descended as intended the young
magician would have been seriously injured.\par

But Carl was not to be caught unawares.\par

He leaped aside, and before the man could raise
the whip again, Leo wrenched it from his grasp.\par

“Give me that whip or I’ll fix yer, as sure as my
name is Jack Darrow!” fumed the fellow.\par

“Stand back!” ordered the young gymnast.
“You have no right to attack my friend.”\par

“I’ll show ye!” yelled Jack Darrow, and leaped
upon Carl.\par

The young magician was on guard, and in a
twinkle he put out his foot and sent the fellow on
his back.\par

“Now leave me alone or I’ll shoot you,” he said
sternly, and walked away. Leo threw the whip
over a fence and followed.\par

Darrow got up and stood still. He shook his fist
after them, then disappeared in search of his whip.\par

The next village was four miles distant, and when
they reached the place, Carl, who had lamed his
foot on a stone, was glad enough to sit down. He
entered a tavern and took a seat by a corner table.\par

“I’ll be with you in a few minutes,” said Leo.
“I want to see what the prospects are here.”\par

“All right, I’ll wait,” replied the young magician,
and taking up a paper that lay handy he glanced it
over.\par

Presently a man came in and dropped in a chair
opposite to him. Carl glanced over the paper and
saw it was Nathan Wampole.\par

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CHAPTER XIX.—WAMPOLE’S NEW SCHEME.}

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“Some ale,” said Wampole to the waiter, and it
was quickly brought and set before him.\par

“What’s your order?” asked the waiter of Carl.\par

“I’ll wait till my friend comes back,” said Carl
quietly.\par

Wampole had not yet seen him, but he heard the
youth’s voice and now looked around the edge of
the paper.\par

“Carl Ross,” he murmured, as he fell back in his
seat.\par

“Yes, Mr. Wampole. You didn’t expect to see
me here.”\par

“Well—er—not exactly. But it’s very fortunate,
very fortunate, indeed!” went on Nathan Wampole,
gathering himself together with an effort.\par

“Why, do you want to pay me off?”\par

“Well—er—not exactly that, Carl,” with a reproachful
glance. “But the fact of it is, I’m thinking of reorganizing.
I’ve seen four of our company
already.”\par

As he spoke Nathan Wampole drew a folded
document from his pocket and thrust it across the
table.\par

“There’s my new scheme,” he said earnestly.
“A grand thing, too. We’ll make money hand
over fist. Of course you’ll go in.”\par

Carl looked at the paper.\par

“Hardly, sir. I don’t care to work for nothing
but fame.”\par

“But this is dead sure, Carl, dead sure. A
fortune——”\par

“The other company was to bring me a fortune,
Mr. Wampole. No, henceforth I’m going to travel
with a responsible manager or on my own hook.”\par

“Do you mean to insinuate I’m not responsible?”
cried Nathan Wampole, bristling up.\par

“You haven’t proved yourself to be.”\par

“I’ve had a misfortune, that’s all. But I’ll get
on my feet again, and—hullo, here’s my friend, Leo
Dunbar!”\par

“Nathan Wampole!” ejaculated the young
gymnast.\par

“I want you for my newly organized company,”
commenced the old manager, but Leo cut him
short.\par

“I overheard your offer to Carl, Wampole. My
answer is the same as his.”\par

“You won’t join me?”\par

“No.”\par

Nathan Wampole’s face grew dark and bitter.\par

“You’ll regret it—mark my words, you’ll regret
it!” he hissed; and gulping down the liquor set
before him, he arose and hurried from the place.\par

“The fraud!” murmured Leo. “I’ll never perform
for him again.”\par

“Nor will I,” added Carl.\par

A little later they were eating dinner, not an
elaborate meal, for they had little to spend.\par

“I’ve struck luck,” went on the young gymnast.\par

“I met a gentleman who was at Mr. Raymond’s
yesterday, and he has hired us to perform at his
house this evening from eight o’clock to nine. He
is going to pay us the same amount, twelve dollars.”\par

This was good news, and on the strength of it
Carl ordered some dessert, which cost him five cents
additional.\par

They hired a room at the tavern, and leaving
their baggage there took a walk out to see the
sights. They walked further than they had intended
and it was dark when they returned. The
landlord of the place met them in surprise.\par

“Hullo, I thought you had changed your mind
about coming back,” he said.\par

“Changed our minds?” queried Carl, puzzled.\par

“Yes.”\par

“Why so?”\par

“Didn’t you send for your baggage?”\par

“No.”\par

“What! why, a man came here not an hour
ago and took all your things off.”\par

Carl and Leo gave a simultaneous whistle of surprise.
Here was a pretty state of affairs.\par

“Who was the man?”\par

“I don’t know. He had a wagon and said you
had sent him.”\par

Carl gave a groan.\par

“We have been robbed, Leo.”\par

“It looks like it, Carl. What are we to do? We
must get our things back, and that quickly, or we
won’t be able to perform to-night.”\par

“Do you mean to say that man was a thief?”
demanded the landlord of the tavern, with intense
astonishment.\par

“That’s just what he was,” answered Carl. “We
never sent him here.”\par

“What sort of a looking man was he?” asked
Leo.\par

“Tall and dark, with a cast in one eye,” was the
reply. “I’ve seen him in these parts before.”\par

“A cast in his eye?” repeated Carl. “It must
have been that Jack Darrow!” he burst out.\par

“That’s so,” returned the young gymnast. “He
said he would get square.”\par

“Who is Jack Darrow?” questioned the landlord.\par

Matters were quickly explained.\par

“You had no right to let our baggage go,” said
Leo severely.\par

“Can’t we go after the fellow? I’ll drive you to
his house, if you know where it is.”\par

The landlord was very anxious to help them, realizing
that he had “put his foot into it.” The
matter was talked over for several minutes, and it
was decided to take a fast team of horses and drive
back to Raymondsville and ascertain where Jack
Darrow resided.\par

Five minutes later found Leo, Carl and Mr. Cook
on the way. They made fast time, and soon drove
up to the first of the line of stores in the next town.\par

“Jack Darrow is a worthless scamp,” said the
storekeeper. “He hasn’t any regular home, but I
fancy you can find him hanging around Budd’s
livery stable most any time.”\par

“We can if he’s not in hiding,” said Carl in a
low voice, as they drove off again.\par

The town being a small one it was easy to find
the livery stable mentioned. Outside of the building
sat two hostlers talking and smoking.\par

“Is Jack Darrow anywhere around?” questioned
Mr. Cook.\par

“Yes; just went over to yonder stable,” called
back one of the hostlers. “Want to see him?”\par

“Yes.”\par

“I’ll call him,” went on the hostler, thinking there
might be a chance to earn a dime.\par

“Never mind,” put in Carl. “Come on, Leo, we
won’t give him a chance to run away.”\par

“That’s so; we won’t,” returned Leo, and followed
the young juggler to the ground.\par

The stable pointed out was but a short distance
down a lane, back of which flowed a good-sized
brook. Making their way rapidly to the building,
which was old and much out of repair, they entered
the open doorway.\par

A sound in the rear greeted them.\par

“There he goes!” yelled Carl. “Stop, Jack
Darrow!”\par

A muttered exclamation was the only response.
They saw the good-for-nothing leave the barn and
run for the brook.\par

“He’s going to leg it!” burst out the young
gymnast. “Well, three can play at that game.”\par

Through the barn rushed Leo and Carl. Down
by the brook the bushes grew to a height of several
feet. Reaching the water’s edge, nothing was to be
seen of the man they were after.\par

“He’s hiding somewhere, that’s certain,” said
Carl. “You go up and I’ll go down the bank.”\par

This advice was followed, and both covered a distance
of fifty feet, when a faint splash was heard.\par

“He’s crossing over!” cried out the young
magician. “This way, quick!”\par

Regardless of the wetting, he plunged into the
brook, which luckily was hardly a foot deep, and
Leo came, too. The young man they were after
had gone over in full view. He was running down
a country road on the opposite side at top speed.\par

He was a good runner, and once having gained
the road, Leo and Carl felt they had a lively chase
before them.\par

But the thought of losing their baggage nerved
them to do their best, and over the ground they
flew in good shape, gradually closing the gap between
them and the man they were after.\par

Evidently Jack Darrow was getting winded, for
when a quarter of a mile had been passed he slowed
up and turned around.\par

“Keep back or I’ll fire on yer!” he howled, making
a suggestive movement, toward his hip pocket.\par

The two pursuers slowed up, but did not come to
a halt.\par

“Do you think he’s got a pistol?” asked Leo.\par

“No; if he has he won’t dare to use it. Arm
yourself with a stick or stone,” were Carl’s words.\par

As he spoke he picked up a stick lying near, and
Leo followed his example. In another moment
they were within ten feet of Jack Darrow, who had
started to run once more.\par

“Stop!” cried Carl. “Stop, or I’ll fire!”\par

“You ain’t got no pistol!” roared Darrow.\par

“No; but I’ve got this!” was the retort. The
stick whirled through the air, launched with the
young juggler’s aim, and struck the thief in the
back between the shoulders. It was a heavy blow,
and Darrow fell flat on his face.\par

Before he could get up Carl and Leo were on top
of him. In vain he tried to fight them off. Carl
held him fast while the young gymnast produced a
stout cord and tied his hands behind him.\par

The two heroes of the occasion had scarcely finished
their work when carriage wheels were heard
approaching, and Mr. Cook and his turnout hove
into sight.\par

“Hullo! you’ve got him!” cried out the tavern-keeper.
“That’s a good job done. What are you
going to do with him?”\par

“Lemme go!” whined Darrow, all his bravery
oozing away. “Lemme go! I ain’t done nuthin’!”\par

“Where are our things?” demanded Carl.\par

“Wot things? I ain’t got nuthin’ belongin’ to
you.”\par

“That’s a falsehood!” put in Mr. Cook. “You
are the man that took their baggage from my hotel.
I have witnesses to prove it. The best thing we can
do is to take him to the village lock-up.”\par

“Don’t yer do it—I’ll fix yer if yer do!” bellowed
Darrow. “Let me go an’ I’ll tell yer where
the satchels are, every one of em.”\par

“I’ve an idea he hid them in that stable,” said Leo.
“It seems to me he was coming down from the loft
when we entered.”\par

“We’ll soon find out,” said Carl. “Dump him
into the carriage and drive back.”\par

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CHAPTER XX.—ANOTHER STOP ON THE ROAD.}

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In vain Jack Darrow protested against the proceedings.
He was lifted into the carriage without
ceremony, and the horses’ heads were turned back
along the road to where a bridge crossed the brook.\par

The stable reached, Leo and Carl went upstairs.
The loft was filled with loose hay.\par

“I’ll pitch it over with this fork,” said Carl, and
took up the implement he had mentioned.\par

He had proceeded but a short distance into the
hay when one of Leo’s valises came to light. His
own followed, and soon all their baggage was
recovered.\par

“Well?” called the tavern-keeper from below.\par

“We have it,” replied the young gymnast.\par

“Good enough. This fellow is good for a term
in the State prison.”\par

At this Darrow began to whine and beg. But
Mr. Cook was obdurate and told him to shut up.\par

As soon as the two performers came below again
the party drove off for the squire’s office, situated
over the general store and post office. Here a
formal complaint was lodged by Mr. Cook, and
Jack Darrow was locked up to await the sitting of
the grand jury at the county seat.\par

“He’ll be indicted—I’ll see to it myself,” said
the tavern-keeper, as he and our heroes drove back
to Charlotting.\par

Leo and Carl were anxious to get to the place
where they were to perform that night, and as it
was some distance out Mr. Cook drove them directly
to the spot—a fine country seat, at which a party
of over forty were stopping.\par

A round of applause greeted their appearance in
the drawing-room some time later. The drawing-room
opened into a conservatory, and the latter
was used by the pair for a stage.\par

As usual, Leo was the first to appear, doing a
number of feats which were watched with close
attention. As the space was limited he did not
confine himself to acrobatics but, in addition, performed
several tricks with fire which Carl had
taught him.\par

Among other things he did was to stuff his mouth
with burning cotton.\par

“He’ll burn himself up!” cried several, but Leo
only smiled. His mouth had been washed with a
strong solution of alum, and was to a certain degree
fireproof. Of course, he had to be very careful in
doing the fire tricks, for at the best such tricks are
highly dangerous.\par

“I will next swallow a red-hot knife,” he announced,
and brought in an iron blade, heated to a
red heat. He faced the audience sideways, and it
looked as if the knife slid down into his open mouth,
which was thrown back, but in reality it slipped
close to the outside of his mouth, on the side from
the spectators, and into a sheath inside his collar,
placed there to receive it. As the knife disappeared,
the sheath followed, and he faced the
audience to show that all was fair and square.\par

This concluded Leo’s single act, and then Carl
came on. After giving a number of the tricks previously
mentioned, he came forward smilingly.\par

“I have in my hand a box given me by the Prince
of Wales,” he said, holding up an oblong object
four inches wide by four high and eight inches
long. “This box, the prince insisted, was the most
wonderful box he had ever possessed. See; I open
the box, and find it contains nothing but an empty
sliding drawer. Will somebody be kind enough to
put a quarter into the box?”\par

He held the open drawer out, and a young lady
threw a piece of silver into it. Then Carl shut the
box up and blew upon it. When he opened the box
again the silver was gone!\par

The company applauded, while the young lady
looked glum. Carl smiled upon her.\par

“Never mind; we’ll try to get the silver back,”
he said, and struck the box on the bottom. Then
he opened the drawer, and out tumbled the coin
into the lady’s lap.\par

“Good! good! Very neat!”\par

Carl turned around to put the box on the table.
Leaving it there, he came forward again.\par

“Now, ladies and gentlemen,” he began, when of
a sudden the box on the table began to dance,
finally dancing to the floor.\par

“Well, I declare!” cried the young magician.
“Something has surely gotten into that box. And
yet we left it empty, did we not?”\par

There was a nod from the young lady, who had
looked into the box when the coin came out.\par

Holding the box before him, Carl gave the knob
to the drawer a jerk, out it came, and a shower of
small candies flew all over the audience. Some fell
into the young lady’s lap, and all present sent up a
shout of laughter, in the midst of which Carl
temporarily withdrew.\par

Now, no doubt our young readers are, as usual,
anxious to know how it was all done. The explanation
is simple.\par

The box was not exactly what it appeared to be.
Instead of having one drawer it had two, one that
worked inside of the other. The outside drawer
was a mere shell, without a back, to allow the inner
box to slide back and forth within it. There was
a little spring outside at the end which held the
inner drawer when desired.\par

When the box was opened first the coin was
placed in the second or inner drawer. When it was
opened again the second drawer was held back by
the catch, and out came the shell, or empty drawer.
The third time the second drawer came with the
coin, as described.\par

After the young ladies and the others had seen
the box was empty Carl turned toward the table,
and while so doing slyly poured the candy from his
bosom into the open box, and after closing the
article stuck a bent pin into one corner to which
was attached a long, black horsehair, the other end
of the horsehair being pinned to his leg.\par

As he began to talk, he pulled in jerks on the
horsehair, which caused the box to dance and fall.
Then bringing it forward he opened it and released
a spring that held the bottom, thus causing the
candy to fly in all directions. When he retired the
horsehair was removed, and he prepared for his
next trick.\par

Carl now came out in a new rôle—that of a mesmerist,
and after drawing the curtains over the door
for an instant, requested the company to draw
around, that they might get a good view of the top
of the table which was covered with a smooth
cloth which reached to the floor.\par

“You have all played tiddle-de-winks and such
games,” he said. “I have my own way of playing
them. See, I place three circles on the table, and
also this shining bit of metal—my mascot, I call it.
I name the circles 1, 2, and 3. Now, will somebody
kindly designate a circle to which the bit of metal
shall pass!”\par

“To circle No. 2,” said an interested boy.\par

“Advance, and do as bidden!” cried Carl, making
some passes at the metal, and slowly but surely the
piece moved across the table until it reached the
center of the circle, where it stopped.\par

“Again?” said Carl impressively.\par

“To circle 3,” said a lady.\par

Slowly but surely the mesmerized metal turned
in the direction. Then circle 1 was called out, and
the others again. Wherever commanded the metal
went.\par

“And now who will keep the mascot for a keepsake?”
cried Carl.\par

The little girl of the house spoke first, and as she
was sitting close to the table the metal moved to
the edge and fell into her lap.\par

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CHAPTER XXI.—AN UNEXPECTED BATH.}

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Soon after this the young performers brought
their performance to a close.\par

But the last trick—how was it performed? we
hear some of our readers say.\par

It was very simple. When the curtains were
closed Leo came forward and concealed himself
under the table. He had a powerful magnet, and
wherever he pushed the magnet under the table
the bit of metal on top of the table was sure to
follow.\par

Leo knew where the circles were to be placed,
and made his movements accordingly. A swift
motion at the finish dropped the metal into the
little girl’s lap.\par

“I would like to see you,” said a gentleman at
the close of the engagement. “I belong across
the river about ten miles north of here. The folks
are going to give a sociable, as we call it. I will
give you twenty dollars if you can give us a first-class
entertainment to last two hours.”\par

“We’ll try to suit you,” said the young gymnast,
and the engagement was duly entered on a passbook
he had purchased.\par

“We are getting famous!” cried Carl, when the
mansion was left behind. “We are making money
faster than we ever did with Nathan Wampole’s
combination.”\par

“The trouble is, these snaps may not last, Carl.
By the way, I wonder if Wampole will really succeed
in getting our people together again.”\par

“He won’t get me. I am done with him.”\par

“So am I.”\par

The two partners, as they now called themselves,
slept soundly that night and did not get up until
late. Their hotel bill paid, they found themselves
eight dollars and a half ahead.\par

“We’ll have to open a bank account soon,”
laughed Carl. “We’ll be waylaid for our wealth.”\par

“Wait awhile, my boy, wait awhile,” sang out
Leo. “But tell me, how do we get over to Point
Snoker?”\par

Mr. Cook was appealed to, and told them to take
the road to the river.\par

“You’ll come to Jack Hazlett’s landing, and he’ll
ferry you across in his sloop. We haven’t got any
regular ferry on the river closer than the town of
Perryskill.”\par

A colored man suggested that they let him wheel
their baggage in his barrow for a quarter, and they
accepted the offer, and the start was made immediately
after breakfast.\par

On the way Carl had considerable fun with the
colored man. He played a number of clever tricks
on that individual, and when the river was reached
conjured a quarter from his coat-sleeve, and pretended
to wring the money from the old fellow’s
nose.\par

“Here’s your quarter, uncle.”\par

“Fo’ de law’s sake, chile!” cried the darkey, and
his eyes rolled around in intense surprise.\par

“Easy way to get the money, uncle.”\par

“Yo’ must be in wid de ole boy hisself,” was the
darkey’s comment. “Much obliged.”\par

And off he went with a side glance at Carl, as if
half-expecting the young juggler might conjure the
quarter from the pocket in which he had placed it.\par

Leo and Carl found that Jack Hazlett was out on
the river, but would soon return. They sat down
and waited. While doing so they noticed a large
steamboat coming up the river, crowded with
people.\par

“An excursion of some sort,” said Carl. “See
the flags flying.”\par

“They are going to land up at yonder island,”
said Leo. “See, they are turning into the landing.”\par

While the steamboat was discharging its passengers,
Jack Hazlett returned and took them on
board. The passage across the river took them
close to the steamboat.\par

“She seems to be an old ferryboat fixed up,”
observed the young gymnast as they came up.
“See, several people have remained on board.”\par

“What is the matter with that young girl!” cried
Carl, pointing to a young lady hanging over the
rail. “Can she be seasick?”\par

“There she goes!” yelled Leo. “My gracious!”\par

With a loud splash the young lady had dropped
over the rail into the river!\par

“She’ll be drowned!”\par

“My daughter! Save her! She has a fit!” suddenly
cried an old man, rushing from his seat in the
shade.\par

“A fit—that accounts for it,” said Leo. “I’ll
save her!”\par

In another moment he was on the boat’s rail—the
next he was over the side. He struck out
boldly.\par

“Take care—she may fight you if she has a fit!”
called his partner.\par

Soon Leo reached the girl’s side. She was about
to sink when he came to her support. She lay like
one dead.\par

“I guess the fit’s gone,” he thought, when suddenly
she gave a frightful scream and began to tear
at his face like an enraged tigress!\par

It was a position he had not bargained for, and
what to do the young gymnast did not know.\par

“Look out for her!” yelled Carl, as the girl in
the water began her attack.\par

“Keep quiet, please!” gasped Leo to his charge.
“I will take you to the boat.”\par

But the girl paid no attention. Her eyes rolled
horribly, and she continued to clutch at his throat.\par

Realizing that something must be done, the young
gymnast resolved to duck the girl. He did so, and
when she came up again she lay as limp as before.
Ere she could recover he struck out for the boat.\par

Carl and Jack Hazlett were waiting for him, and
quickly assisted him on board. Here the girl
dropped upon the deck unconscious.\par

“My gracious, that’s the worst experience I ever
had in my life!” panted Leo, as soon as he could
speak. “I thought she was going to chew me up!”\par

“She’s got fits the worst way,” put in the boatman.
“I’ll take her back to that steamboat.”\par

This was done. The girl’s father was anxiously
awaiting their arrival, and, taking his daughter in
his arms, he carried her into the cabin, where a
stewardess waited upon her.\par

“I had her in a hospital,” he explained, “but
they discharged her last week as being cured. You
are a brave lad to save her.”\par

Leo smiled faintly.\par

“Thanks; but I don’t want the job again. Come
on, Carl.”\par

He was about to go aboard the small boat again,
when the fond father stopped him. Taking a ten-dollar
bill from his pocketbook, he pressed it into
the young gymnast’s hand.\par

“Don’t say you won’t take it,” he said. “You
deserve more, but it’s all I have with me.”\par

And he made the youth keep the amount.\par

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CHAPTER XXII.—WAMPOLE SHOWS HIS HAND.}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
After this adventure the river was soon crossed,
and an hour later Leo and Carl found themselves
installed at another hotel but a short distance from
the mansion at which they were to perform.\par

While they were taking a stroll through the
village, Carl’s eyes were suddenly arrested by a
huge poster stuck on the side of a barn.\par

“Look, Leo, what do you think of that?” he
cried.\par

The poster referred to ran as follows:\par

{\advance\leftskip\parindentamount{}\advance\rightskip\parindentamount{}
\vs{1}
\begin{verse}
{\vl {\noindent}
Wampole’s Trans-Continental\par}
{\vl Specialty Company.\par}
{\vl Reorganized!\par}
{\vl Better and Brighter than Ever!\par}
{\vl See Leo, the Wonderful Clown and Gymnast!\par}
{\vl Don’t Miss Carl Ross,\par}
{\vl The Greatest Juggler and Magician\par}
{\vl The World Has Ever Produced!\par}
{\vl 30—Other Artists—30!\par}
{\vl At Pelham’s Hall To-night!\par}
{\vl Admission 15 and 25 Cents.\par}
\end{verse}
}

\vs{1}
{\noindent}
“If that ain’t cheeky!” burst out Leo. “What
right has he to advertise us when we are no longer
with him?”\par

“That is what I would like to know,” returned
Carl.\par

“We ought to stop him.”\par

“We certainly can,” said the young juggler.
“He hasn’t any more right to use our names than
the president’s.”\par

“What shall we do?”\par

“I wonder where we can find him?”\par

“Most likely at Pelham’s Hall, wherever that
is.”\par

The two made inquiries and soon located the hall,
which was situated over the general store.\par

Going upstairs, they met a tough-looking individual
coming down.\par

It was Bill Gormley, one of the Wampole Company.\par

He was put down on the bills as Ricardo, the
Great German Impersonator. He could do one or
two things fairly well, but the majority of his acts
were decidedly poor. More than that, he was a
heavy drinker, and had on several occasions appeared
on the stage when he could hardly stand.\par

“Hullo, Ross!” he called out. “Hullo, Dunbar!
so you’ve decided to rejoin, eh?”\par

“Hardly,” replied Carl. “Where is Wampole?”\par

“Back of the stage. But you ain’t going to join
us, you say?”\par

“We are not,” answered Leo.\par

“You had better. We are going to make a big
thing of the show now.”\par

“Wampole was always going to do that,” laughed
Carl.\par

They passed up the dingy stairs and into the hall.
Nathan Wampole stood on the empty stairs rehearsing
a boy of twelve in a funny dialect part.\par

“That ain’t right!” he roared. “Do it this way!
You ain’t worth your salt! Come now, or I’ll
crack you with this club!”\par

“Wampole!” called out the young gymnast.\par

“Leo! And you, too, Carl! Delighted to see
you!” Nathan Wampole’s face took on a smile,
and the boy was forgotten. “So you thought you
would join us again. I was on the point of sending
for you.”\par

“We are not going to join, and we want to know
by what right you are advertising us,” said Carl
firmly.\par

Nathan Wampole’s face instantly took on an ugly
look.\par

“Not going to join eh?” he muttered.\par

“No.”\par

“And we demand that you take our names from
your bills,” added Leo.\par

“What! Not much!”\par

“Then we’ll compel you.”\par

Nathan Wampole’s face grew white.\par

“You will not. On the other hand, I’ll compel
you to perform in my company. I have your signatures,
remember.”\par

“That old contract doesn’t count—you broke it
yourself,” returned Carl.\par

“It was never broken.” Nathan Wampole smiled
maliciously. “I’ve been to a lawyer and he says
you must perform with me.”\par

“The lawyer that said that is a fool,” cried Leo.\par

“No, he’s not—he’s a smart man. You will perform
with me and nowhere else. If you don’t——”\par

“If we don’t?” queried Carl.\par

“If you don’t I’ll have you arrested.”\par

“You can’t do that.”\par

“Yes, I can.”\par

“On what charge, pray?” asked Leo.\par

“On a charge of breaking up my former company
and running off with some of my things,” replied
Nathan Wampole, triumphantly. “I’ve got witnesses
to prove that you two fellows are thieves.”\par

Scarcely had he uttered the words when both
Leo and Carl leaped forward. Two quick blows
landed Nathan Wampole flat on his back.\par

“You contemptible cur!” cried Carl.\par

“Take that for calling us thieves!” added the
young gymnast.\par

“Whow!” spluttered Nathan Wampole as he
struggled to rise. “Wha—what do you mean by
attacking me in this fashion?” he howled.\par

“What do you mean by insulting us?” said Carl
sternly.\par

“I—I told the tru——”\par

“Stop or we’ll give you another dose,” ejaculated
Leo. “Now let us come to an understanding, Nathan
Wampole. You broke your agreement with
us, and that ended our engagement. As to the
things we took, we can prove our property. Your
talk doesn’t go.”\par

This plain talk had its effect on Nathan Wampole.
He was naturally a coward, and he at once began
to cringe.\par

“Well, I—perhaps I was mistaken, gentlemen,
but—ah—really, you ought to join our company.
It will be the chance of a lifetime, and——”\par

“We won’t waste words with you,” said Carl.
“But understand, our names come off your bills.
If they don’t, we’ll tear the bills down and have
you up in court for false pretense. We are done
with you.”\par

Thus speaking, Carl left, followed by Leo.
Walking down the street they tore their names
from every bill to be found.\par

Nathan Wampole followed and expostulated, but
in vain. He had to rebill the town, and this time
took good care that their names did not appear.
Wampole never bothered either of them again.\par

At the proper time Leo and Carl made their appearance
at the mansion where they were to perform.
The partners had a new trick which they
called “Samson’s Strength.”\par

“Any one can have the strength of a Samson if
he so desires,” said Carl on coming forward.
“Please to look at these dumbbells.”\par

He produced a pair of iron dumbbells each weighing
about ten pounds.\par

“Now, if you will observe, I handle these dumbbells
with ease.” He gave them a flourish. “Over
they go—high in the air—around and around—easy
enough, is it not? Bang!”\par

Down went the dumbbells on a large, flat stool
he had provided.\par

“Will the strongest man present pick them up?”\par

A tall, well-formed man came forward and caught
hold of one of the dumbbells.\par

He thought he could lift it with ease.\par

He was sadly mistaken.\par

In vain he tugged at the dumbbell. It refused to
budge.\par

“You have fastened it down in some way,” he
said.\par

“Fastened it? Nonsense!” cried Carl, and leaning
forward he picked up the dumbbell with only
his forefinger and his thumb.\par

“Try the other dumbbell,” he said.\par

The man did so, and found it equally hard to
raise.\par

“Why, a little girl can pick them up,” said Carl,
and he motioned for a young miss of twelve to
come forward. “I will strengthen your arms,” he
added, and made several mysterious signs over her
wrists.\par

The little girl took hold of the dumbbells. Sure
enough, she raised them without trouble.\par

This trick was a grand success, and the audience
wondered how it was accomplished.\par

The explanation was simple. Under the stool
Carl had a powerful magnet connected with the
electric current which served the mansion with
lights. By applying this magnet to the dumbbells
the attraction was so strong they could not be
moved. Leo controlled the current from below the
floor, and certain movements which Carl made with
his foot told the young gymnast when to turn the
attractive force off or on.\par

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{\noindent\interlinepenalty \@M\normalfont\Huge\bfseries%
CHAPTER XXIII.—THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH ONCE MORE.}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
The performance at the mansion lasted longer
than had been anticipated. Many visitors were present
and the whole affair was voted a big success.\par

But, though Leo and Carl both tried, they failed
to secure another engagement anywhere in the
vicinity.\par

“Never mind, we can’t expect to earn twelve or
twenty dollars every night,” said the young gymnast.
“If we did that we would be millionaires in
no time.”\par

When they arrived at the hotel at which they
were to stop they found several gentlemen talking
about eggs and how Columbus had stood one on
end.\par

“Yes, but he cracked the shell,” said Carl. “I
will agree to stand an egg on end without cracking
the shell. Wait till I put my traps away.”\par

He disappeared upstairs, but soon returned.\par

“I’ll bet a dollar you can’t stand an egg up on
end,” said one of the gentlemen, and produced an
egg brought from the kitchen.\par

Carl took it and waved it over his head several
times.\par

“You have to daze the chick inside,” he explained.
“Now it will stand up all right.”\par

He put the egg down on the smooth table. Sure
enough, it stood up as nicely as one would please.
Then he took the egg up, and, making several
passes, handed it to the man.\par

But the egg wouldn’t stand for the man, try as
hard as he could.\par

“You’ve won the bet.”\par

“Keep your money; it was only a trick,” smiled
Carl.\par

“And how was it done?”\par

“Ah, that’s one of our professional secrets,”
laughed Carl. “Good-night,” and he and Leo
retired.\par

“How was the trick done?” the reader asks.
We will tell them. When Carl went out he procured
another egg and put in one end a bit of quicksilver.
This egg he substituted for the original
egg when he waved the latter in the air. The egg
with the quicksilver could, of course, be set on end
with ease, for the quicksilver’s weight would balance
the other end.\par

Leaving the town the next day, Leo and Carl
struck out for a city five miles away, having heard
that it was a good place in which to perform. There
was no stage running to the city, so the pair walked
the distance. When they reached the outskirts Leo
suddenly stopped short and pointed to several billboards
fastened to the side of a barn.\par

“What’s the matter?” asked Carl. “I don’t see
anything but circus bills. And the circus won’t be
here until the day after to-morrow.”\par

“It’s the ‘Greatest Show on Earth’—the circus
I used to travel with,” said the young acrobat.\par

“Oh, that’s so. Well, we needn’t come in contact
with the crowd, if you don’t care to do so,”
said Carl.\par

For Leo had told his friend the whole story of
the stolen circus tickets and Carl sympathized with
him over the fact that he was under suspicion.\par

“If only I could get at the bottom of that affair.”
murmured Leo as they walked along one of the
city streets.\par

“Those ticket thieves are sure to be run down
some day,” put in Carl, “and then your name will
be cleared.”\par

“They can’t be run down any too quick for me.”
answered Leo.\par

Since leaving the circus he had often thought of
Barton Reeve, Natalie Sparks and his other friends.
No communications had passed between them for
the reason that none of those traveling with the
circus knew where Leo was.\par

In Chalburgh, for such was the city’s name, Leo
and Carl were lucky enough to strike an engagement
with a fat men’s association. The association
gave a picnic in a large grove, and the pair performed
on one end of the dancing platform. This
engagement brought in eight dollars more, and
when they were paid off the head man of the committee
asked if they intended to remain in the city
long.\par

“That depends,” said Carl. “We’ll stay if we
can find another opening.”\par

“I might be able to find you an engagement with
another society,” said the fat man, who tipped the
scales at three hundred and ten pounds. “I can let
you know by to-morrow night, if you can wait that
long.”\par

Leo and Carl consulted together, and agreed to
remain in Chalburgh, and the fat man took down
their hotel address.\par

So the time went by until the day came when the
circus was to perform in the city. Long before
daybreak the wagons arrived and also the canvas
and ring men. Leo could not resist the temptation
to take a walk down to the circus-grounds for a
look at the familiar scene.\par

While he stood there somebody touched him on
the shoulder. It was Barton Reeve.\par

“How are you, Leo,” said the menagerie manager
heartily, as he held out his hand.\par

“I am pretty well, thank you,” replied the
young gymnast.\par

“Where have you been all this time?”\par

“Knocking around on my own hook,” and Leo
smiled faintly. He was glad to see Reeve still considered
him a friend.\par

“I heard you had joined Wampole’s specialty
company.”\par

“I did, but I had to get out,” answered the boy,
and told of the theatrical manager’s doings and of
how he was now giving private exhibitions with
Carl.\par

“I wish you were back in our show,” said Barton
Reeve. “All of us miss you.”\par

“Has Mr. Lambert discovered the ticket thieves
yet?”\par

“No, but he’s got his eyes on several fellows who
are following us around.”\par

“Is Snipper still with you?”\par

“Yes. But nobody likes him. Natalie Sparks
thinks Snipper may be in with the ticket thieves—that’s
between you and me, of course,” added Barton
Reeve quickly.\par

“I have the same kind of an idea, Mr. Reeve.
But the thing is to prove it.”\par

“Of course. Until you can do that you had better
remain silent.”\par

While conversing, the two had been skirting the
circus grounds, and now they came to a halt near a
lemonade stand. Leo looked up, to see Jack Snipper
not over fifty feet away.\par

“There is Snipper now,” he exclaimed. “Who
are those two men with him?”\par

Barton Reeve gave a look.\par

“I declare, they are two of the crowd that Lambert
has under suspicion,” he ejaculated.\par

“The three are going somewhere,” said Leo
quickly. “If you have the time to spare, let us
follow them.”\par

Barton Reeve looked at Leo, and saw what was
passing in the young gymnast’s mind.\par

“I have the whole morning on my hands and
will go willingly,” he replied.\par

They set off side by side, taking care that Snipper
should not notice them.\par

A half dozen blocks were covered, and the old
gymnast and his two companions turned into a low-looking
drinking resort.\par

Passing the place, Leo and Barton Reeve saw the
men take a drink and then walk into a back room.\par

At once Leo led the way through a side yard belonging
to the drinking resort.\par

Here was a window opening into the back room,
and standing close to this the two could hear and
see all that was going on.\par

The men were counting over several bags of
money.\par

This finished, one of them brought out several
bundles of unsold tickets.\par

“When can you get more for us, Snipper?” asked
one of the circus swindlers.\par

“I don’t know. They have discovered this loss
already,” replied the second-rate gymnast.\par

“Didn’t you put it off on the boy, as you said
you would?”\par

“Certainly. But they think the boy is too good
to steal,” growled Snipper.\par

Then one of the other men began to figure up
profits and mentioned how the money was to be
divided.\par

“Hurry up,” said Snipper. “I don’t want to stay
away too long. It might excite suspicion.”\par

At this Barton Reeve motioned to Leo to walk
a distance away.\par

“Run for a couple of policemen,” he whispered.
“I’ll keep an eye on the crowd.”\par

The young gymnast needed no second bidding,
but went off swiftly.\par

At the first corner he ran across a bluecoat and
hurriedly related his story.\par

At once the policeman rapped for an assistant.\par

Then the three joined Barton Reeve.\par

Snipper and the swindlers were just preparing to
leave the saloon.\par

The back window was wide open, and with a
bound Barton Reeve leaped into the apartment.\par

Leo came close behind, and the policemen followed.\par

Jack Snipper turned as pale as death when he
saw how he was trapped.\par

He started to sneak out through the drinking
resort, but Leo caught him and threw him down on
the sawdust floor.\par

Then a struggle took place between the swindlers
and Barton Reeve and the policemen.\par

But at last the swindlers were overcome and
handcuffed.\par

Snipper was also made a prisoner, and the whole
crowd marched down to the police station.\par

The excitement was great at the circus when it
was learned that Leo was innocent and Jack Snipper
was guilty.\par

In her joy Natalie Sparks actually hugged Leo,
while the boy blushed most furiously.\par

In due course of time Snipper and the swindlers
were tried, and each was sentenced to two years’
imprisonment.\par

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CHAPTER XXIV.—IN THE CIRCUS RING AGAIN.}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
“Leo, Mr. Lambert wants to see you,” said
Barton Reeve, after the excitement of the arrest
was over.\par

“What about?” questioned the young gymnast.\par

“Oh, he wants to see you, that’s all,” added
Reeve, with a peculiar wink of his eye.\par

The circus manager was at the main ticket wagon,
as usual. As Leo entered, he held out his hand.\par

“Dunbar, I did you a great wrong, and I am
sorry for it,” he said frankly.\par

“I am glad that my name is cleared, Mr.
Lambert,” said Leo, as he took the extended hand.\par

“We owe you something for what you have done
for the show,” went on the manager. “You did
what the detectives failed to do, and I feel I ought
to pay you a reward.”\par

“You can reward me well enough by taking me
back, Mr. Lambert—that is, if you will take my
present side partner, too,” Leo added, for he did not
intend to desert Carl, who had done so much for
him.\par

“I don’t understand. Who is your partner?”\par

“Carl Ross, a magician and juggler. He is very
clever, and I think would make a hit with the show.
We have been traveling around giving private exhibitions.“\par

“In that case, I will be pleased to see what your
partner can do. Can he come around to the dressing-tent
just before the evening performance
begins?”\par

“Yes, sir.”\par

“Very well then. Have him bring what apparatus
he possesses with him. And remember, your
old place is open whenever you care to step into it
again.”\par

“I’ll be on hand as soon as you settle with Carl
Ross,” smiled Leo.\par

He lost no time in hunting up Carl, who was close
at hand, having heard of the arrest of the ticket
thieves at the hotel.\par

“The manager of the circus says my old position
is open for me,” said Leo.\par

“Are you going to leave me, Leo?” asked Carl,
with an anxious look on his face.\par

“No. I said I would rejoin if he would give you
an opening too.”\par

“Oh!”\par

“He wants you to show what you can do at the
dressing tent a little before seven o’clock.” And
Leo went into a few particulars. “Do your best,
Carl, and you are sure of a steady place at a good
salary.”\par

“That would certainly be far better than knocking
around, as we have been doing, on an uncertainty.”\par

That evening Carl presented himself, in company
with Leo, and gave an exhibition of his finest tricks
and of his most dexterous juggling. Mr. Lambert
was greatly pleased.\par

“You’ll do first rate,” he said, when Carl had
concluded. “If you wish, you can join us, and I’ll
pay you the same wages that I was paying
Dunbar.”\par

Carl accepted on the spot, and the next day found
him and Leo traveling with the other performers
of the “Greatest Show on Earth.”\par

Leo’s friends were glad to see him back, and
doubly glad that they had gotten rid of Snipper.\par

“I never want to see that man again,” declared
Natalie Sparks, and nobody blamed her.\par

The next two weeks were busy ones for Leo.
Not only had he to practice up himself in his old
acts, but he had also to instruct a new gymnast
who came to take Snipper’s place.\par

The newcomer was named Harry Ray. He was
a first-class fellow, and soon he and Leo and Carl
became warm friends.\par

The “Greatest Show on Earth” moved nearly
every day. Its course was westward, something
which did not suit the young gymnast, but which
was also something he could not help.\par

For during all his adventures he had not forgotten
about the old life at Hopsville, and how Barton
Reeve had promised, when he got the chance, to
look up his monetary affairs for him. One day he
spoke to Reeve about it.\par

“I haven’t forgotten, Leo, don’t think that. But
at present I can do nothing.”\par

“When will we move eastward again?”\par

“That I can’t say either. It will depend to a
great extent on how matters pan out in the West.
If we don’t take in much money we’ll turn back
again as soon as the necessary arrangements can
be made.”\par

“Well, I want the show to make all the money
possible. But I want my rights, too.”\par

“And you shall get them; never fear of that,”
concluded Barton Reeve.\par

“I reckon Nathan Dobb is glad to get rid of the
care of me,” thought Leo, as he walked away.
“And yet, it seems to me he has been acting very
queerly.”\par

Never for an instant did the young gymnast
dream that Nathan Dobb had placed Hank Griswold
on his track to do him harm.\par

Why Griswold had not put in an appearance ere
this will be related later.\par

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CHAPTER XXV.—ANOTHER BALLOON TRIP.}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
In the middle of the ring the circus men usually
built a large tank, in which several celebrated swimmers
and divers used to give a special performance.\par

This was something new in the circus line, and it
made a hit with the audience.\par

One morning one of the swimmers, a lad named
Delbier, was trying a new act.\par

This was to turn in the air in a peculiar way and
land in the water on his side, with his body tied up
in a knot.\par

It was a very difficult feat, and Leo watched
Delbier with interest.\par

“That’s dangerous,” he said.\par

“I know it, but orders are for something new,
and it’s the only thing I can think of,” was the
reply.\par

Leo was practicing on the rings close at hand, and
for some minutes all went along well.\par

Then Delbier did the new trick. Down he went
into the tank, but failed to come up.\par

Leo waited for nearly half a minute, and then
growing alarmed, dropped from the rings and
hurried to the edge of the tank.\par

In the clear water he beheld Delbier at the
bottom.\par

The fellow had disjointed himself in some way
and could not straighten out.\par

He was in great danger of drowning.\par

Without hesitation Leo leaped into the tank, intending
to raise the doubled-up body.\par

He made an alarming discovery.\par

Delbier had a cramp, and his right hand and left
foot were tightly twisted about a corner brace in
the bottom of the water-box.\par

In vain Leo tugged to free the diver. He could
not break that deathlike hold.\par

In less than half a minute Leo was out of breath.\par

It looked as if he must arise to the surface and
leave poor Delbier to his fate.\par

But then he clinched his teeth.\par

“I’ll save him,” he thought grimly.\par

Catching the brace in both hands, he planted his
feet against the side of the tank.\par

Then he strained and tugged for dear life.\par

At first the brace, which was screwed on, would
not budge.\par

But finally it parted with a snap which sounded
unusually loud in the water.\par

Delbier still clung to it, and so Leo brought both
brace and drowning man to the surface together.\par

By this time a crowd of helpers and performers
had gathered.\par

“What’s the matter?”\par

“Hello! Delbier has a cramp!”\par

“See how he holds to the brace!”\par

“Leo Dunbar saved him. He tore the brace
loose!”\par

Meanwhile a doctor was sent for. He quickly
came, and after an hour’s hard work succeeded in
bringing Delbier around all right.\par

Leo’s wonderful nerve was much commented
upon.\par

“He’s a plucky chap,” said Pomeroy, the head of
the tumblers, and all agreed with him.\par

Delbier was very thankful to our hero for what
he had done for him, and from that day he was
added to Leo’s growing list of friends.\par

About this time the “Greatest Show on Earth” was
joined by a balloonist named Professor Ricardo,
and his assistant, Larry Greson. The professor
gave ascensions in the afternoon, previous to the
circus performance, and thereby attracted large
crowds.\par

Professor Ricardo was a jovial sort of fellow and
he and Leo were soon on good terms.\par

“How would you like to go up some day with
me, Dunbar?” he asked one afternoon.\par

“First-rate.”\par

“It’s a peculiar sensation when you go up for the
first time.”\par

The young gymnast smiled.\par

“It wouldn’t be my first trip,” he said. “I went
up once before—in a big hurry.”\par

And he told of his adventure while trying to
escape from Daniel Hawkins.\par

About a week after this Leo went up with the
professor, taking the place of the assistant. He
rather enjoyed the trip and was not at all afraid.\par

“I’m used to swinging around in the air, you
know,” he explained.\par

The circus was going still further west, and one
day it struck a town around which the forest fires
were raging rather extensively. On this same day
Larry Greson came to the manager of the show and
said that Professor Ricardo was sick and could not
give his customary exhibition.\par

“That’s too bad,” replied Adam Lambert. “It
has been advertised, and I hate to disappoint the
crowds.”\par

Leo heard about the trouble and presently he
volunteered to go up with Greson.\par

“I’ll do a turn or two on the bar and the country
folks won’t know the difference,” he said.\par

And so it was arranged that the young gymnast
should go up.\par

“But be mighty careful, Leo,” cautioned Barton
Reeve. “We can’t afford to lose you.”\par

At the appointed time Leo was on hand, the big
balloon was inflated, and up the monster went,
with Greson in the tiny basket and Leo clinging to
a bar beneath.\par

The wind was blowing rather strongly, and as
they shot up it increased in velocity. Before Leo
had time to make a dozen turns on the bar the
balloon had left the circus grounds far behind and
was sailing rapidly over the outskirts of the town.\par

Far ahead could be seen the burning forests.\par

It being useless to remain on the bar, Leo hastily
clambered into the basket.\par

“We had better come down,” he cried.\par

“We can’t come down fast enough,” gasped
Greson.\par

“What do you mean, Greson?”\par

“We are sailing along too fast. We’ll land right
in the center of the fire.”\par

“Then what is best to do?”\par

“Sail over it and land on the other side of the
woods.”\par

“Can we do that?”\par

“Oh, yes.”\par

“Then go ahead,” returned Leo, much relieved.
“Put some more alcohol on your sponge,” he added,
referring to the sponge which was blazing beneath
the balloon opening to keep the air hot.\par

Leo kept a sharp lookout ahead while Greson
tended to the lighted sponge.\par

They kept well up in the air.\par

It was not long before the burning forest could
be seen plainly.\par

“Gosh! but we don’t want to get down in that!”
cried Greson, with a shudder. “We would never
come out alive!”\par

“Look to your sponge!” called out the young
gymnast sharply.\par

A puff of wind had blown the flame in an opposite
direction.\par

Greson turned to comply, but at that moment the
wind took a piece of the lighted sponge from the
holder and carried it upward.\par

It caught on the balloon. There was a puff of
smoke and a tiny flame.\par

The balloon was on fire!\par

White with terror, Greson sank down on the floor
of the basket, too overcome to think or act.\par

Leo’s heart leaped into his throat.\par

They were speeding with terrible swiftness directly
toward the forest of fire.\par

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CHAPTER XXVI.—ADVENTURES AMID THE FLAMES.}

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{\noindent}
There was no escape, for the burning balloon was
going down in the very midst of the crackling forest.\par

Already the atmosphere was thick with smoke and
flaming pieces of wood and brush.\par

It was with difficulty that Leo breathed, and he
could scarcely see a dozen feet before him.\par

Larry Greson, the assistant, lay on the floor of
the basket, too frightened to move.\par

“Out with the sandbags!” cried the young gymnast.
“It is our one hope!”\par

“What’s the use? The balloon is on fire!” gasped
Greson hopelessly.\par

“We must do something—I won’t give up!” was
Leo’s response.\par

He began to cast out the heavy bags one after
the other. Greson at last consented to help him.\par

The burning balloon shot up into the air fifty or
sixty feet. But only for a few seconds.\par

Yet this space of time was enough to carry them
over the worst of the burning forest.\par

Then they began to settle again, the smoke rolling
blackly on all sides of them.\par

“We’re goners!” groaned Greson. “Good-by.”\par

Splash! What was this? Both could scarcely
believe the evidence of their senses.\par

They had dropped into the very center of a
little lake in the midst of the forest. Down they
went, with the burning balloon settling over them.
Both knew enough to leap from the basket and
dive under. It was well they did so; otherwise
they would have been caught in the folds of the
ignited monster and drowned like rats in a trap.\par

Leo took a long dive, and when he came up he
was fully fifty feet away from what was left of the
once valuable balloon, now partly above and partly
below water, and still burning and hissing.\par

“Larry, where are you?” he called out.\par

He received no reply, but a moment later perceived
his assistant puffing and blowing not a dozen
feet away.\par

“This is awful!” spluttered Greson. “We’ve
escaped from fire to be drowned.”\par

“Nonsense! Come, let us swim ashore.”\par

“How can we do that when the fire is on all
sides of the lake?” was Greson’s dismayed answer.\par

“I’ll find some spot to land, never fear,” was
Leo’s confident reply.\par

He led the way, and Greson, being a good
swimmer, easily followed.\par

The firebrands were thick about them, and often
they had to duck to get out of the way of being
burned. It was with difficulty that they could get
any fresh air.\par

To one side of the lake, which was not over three
hundred feet in diameter, Leo beheld a number of
high rocks comparatively free from burning brush.
Hither he directed his course.\par

“We can get on the rocks, if nothing else,” he
said.\par

“Yes, and have our feet blistered,” growled
Greson. “I’ll bet the stones are as hot as pepper.”\par

“We’ll try them, anyway.”\par

The young gymnast swam around with great
care before he essayed to land.\par

Presently he discovered a little cove, and further
on a split in the rocks several feet in width.\par

“Just the spot! Come,” he shouted to Greson.\par

He led the way into the narrow opening. Fifteen
feet further on was a bit of a cave, and into this
the pair crawled on hands and knees.\par

It was much cooler in the cave than it had been
outside. By lying flat on the flooring they managed
to get a current of fresh air. There was also a little
pool there, and both washed the sweat and smoke
from their faces and procured a drink. They were
exhausted, and only too glad to about lie down and
rest in their safe retreat.\par

“A narrow escape, truly,” said Leo with a shiver.\par

“We ain’t out of it yet,” returned Greson.\par

“I know that.”\par

“We may have to stay here a week, and without
food; that won’t be very pleasant.”\par

Slowly the day wore on.\par

Overhead the flames crackled and roared as if delighted
to hold sway over such an immense area of
woods.\par

Once the wind changed a bit and blew the smoke
directly down upon them. But just as they had
about made up their minds that they would have to
seek new quarters it went back, and they were molested
no more on that score.\par

Toward evening both began to feel hungry.\par

“There ought to be lots of dead birds and small
animals around,” said the young gymnast. “But
the thing is to get hold of them.”\par

“I’m not going to venture out—at least not yet,”
said Greson.\par

“All right—let’s wait till empty stomachs drive
us out.”\par

“I have an idea. The lake—it must have fish in
it.”\par

“That’s right!” cried Leo.\par

He had some line in his pocket. Soon he had
made a hook with a big bent pin.\par

In the meantime Greson dug around among some
dirt near the pool for worms. He brought out
several.\par

The line was baited, a stone put on for a sinker
and thrown into the water. Then they went back
to the cave.\par

Twice they found the line as they had left it.
But the third time something was on it. They
hauled in the catch.\par

It was a fat, spotted fish, weighing nearly two
pounds.\par

“Good!” shouted Greson. “Now to cook him.
Heaven knows there is fire enough!”\par

Half an hour later the fish was done to a turn.
They ate him with a big relish, and at once threw
out the line again, in hope of catching something
for the morning meal.\par

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CHAPTER XXVII.—ESCAPE FROM THE BURNING FOREST.}

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{\noindent}
The night passed and half of the next day.\par

The two remained in the cave, living on fish
alone.\par

It looked as if they would have to remain in the
cave a week, perhaps longer.\par

“I’m sick of it from my hair to my toes,” growled
Greson.\par

“So am I; but I am thankful we are alive,” returned
Leo grimly.\par

The noon hour passed slowly.\par

It was furiously hot.\par

“Wouldn’t you think the fire would burn itself
out, Leo?” remarked the assistant.\par

“There are a good many thousands of cords of
wood to consume, and that takes time, Larry.”\par

About the middle of the afternoon it began to
grow dark.\par

“More smoke coming this way,” announced
Greson.\par

“No, it’s clouds!”\par

“Clouds! yes, and—hark!”\par

They listened intently. A low rumble was
heard.\par

“A thunderstorm! If it only rains hard enough!”\par

The sky kept growing blacker and blacker. Then
came a flash of lightning through the smoke, and
the patter of rain.\par

As the rain came down the smoke grew thicker,
and soon it drifted into the cave, and they were all
but driven out.\par

“We can’t stand this! Let us get out!” said
Greson.\par

“No, no; wait awhile, Larry! See, the wind is
changing!”\par

The young gymnast was right. The wind
swerved around and at once the smoke left them.\par

Another hour passed, and still the rain came
down steadily. It had full effect on the burning
forest, for the fire died out in spot after spot.\par

“We’ll be able to get out by morning,” said Leo.\par

That night they thought it safe to sleep, and lay
down utterly exhausted.\par

In the morning it was still raining. All around
the lake the burned trunks of tall trees were left
standing. Every bush was reduced to ashes.\par

They had not even a compass by which to make
their course out of the forest. But this did not stop
them from departing.\par

“Here is a stream that flows from the lake,”
said Leo. “It must lead to some river or larger
lake. We will follow it for a few miles and see
where it brings us.”\par

“That’s right; keep near the water. We may
need it if the rain stops and the fire starts up again,”
replied Greson.\par

They picked their way slowly along the bank of
the brook, sometimes walking directly in the water
where the dirt and stones became too hot for their
feet.\par

“Hurrah!” cried the young gymnast at the end
of a long turn in the stream.\par

He pointed ahead. There, beyond a stretch of
prairie grass, lay a small village.\par

Evidently it had entirely escaped the ravages of
the fierce forest fire.\par

The prairie grass was burned in spots, but that
was all.\par

The village could be distinctly seen, but they
knew it was, nevertheless, several miles off.\par

One can see a long distance over a prairie, the
same as over the water.\par

The middle of the afternoon saw them safe in the
village of Rallings, footsore and weary.\par

The people were astonished to hear their tale.\par

“It’s lucky ye escaped with your lives,” said one
old inhabitant, and Leo and Larry Greson agreed
with him.\par

To keep the circus folks from worrying, Leo sent
Barton Reeve a telegram stating they were both
safe. That very day they started back to join the
“Greatest Show on Earth.”\par

When they returned it was found that Professor
Ricardo was still sick. He had another balloon,
but this would be of no use unless somebody was
found to take his place.\par

“I’ll become balloonist for awhile,” said Leo,
“that is, if you don’t ask me to go up near any
burning forests again.”\par

“That’s right,” put in Greson. “No more such
adventures for me. Besides, burning up balloons is
rather expensive.”\par

The matter was talked over, and it was decided
that for the next few weeks Leo should take the
old balloonist’s place.\par

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CHAPTER XXVIII.—THE RIVAL BALLOONISTS.}

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{\noindent}
“We’re going to have fun to-day, Leo,” said his
assistant two days later.\par

“How so, Larry?”\par

“There is a rival here.”\par

“Who?”\par

“Porler from New Orleans.”\par

“You don’t mean to say he is going to give an
exhibition here?” said the young gymnast with
much interest.\par

“So he says, and he adds that he will show up in
a way that will throw the circus exhibition away in
the shade.”\par

Leo smiled. He had heard that Porler was a
very conceited man who had been in the business
for a dozen years or more.\par

Once he had wanted to become Professor Ricardo’s
partner, but the professor refused to go into
the deal.\par

This made Porler angry with the professor and
also with the circus folks.\par

When Leo arrived at the circus lot he found that
the two balloons had been located side by side.\par

Porler was to exhibit at one o’clock, while Leo
usually went up an hour later.\par

The young gymnast cautioned Larry to be on
guard, so that no harm should come to his outfit,
and he likewise cautioned his men to keep away
from Porler’s inclosure and thus avoid trouble.\par

The backs of the two tents used by Leo and Porler
were almost together, and while Leo was in his
own, looking over his things, he heard quarreling
in the tent beyond.\par

“Oh, don’t ask me to do that, Mr. Porler!”
pleaded a boyish voice. “Anything but that!”\par

“You must do it, Mart Keene!” responded the
gruff voice of the balloonist.\par

“I can’t—really I can’t!” pleaded the boyish
voice again.\par

“You can do it and you will. My reputation is
at stake and you must go up with me and do the
fairy act.”\par

“I will fall and break my neck!”\par

“No, you won’t—not unless you get too confoundedly
nervous, which you haven’t any right to
do.”\par

“Let me do my own act,” pleaded Mart Keene,
for such was the boy’s name.\par

“No, you’ll do as I want you to. We must show
up at our best.”\par

The boy began to cry.\par

He was a street waif from New Orleans. Porler
had picked him up in the French quarter one day
and adopted him. He had promised him a good
living and some money, but he got neither. He
had often abused him, and at times made him do
acts in connection with his exhibitions which imperiled
Mart’s limbs and life. He did not care
what became of the boy, as long as he made money.\par

Porler flew into a rage when Mart started to cry.\par

“Shut up!” he cried in a low tone that was full
of passion. “Do you want the crowd outside to
hear your sniveling?’\par

“I will stop when you promise not to make me
do the fairy act,” sobbed Mart.\par

“You’ll do that act, I say, and that ends it!”
howled Porler.\par

He looked around the tent, and, espying a whip
lying near a trunk, picked it up.\par

“Do you see this?” he demanded.\par

“Oh, don’t whip me, please!”\par

“Promise to do as I wish you to or I’ll break this
whip over your bare back, you rascal!”\par

“No, no!”\par

Mart tried to shrink back from the man, but he
sprang forward and clutched him by the arm.\par

Yet the upraised whip never descended.\par

The back canvas of the tent was pushed up and
Leo appeared.\par

He caught the whip and twisted it from Porler’s
hand.\par

“You coward, let that poor boy alone!” he cried.\par

Porler was thunderstruck. He had not dreamed
of being interrupted. His face grew dark as he
whirled around and faced the young gymnast.\par

“What right have you to come in here?” he
hissed.\par

“The right any one has to save a defenseless boy
from a brute!” retorted Leo. “I want you to leave
him alone.”\par

“He is my ward.”\par

“I don’t care if he is. You evidently treat him
worse than you would a dog.”\par

“He won’t do as I order him to.”\par

“You want him to risk his neck in the fairy act,
an act that can’t be accomplished except by long
and careful training. It isn’t right.”\par

“You are jealous and afraid we are going to outdo
you,” sneered Porler.\par

Leo’s face flushed.\par

“I am not,” he said calmly. “I wish to stick up
for the lad, that is all. Leave him alone and I
won’t bother you.”\par

“Supposing I don’t choose to leave him alone?”\par

“Then I’ll make you, and not only that, I’ll go
outside and let the crowd know just how matters
stand—that you want to force him to do an act that
he can’t do, and which may cause him to lose his
life.”\par

Hardly had Leo uttered the words than, with a
muttered imprecation, Porler sprang upon him
and bore him to the ground.\par

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CHAPTER XXIX.—PORLER’S MOVE.}

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{\noindent}
Porler was angry enough to give Leo a good
beating.\par

He struck at the boy as he sent him down to the
ground, but the young gymnast avoided the blow.\par

Then Leo let out, and Porler received a blow on
the nose.\par

This brought blood, and he grew more enraged
than ever.\par

Like an eel Leo squirmed from his grasp, and
panting the two faced each other.\par

“I’ll fix you!” howled Porler.\par

He ran to his trunk to get a weapon, for he was
in his balloon costume, but suddenly stopped short.\par

“Where is he?”\par

He referred to Mart Keene, who had disappeared.\par

Fearful that the boy was running away, Porler
forgot all about Leo for the time being and ran
outside.\par

The young gymnast ran to his own tent and came
out.\par

He saw Porler looking around anxiously.\par

The lad had certainly escaped.\par

“I hope he doesn’t find him,” thought Leo.\par

Porler whispered to his assistant, a man named
Murphy, and the latter hurried off to ascertain, if
possible, what had become of Mart.\par

Then Porler re-entered his tent. The band was
playing and it was time for him to make his
ascension.\par

He delayed as long as possible, but at last the
crowd got impatient.\par

“A little hole in the balloon, that is all, gentlemen,”
said Porler. “I am ready now.”\par

He did not dare to speak of Mart for fear an
investigation would be started.\par

He came out, smiling falsely at the crowd, and
walked over to where his balloon swayed in the air.\par

At a given signal the balloon shot up with Porler
in the basket.\par

When the balloon was scarcely two hundred feet
in the air Porler got out his parachute and leaped
overboard.\par

As he came floating down he made several turns
about the double handle of the parachute.\par

The crowd applauded this, for it was something
new to them.\par

Leo saw the exhibition from a hole in the top of
his tent, and smiled to himself.\par

“There are twenty balloonists in the United
States who can do as good as that, and better,” he
thought.\par

Porler had expected to make Mart go up with
him.\par

The boy was to leave the balloon with him on the
parachute, and then, when within fifty feet of the
ground, fly away by himself on an immense pair of
white wings filled with gas.\par

The band continued to play after Porler landed.\par

“Now for the circus balloonist!” was the cry.\par

A flourish from the band and Leo came running
out.\par

He was dressed in a suit of white and gold. The
gold sparkled in the sunshine and made a beautiful
appearance, quite in contrast to Porler’s dirty costume
of plain white and red.\par

“Let go!”\par

Up shot the circus balloon with a rush.\par

There was Leo, not in a basket, but clinging to a
slender trapeze. A shout of approval arose.\par

Up and up went the balloon until it became to the
human eye about as large as a dinner plate.\par

The young gymnast was making a great ascension.\par

As he went up he began to perform on the
trapeze. He turned over and over and hung by his
toes.\par

The crowd could scarcely believe its eyes. Porler
was completely outdone.\par

At last both balloon and balloonist passed out of
sight of those on the fair grounds.\par

Leo landed in a field several miles from the city.\par

He hired the farmers who came out to see what
was the matter to help him pack up the balloon.\par

About an hour later Greson came along and the
outfit was packed on a wagon and carted back to
the circus grounds. When Leo came in for supper
he found a note awaiting him.\par

It was from Mart Keene and ran like this:\par

{\advance\leftskip\parindentamount{}\advance\rightskip\parindentamount{}
\vs{1}
{\noindent}
“{\scshape{Dear Mr. Dunbar}}: I must thank you for your
bravery and great kindness to me. I am alone in
the world and need a friend. If you will help me,
kindly call at the address given on the inclosed
card.”\par}

\vs{1}
{\noindent}
The young gymnast looked at the card. It bore
the address of a boarding-house on a side avenue
half a dozen blocks from the grounds.\par

He at once departed for the place.\par

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CHAPTER XXX.—MART KEENE’S STORY.}

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{\noindent}
It did not take Leo long to reach the boarding-house
advertised on the card.\par

“I wish to see Mart Keene,” he said to the lady
who answered his summons.\par

“Oh, yes; please walk into the parlor.”\par

In a few minutes the lad came in.\par

He wore an old suit, one he had caught up when
escaping from Porler. He blushed as he took Leo’s
hand.\par

“You will have to excuse my appearance,” he
said. “But you are aware it cannot be helped.”\par

“Yes, Mart, I understand it all. I am glad you
escaped from Porler.”\par

“I must thank you for what you did for me,”
went on Mart. “You are as brave as you are
daring.”\par

“Don’t mention that, Mart. It was a pleasure
to be of service to you. Let me know how I can
serve you further.”\par

There was a silence, and the lad cast down his
eyes.\par

“I must be frank with you,” he said at last. “I
am without a friend in the world and likewise without
a dollar.”\par

The young gymnast smiled faintly.\par

“My boy, allow me to contradict you,” he said.
“Neither statement is true. I am your friend.”\par

The boy’s face lit up.\par

“I thought you would be my friend, you seemed
so generous. And I wanted a small loan, so that I
might get away from Mr. Porler. I never want to
see that man again.”\par

“As I said before, what I have is at your
service.”\par

“Will you loan me ten dollars?”\par

“Yes, and more. Here are twenty dollars. Accept
them as a loan, to be paid back at any time
that suits you.”\par

And Leo handed out the amount.\par

Mart blushed as he accepted the bills.\par

“I shall never forget you, never!” he murmured,
and put the money away. “I will repay you as
soon as I am able.”\par

“Be in no hurry. What are you going to do, if I
may ask?”\par

“I am going to try to hunt up an uncle of mine,”
said Mart. “If I can only find him, I think he will
give me a home. If I am not mistaken, he is holding
some property which belongs to me.”\par

“Where does your uncle live?” questioned Leo
with interest.\par

“That I do not know. I will have to advertise
for information, I presume.”\par

“Up-hill work, that. What is your uncle’s
name?”\par

“Daniel Hawkins.”\par

“Daniel Hawkins,” repeated Leo, leaping to his
feet in astonishment.\par

“Yes. Why, you act as if you knew him,” returned
Mart.\par

“Know him? Well, I rather guess I do,” returned
the young gymnast bitterly.\par

“Oh, I am so glad!”\par

“And I’m sorry.”\par

“Sorry? Why?”\par

“You need expect nothing from your uncle,
Mart.”\par

“Oh, don’t say that!” and the boy grew pale.\par

“I might as well be plain with you, even if it
does hurt. There is no use in building up false
hopes.”\par

“You must know my uncle well.”\par

“I worked for him for a long while—he acted as
if he owned me. He is a miserable skinflint, nothing
less. If you go to him he will work you to
death and treat you worse than a slave. He never
lets up on anybody, not even his own relations.”\par

And then and there Leo sat down again and told
his story—how he had slaved for the farmer and
run away and become a professional circus performer.\par

Mart listened with interest, his face growing
paler as he proceeded.\par

“You are right; I have nothing to expect from
him, even though he was my mother’s own half-brother.”\par

“Won’t you tell me your story?” asked Leo.\par

“Willingly, if you care to listen to it.”\par

And then Mart told how he had been an orphan
for ten years. His father had been an actor and
his mother a comic-opera singer.\par

“The Hawkinses never had much to do with us
after mother went on the stage,” he said. “That is
how I lost track of my uncle.”\par

Then he told of his mother’s death in New
Orleans and how he had been cast out on the streets
by an old woman with whom they boarded. He had
danced down in the French quarter, and there
Porler had picked him up.\par

“He promised me so many things that I went
with him willingly,” he said. “But it was a great
mistake.”\par

The two talked matters over for a long while—until
nearly midnight—and then Leo made a proposition.\par

“I am sure you will not find living with Daniel
Hawkins agreeable,” he said. “So I am going to
make you an offer. If you wish to travel with the
circus I will try to arrange it for you. I think I
can get you a place at eight or ten dollars a week
to go up in the balloon with me.”\par

“Thank you; I’d like that,” replied Mart Keene.\par

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CHAPTER XXXI.—A FALL FROM THE CLOUDS.}

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{\noindent}
The next day Leo lost no time in interviewing
Adam Lambert concerning Mart.\par

“He is clever and will in time make a good acrobat
and balloonist,” he said.\par

The matter was talked over, and that afternoon
Mart joined the “Greatest Show on Earth” on trial.
He was to assist Leo in the balloon, Larry Greson
having now to spend much of his time with Professor
Ricardo, who was worse in health.\par

A week later found the circus in Denver. In the
meantime nothing had been heard of Porler, but one
night Leo came face to face with him.\par

The balloonist scowled and was about to speak,
but suddenly changed his mind and walked away.\par

“You must be on guard against that man,” said
Leo to Mart.\par

“I will be,” was the reply.\par

The ascension from the circus grounds in Denver
attracted great attention.\par

When the time came for the balloon to go up Leo
and Mart entered the basket.\par

Up and up went the great monster, gayly decorated
on every side.\par

Below hung several swinging bars and a rope
ladder.\par

Mart began to perform on the ladder, while the
young gymnast leaped from one trapeze to another.\par

It was a marvelous sight, and the crowd went
wild with enthusiasm.\par

But suddenly, when the balloon was well up over
the buildings near by, a cry of horror arose.\par

A man was seen to lean out of a window not far
away.\par

He held a rifle in his hand, and the weapon was
pointed at the balloon.\par

Crack!\par

The weapon spoke and the ball pierced the
silken sides of the floating monster.\par

Leo heard the sound of the rifle and he at once
felt that something was wrong.\par

Suddenly Mart Keene gave a cry of terror.\par

“Oh, Mr. Dunbar, look out. There is a man in
one of the buildings who is aiming a gun at the
balloon!”\par

Crack!\par

The rifle spoke again, and the people, looking
upward, saw Leo make a leap.\par

The trapeze had been struck.\par

Leo had leaped to where hung his parachute.\par

He caught it with his left hand.\par

Down he came, the parachute in his grasp.\par

The catch gave way and out shot the ribs of the
parachute, and the young gymnast’s headlong flight
to earth was stayed.\par

A cheer went up.\par

“He is safe!”\par

The crowd gathered around to where Leo had
reached the earth, in the center of a field of grass.\par

“He was struck!”\par

“Is he badly hurt?”\par

The youth lay unconscious on the grass, his face
as pale as a sheet.\par

A few thought him dead, and the report that he
had been killed quickly circulated.\par

The police ran into the building in search of the
rascal who had done the firing, but could not find
their man.\par

Taking advantage of the excitement, Porler, for
it was he, had left the grounds as fast as possible.\par

He knew that if caught the crowd might be incensed
enough to lynch him on the spot.\par

Luckily two physicians were present, and both
hurried to Leo’s side.\par

It was found that he was suffering quite a little
from his fall.\par

An ambulance was summoned, and the young
gymnast was conveyed to a hospital.\par

Here he was given every attention, and by the
following morning he felt nearly as well as ever,
although his breast was still sore and had to be kept
tightly bandaged.\par

In the meanwhile the balloon had sailed away
from the fair grounds with Mart clinging to the
ropes.\par

The boy was terribly frightened over what had
occurred.\par

He became faint and felt for a minute that he
must fall from his lofty perch.\par

But he recovered and held fast, and thus the
balloon drifted far away.\par

He imagined the man who had fired the shots
was Porler, but was not certain.\par

On and on went the balloon over the city, and
then across a wide stretch of farming land.\par

Finally it began to settle in a neighborhood full
of brush and trees.\par

Mart looked out anxiously, and it was with much
satisfaction that he saw the balloon was about to
fall in a cleared spot, where no damage would come
to it, and from which he could easily escape.\par

Down and down came the monster, until it
touched the ground as lightly as would a drifting
feather.\par

The lad leaped away to escape the great mass of
falling silk and ropes. Soon the balloon lay a flat
mass where it had struck.\par

Mart wondered if it would be safe to leave the
thing until some one came for it.\par

Usually Greson attended to such matters, but
now he might have his hands full with Leo Dunbar.\par

As Mart thought of Leo his eyes filled with
tears.\par

He thought a good deal of his champion.\par

He was the first person in the world who had
really befriended him.\par

“Oh, I hope he isn’t seriously hurt!” he murmured
to himself.\par

While he stood by the fallen balloon wondering
what was best to do he heard the sound of wagon
wheels.\par

They came from a country road a few hundred
feet to his right.\par

“It must be Greson or one of the others coming
for the balloon,” he said to himself.\par

The wagon came to a stop, and he ran forward to
meet the newcomer that he might inquire about
Leo.\par

Then of a sudden his heart seemed to stop beating.\par

The man approaching from the wagon was
Porler!\par

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CHAPTER XXXII.—MART A PRISONER.}

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{\noindent}
Mart was nearly dumfounded.\par

It was so unexpected, this meeting, that he was
almost too paralyzed to move.\par

He gave a faint cry of alarm. Porler heard it
and looked in his direction.\par

“Ah, so there you are!” he sang out. “I thought
I would find you somewhere in the vicinity!”\par

He ran toward the lad.\par

Instinctively Mart turned to flee.\par

“Stop!” he cried. And he made after the boy
at a greater speed.\par

Mart did not answer him, but ran the faster.\par

But the boy was no match for the old balloonist,
who in his day had been a swift runner.\par

He kept gaining on Mart, and seeing this, the
lad ran toward a clump of bushes.\par

Mart dived into the midst of these, and thus
managed to get out of his sight.\par

“You can’t escape me,” cried Porler in a rage.
“You might as well stop right where you are.”\par

Mart made no reply, but kept on.\par

Presently he came to a tall tree.\par

This gave him an idea. Mart could climb like a
monkey, and up the tree he went with great speed.\par

When Porler reached the spot he was out of
sight, and the old balloonist went on.\par

“Oh, how I hope he will go far enough away,”
said Mart to himself.\par

Soon he could hear no more of Porler.\par

Thinking him gone, he cautiously descended the
tree.\par

Barely had his feet touched the ground than he
felt a rough hand on his shoulder.\par

“I thought you were here,” cried the old balloonist
in his harsh tone. “You can’t get away from
me now, Mart Keene.”\par

“Let me go!” he panted. “Don’t you dare
touch me!”\par

“Touch you? Well, I guess that’s cool. As if
you didn’t belong to me!”\par

“I don’t belong to you. You haven’t the first
claim on me.”\par

“We’ll see about that. Didn’t I take you out of
the street and feed and clothe you, and——”\par

“Made me work like a horse to pay for it,”
finished the boy. “You have got more out of me
than I ever cost you, ten times over, so there!”\par

“You’ll come along with me—willingly or unwillingly,”
growled Porler. “Give me your
hand.”\par

He tried to catch hold of Mart. He snatched his
arm away.\par

Filled with rage, he struck the lad a cruel blow
full in the face.\par

It staggered Mart, and he nearly went to the
ground.\par

Then he picked Mart up and put him over his
shoulder.\par

At once the boy began to scream for help.\par

“Shut up!” growled Porler.\par

For reply Mart screamed louder.\par

Then Porler threw him down, poured some
chloroform he had in a bottle on his handkerchief
and applied it to Mart’s nose.\par

The boy struggled vainly for a few minutes and
then became limp in his arms.\par

“Ah, that did the business,” Porler murmured to
himself. “Glad I brought the chloroform along.”\par

He took Mart to his carriage and placed him
inside, covering him with several robes.\par

When Mart came to his senses he found himself
in a little room. The door was locked and the one
window was nailed up tightly. He was a close
prisoner.\par

The boy had been placed on a cot in the corner,
and now sat up and gazed around in bewilderment.\par

“Where am I?” he thought.\par

Then the full realization of what had happened
burst upon the boy, and he gave way to tears.\par

“That bad man! What does he intend to do
with me?”\par

Hour after hour went by and no one came to
Mart.\par

There was a pitcher of water in the room and a
loaf of bread, both on a stand close at hand.\par

He drank some of the water, but could not eat.\par

He knew it was night. Slowly the hours dragged
by until morning.\par

Not long after this the door was unlocked and
Porler came into the room.\par

“Awake, are you?” he said. “Hope you slept
well.”\par

“You monster!” Mart cried. “What are you
going to do with me?”\par

“I’ll tell you. I am going to make you promise
on your bended knees that you will travel with me
as you used to do, and obey all my commands.”\par

“I’ll never promise anything like that,” exclaimed
Mart, recoiling with horror.\par

“You will, or else—” The old balloonist paused.\par

“Or else what?”\par

“I will keep you here, and starve you into submission.”\par

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CHAPTER XXXIII.—LEO TO THE RESCUE.}

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{\noindent}
Leo’s first care, after leaving the hospital, was to
ask about Mart.\par

He was astonished to learn at the hotel at which
the party was stopping that nothing had been
seen of the lad since the balloon had left the exhibition
grounds.\par

Greson had gone for the balloon late the day
before.\par

“Found the balloon all right, but didn’t see a
single trace of the boy,” said the assistant.\par

“That is queer,” mused Leo. “Can it be that he
tumbled down in some out-of-the-way place and was
killed?”\par

He at once learned the course the balloon had
taken, and then got a buggy and horse and went
over every inch of the ground.\par

A little later he found himself at the spot where
the balloon had come down.\par

He walked around in much perplexity.\par

If Mart had escaped injury, where was he?\par

“All this must be Porler’s work,” said the young
gymnast to himself. “I would just like to come
across that man.”\par

Satisfied that nothing was to be gained by remaining
near the woods, Leo started back to the
road.\par

In doing this he came across the bottle which had
contained the chloroform Porler had used.\par

He picked up the bottle and smelled of what
remained in it.\par

“My gracious!”\par

Like a flash the truth burst upon him.\par

“It’s that rascal’s work! He fired on me, and
then came out here after Mart. He has abducted
the boy!”\par

As we know, Leo was partly right and partly
wrong.\par

The young gymnast realized that if he was to act
he must do so without delay.\par

It made him very angry to think of the young
lad being in the old balloonist’s power.\par

That he would ill-use Mart he felt certain.\par

From where he had found the bottle Leo traced
Porler’s footsteps to the carriage.\par

The marks of the carriage wheels were still fresh
and they ran straight into the city.\par

On the pavements they were, of course, lost.\par

Leo was in a quandary.\par

He told Greson of what he had discovered, and
then both of them began a systematic search for
Mart.\par

Greson started from where the carriage had
entered the city.\par

The young gymnast went to the exhibition
grounds and attempted to trace up the man who
had fired the shots at the balloon.\par

From one and another the young gymnast was
able to trace up Porler to a third-rate boarding-house
on one of the side streets.\par

He was about to enter the place when he saw a
fellow named Danny Murphy, who was Porler’s
assistant, leaving in a great hurry.\par

“Perhaps he is going to join Porler at some place
where Mart is being kept,” said Leo to himself.
“I’ll follow him.”\par

And follow Murphy he did.\par

All unconscious of being watched, Porler’s tool
walked half a dozen blocks until he came to the
residence in which Mart was kept a close prisoner.
He walked around to the rear through an alleyway.\par

Close behind him, Leo heard him give a peculiar
knock on the door.\par

A moment passed and Murphy was admitted.
The back door was locked and bolted after him.\par

When the door had been opened Leo had caught
a momentary glimpse of Porler’s face.\par

“That settles it,” he thought. “Mart is kept a
prisoner right here.”\par

Leo had armed himself, and now he walked to
one of the kitchen windows.\par

He opened the blinds. The window itself was
locked, but bringing out his pocketknife he shoved
back the catch.\par

Another moment and the lower sash was raised
and the young gymnast leaped into the house.\par

He did not care if his enemies were present. He
was prepared to fight, if need be.\par

But, as he surmised, the lower floor of the residence
was deserted.\par

With cautious steps Leo left the kitchen and
walked toward the stairs leading to the next floor.\par

As he did so he heard the murmur of voices from
above.\par

He went up and listened with strained ears.\par

“Mr. Porler, starve me or not, I will never do as
you wish.”\par

It was Mart who was speaking.\par

“And I say you will do so,” growled Porler.\par

“That’s right,” put in Murphy. “Make the boy
toe the mark.”\par

“I will not only starve you,” went on Porler,
“but I will give you a taste of your old friend, the
strap.”\par

“You will not dare to touch me!” exclaimed the
lad.\par

“Wait and see.”\par

“My friend, Mr. Dunbar, will have the law on
you for it.”\par

“Dunbar will never help you again.”\par

“I think he will.”\par

The voice came from the doorway, and the three
in the room found themselves confronted by Leo.\par

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CHAPTER XXXIV.—THE END OF PORLER.}

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{\noindent}
Porler and Murphy were taken completely by
surprise when confronted by Leo.\par

On seeing the young gymnast, Mart gave a cry
of joy.\par

“Oh, thank Heaven you have come!”\par

“Get into the corner, boy!” howled Porler.\par

“Don’t you speak to him again,” said Leo
sharply. “He is no longer your prisoner.”\par

“Ain’t he? We’ll soon see about that.”\par

As Porler spoke he advanced upon Leo.\par

But when the young gymnast brought his
weapon up within range of the rascal’s head the
latter quickly recoiled.\par

“You see, Porler, I am armed.”\par

Murphy, who was completely dumfounded to see
Leo, now came forward.\par

“We are two to one, young feller,” he said warningly.
“Yer better go slow.”\par

“I know my own business,” was Leo’s quiet
reply. “Mart!”\par

“Well?”\par

“Will you go down and summon help?”\par

“But you are alone——”\par

“Never mind. Get a policeman, or somebody
else. I am going to have these rascals arrested.”\par

“Not much!” howled Porler.\par

“Let’s down him?” yelled Murphy.\par

“Back! both of you!”\par

The two men, however, ran forward, dodging
behind Mart as they came on, and closed in on him.\par

It was an unequal fight.\par

But Leo fought well, and the boy was not idle.\par

Mart caught up a chair, and raising it over his
head brought it down on Porler’s back.\par

“Oh! oh! you have broken my back!” yelled
the old balloonist.\par

Scarcely had he spoken when Leo tripped him up.\par

But now Murphy leaped on the young gymnast,
and the pair rolled over on the floor.\par

He was in a high rage, and he meant to do Leo a
serious injury if such a thing was possible.\par

In the meanwhile Porler arose and pushed Mart
from him.\par

“Help! help!” cried Mart.\par

He ran out of the room and into the next, the
window of which was not fastened, and opening
the window continued to cry out.\par

Then of a sudden he saw a sight that gladdened
his heart.\par

Larry Greson was in sight.\par

He had followed up the trail from the other end.\par

“Hurry! hurry!” screamed Mart.\par

“Mart!” burst out Greson.\par

“Come up and help Mr. Dunbar!”\par

“Who is in there?”\par

“Porler and Murphy!”\par

Greson ran up on the piazza of the house, and at
the same time Mart flew below to let him in.\par

“Confound the luck!” howled Porler, who had
heard Mart speaking to Greson.\par

“The neighborhood will be in alarm,” added
Murphy.\par

Both men leaped to their feet.\par

Greson was mounting the stairs three steps at a
time, and close behind him came Mart.\par

The two rascals thought a crowd was advancing
to capture them.\par

Dodging Leo, who gave each a heavy blow as he
passed, the two villains rushed out into the
hallway.\par

Porler was too quick for Greson, but Murphy
was tripped up.\par

Before he could arise Leo and his assistant had
the fellow a prisoner.\par

They bound him so that he could not escape.\par

Then they went after Hank Porler, but he could
not be found.\par

He had dropped out of a rear window on to a shed
and disappeared.\par

In the meantime a policeman arrived.\par

When he heard the particulars of the affair he
willingly took Murphy into custody, and later on
the man was sent to jail.\par

Steps were taken to attach Porler’s balloons and
other property, but it was found he had sold all his
things.\par

“He knew he was taking big chances when he
went into that underhanded work,” laughed Greson.\par

“Oh, I trust I shall never see that man again,”
said Mart, with a shudder.\par

Strange to say, the boy’s wish was gratified.
Fearful of prosecution, Porler fled to South America,
and that was the last heard of him.\par

Leo and Mart rejoined the circus at a place called
Wheatlands, and their friends were heartily glad to
see them back, safe and sound.\par

There was news for both. Professor Ricardo
was much better, and on the week following was to
return to work. This would put Leo back among
the acrobats again, and for this the young gymnast
was not sorry.\par

He did not forget to put in a good word for Mart
to Professor Ricardo, and consequently the boy remained
in his old place, and Larry Greson was
given a situation among the menagerie men, something
which suited him better than did ballooning.\par

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CHAPTER XXXV.—A COWARDLY ATTACK.}

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{\noindent}
In the meantime it must not be supposed that
Hank Griswold had forgotten his compact with
Nathan Dobb.\par

The man had been anxious to put his plot against
Leo into operation at once, but Providence willed
otherwise. Griswold was taken down with rheumatism
and for several months could scarcely walk.\par

But now he was better, and one day started west
to earn the money the squire of Hopsville had
promised him.\par

As has been related, Delbier, the expert swimmer,
and Leo had become warm friends. One morning
the performer called Leo aside.\par

“Say, Leo, have you any enemies besides that
Porler?” he asked.\par

“I don’t know but what I have,” laughed the
young gymnast.\par

“Don’t laugh; I am serious.”\par

“Why, what’s up?”\par

“For the past two days I have noticed an ugly-looking
man hanging around, watching you,” went
on Delbier earnestly.\par

“Watching me?”\par

“Yes, and if I’m not mistaken, he follows you
wherever you go.”\par

“What kind of a looking man?”\par

As well as he could, Delbier described the individual.
But Leo was not thinking of Hank Griswold—indeed,
he hardly knew the man—and he
shook his head.\par

“You must imagine it, Delbier.”\par

“I guess not. Better be on your guard.”\par

“All right,” and Leo laughed.\par

When in the country Leo had grown tired of the
quietness, but now when every day brought fresh
bustle and confusion he was glad enough to escape
the crowd and go for a quiet walk.\par

His course took him along a country road which
presently followed the bank of a mountain stream.\par

It was a clear stream and full of fish, and Leo
much regretted not having brought along a line and
hook.\par

He wandered on and on until the town was left a
good two miles behind.\par

Then he sat down on a rock overlooking the
stream to rest.\par

As he did so he fancied he saw somebody following
him.\par

The individual drew behind some bushes.\par

Leo at once thought of what Delbier had said.\par

He resolved to be on his guard, and so kept his
eyes open.\par

But nearly half an hour went by, and as no one
appeared Leo began to think he was mistaken.\par

A little later the boy started across an open field
not far from the brook.\par

Then from out of the bushes crawled a man. It
was Hank Griswold.\par

Cautiously he came behind Leo.\par

Presently our hero soon stumbled across the
opening to an old well.\par

“Hullo, this is dangerous!” he murmured. “It
ought to be closed.”\par

A footstep sounded near at hand. He turned,
and on the instant received a shove that hurled him
backward into the opening!\par

For the minute Leo felt that his end must be at
hand.\par

Down he went into the dark and deep well, with
the dirt and brush on top of him.\par

Had he fallen to the rocky bottom he would most
certainly have been killed.\par

But, fortunately, when less than ten feet had
been passed, his clothing caught on some projecting
rocks.\par

Instantly he grasped the rocks with his hands.\par

The dirt, falling on him, nearly choked him.\par

He steadied himself with difficulty and managed
to kick himself clear from what was above.\par

The dirt and brush sliding past him, he felt safer,
although his position was still an extremely perilous
one.\par

He looked up and saw the evil face of Hank
Griswold peering down into the well.\par

It was too dark for the villain to see the boy,
and the young gymnast remained perfectly quiet.\par

Griswold heard the dirt strike the bottom of the
well with a loud sound.\par

He laughed softly to himself.\par

“Done for that trip!” he muttered to himself.
“Good enough!”\par

Hank Griswold waited for a few minutes, and
then, apparently satisfied, hurried off.\par

As soon as he disappeared Leo looked about for
some means by which to get out of his present
position.\par

To an ordinary individual this would have been an impossible undertaking,
for the sides of the well were very slippery.\par

Leo’s gymnastic training now stood him in good
stead.\par

Cautiously he made his way from rock to rock,
taking chances more than once that would have
made many a boy shudder, grow dizzy and fall.\par

At last the top of the well was reached once
more.\par

Griswold had disappeared, but he resolved to follow
the man’s trail, if the thing could be done.\par

“Ought to have one of our Indians along,” he
thought. There were sixteen of the redmen traveling
with the “Greatest Show on Earth.”\par

But the path through the brush was plain enough.
It led to the road which Leo had originally pursued
when coming out for a walk.\par

When our hero reached the road he saw an old
farmer driving along. Evidently the old man was
just coming from town.\par

“Hold on, sir, I want to talk to you!” cried Leo.\par

“What’s the matter?” asked the farmer, surveying
our hero’s torn and muddy clothing in curiosity.\par

“Did you meet a man on his way to town—a
man with a queer walk?”\par

“I did.”\par

“Take me to that man and I’ll give you a five
dollar bill.”\par

The old farmer was greatly astonished.\par

“Who be you?” he questioned cautiously.\par

Leo told him.\par

The farmer at once agreed to run down Hank
Griswold, if it could be done.\par

Leo jumped into the wagon and off they went.\par

The chase, however, was a useless one. Griswold
had taken to a side road and could not be found.\par

“But I’ll catch him some day,” said Leo to Carl,
“and then I’ll make him tell why he attacked me.”\par

“Perhaps he was hired to do it,” ventured the
young magician.\par

“That is what I think,” returned Leo, with a
grave shake of his head.\par

Carl was doing very well. He had several new
tricks, some of which he thought would please the
children. One was called “Milk or Water,” and
was brought out the day after Leo had the adventure
just described.\par

“I will now show you how easy it is to change
water into milk,” said the young magician as he
mounted the platform in the circus ring. “Will
some one kindly hand me a glass of water? I have
the milk here,” and he took up a small pitcher and
passed it around for inspection.\par

The glass of water was brought and he placed it
on the table and covered it with a handkerchief.
Then he tapped the glass and also the pitcher.\par

Removing the handkerchief, he held up the glass.
Sure enough, there was the white milk, as plain as
day. Taking up the pitcher, Carl turned it upside
down to show it was empty.\par

“Now we’ll change them back,” he said. Another
tap, and lo! the glass was full of water and
the milk was in the pitcher again.\par

A burst of applause followed.\par

This trick was simplicity itself. The pitcher
really had milk in it, and the glass was full of
water all the time.\par

When Carl covered the glass with a handkerchief
he slipped into the water a bit of white cardboard,
which standing upright made the water look like
milk.\par

While the audience were inspecting the glass as
he held it up he pressed over the top of the pitcher,
inside, a circular card which exactly fitted the opening.
This enabled him to turn the pitcher over for
a second without spilling any milk.\par

To turn the milk in the glass to water again, he
had but to remove the card. The card in the
pitcher was also removed as the receptacle was handed
around for inspection after the trick was done.\par

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CHAPTER XXXVI.—ON THE ELEVATED TRACKS.}

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{\noindent}
Ten days later the circus reached the great lakes
and settled in Chicago for a week.\par

On the following day Leo was strolling down
State Street when, happening to glance up, he saw
Hank Griswold coming from a building with a large
letter in his hand.\par

As quick as a flash he made after the man.\par

Leo was almost up to Griswold when the latter
saw him coming and started up the street on a run.\par

Coming to a side street, he turned up that thoroughfare
and continued on his way for a dozen
blocks or more.\par

Leo tried to keep him in sight, but was unsuccessful,
and after a search lasting half an hour he
mounted to the elevated road, to take a train to
Jackson Park.\par

As he went up he did not imagine that Hank
Griswold was watching him.\par

There was a crowd at the station, and this kept
increasing, as the train was late.\par

Leo stood close to the edge of the platform. Just
in front and below him were the glistening tracks.\par

With a rumble the train came in sight.\par

When it was but a few yards away the young
gymnast felt a sudden shove from behind.\par

He lost his balance and fell from the platform
directly in front of the oncoming locomotive.\par

To the onlookers it seemed that the boy must
surely be killed.\par

He rolled fairly and squarely upon the railroad
tracks, and the oncoming locomotive was barely a
dozen feet from him.\par

The engineer, who was preparing to stop, jerked
the lever to come to an instantaneous halt, but it
was of no avail.\par

On and on rolled the heavy engine, with its long
train of cars.\par

“The boy will be killed!”\par

“Oh! oh! Isn’t that awful!”\par

Many turned away, unable to endure the awful
sight.\par

But the crowd made one mistake.\par

They did not know that Leo, as an acrobat, was
used to making lightning-like movements whenever
necessary.\par

His profession now stood him in good stead.\par

As he came down he had no chance to use his
feet.\par

But his hands and arms were ready, and like a
flash he turned a handspring and swept out of the
way just as the ponderous locomotive rolled past.\par

The monster brushed his left leg, but he was unharmed,
and in a second more had reached the
platform on the opposite side of the street.\par

Although attacked so unexpectedly, Leo did not
lose his presence of mind.\par

“That was that rascal’s work!” he muttered to
himself.\par

Reasoning that the man would try to escape from
the scene, the young gymnast rushed down the
stairs into the street.\par

He was right; for scarcely was the pavement
touched than he beheld Griswold on the opposite
side walking along at a rapid gait.\par

“Stop!”\par

Griswold looked around in horror. His intended
victim was not dead! In abject fear he took to his
heels as though Leo’s ghost was on his track.\par

Up one side street and down another dashed man
and boy, until, coming to an avenue, the man
boarded a street car and was lost to view.\par

“The villain!” muttered Leo, as he slowed up to
catch his breath. “I must be on my guard in the
future.”\par

He hunted around and brushed up his clothes.
Then, as there seemed nothing else to do, he walked
to where he had left his friends.\par

Here he told his story to Carl, who listened in
amazement.\par

“He is certainly after your life,” said Carl. “In
the future you ought to go armed.”\par

“I wonder if he can be hired by any one in Hopsville?”
mused Leo.\par

“That remains to be seen.”\par

“I’m going to capture him the next time we
meet,” concluded Leo, with a determined look in his
outspoken face.\par

Mart also heard about the attack and came to
Leo full of fear.\par

“Oh, Leo, do be careful in the future,” he
pleaded. “What if that bad man should take your
life!”\par

Two days passed, and as the young gymnast
neither saw nor heard of Griswold, he began again
to feel a bit easier in mind.\par

But one afternoon, while walking in the vicinity
of the lake, Leo’s attention was attracted to a
small steam tug which was tying up at a wharf.\par

“Look! look!” he shouted to Carl, who was with
him. “It is Griswold, and Broxton, who was discharged
from the circus for drunkenness, is with
him.”\par

“Shall I call a policeman?”\par

“Yes. I’ll watch them.”\par

Carl hurried off. Ere he had taken a dozen steps
Griswold caught sight of Leo and whispered something
the young gymnast could not catch.\par

Both rascals were on the point of leaving the
steam tug, but now they changed their minds and
ordered the captain to cut loose and move on.\par

“Stop!” called out Leo, and ran to the edge of
the wharf.\par

“Go to thunder!” muttered Broxton.\par

“We’re not to be caught to-day,” added Hank
Griswold.\par

In another second the steam tug was clear of the
stringpiece of the wharf.\par

Leo hesitated not a moment, but, taking a flying
leap, landed on her forward deck. With angry yells
Griswold and Broxton rushed on him.\par

“We’ve got him now!” said the former. “Down
the lake with you, captain, and be quick!”\par

“Stop the tug, those men are criminals,” said
Leo.\par

The tug captain paid no attention. He was in
the pay of the other men.\par

Griswold had a stick in his hand, and now he
aimed a savage blow at Leo’s head.\par

The young gymnast warded it off as well as he
was able, but he was no match for both men, and
soon they had him down.\par

“A rope!” roared Griswold, and when it was
brought he and Broxton and one of the tug hands
proceeded to bind Leo’s hands and feet.\par

This accomplished, the young gymnast was thrown
into a dark locker. The door was shut and locked
upon him, and the tug proceeded on her way at full
steam.\par

\penalty-300%
\label{chapter-xxxvii-the-capture-of-griswold}%
\hypertarget{chapter-xxxvii-the-capture-of-griswold}{}%
\vspace*{50pt}\thispagestyle{empty}
{\noindent\interlinepenalty \@M\normalfont\Huge\bfseries%
CHAPTER XXXVII.—THE CAPTURE OF GRISWOLD.}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
“What will you do with him?”\par

It was Broxton who asked the question.\par

He and Griswold, with whom he had struck up an
acquaintanceship by accident, sat in the little cabin
of the steam tug which was flying down Lake
Michigan at her utmost speed.\par

The rascally fellow referred of course to Leo, who
still lay bound in the dark locker.\par

“I’ve got a good mind to tie a weight to his neck
and heave him overboard,” growled Griswold.\par

“It won’t do to let him go free, that’s certain.
He would have us both locked up at the first
chance.”\par

“Certainly.”\par

“Who was with him on the wharf?”\par

“I don’t know.”\par

The two rascals talked the matter over for some
time, but could come to no conclusion regarding the
young gymnast.\par

They wished to get him out of the way, but
hardly dared to undertake such a high-handed
proceeding before the captain and crew of the tug.\par

“I have it,” said Griswold, half an hour later.
“See that town over there?”\par

“Yes.”\par

“Let us tie up there. I’ll go ashore and hire a
close coach and drive it myself. We can take him
inside and——”\par

He did not finish, but his half-drunken companion
understood.\par

Their victim should never get away from them
alive.\par

The tug captain was given orders, and soon a
landing was approached.\par

After tying up Hank Griswold hurried ashore.
He procured a coach with difficulty, and it was some
time before he appeared on the box, whip in hand.\par

Then the two men went to the locker, intending
to drag Leo forth, gag him, and roll him up as
though he were a bundle of clothes.\par

“Gone!” burst from Griswold’s lips.\par

He spoke the truth. The locker was empty.\par

“How did he manage it?” queried Broxton, in
deep perplexity.\par

Griswold looked dumfounded for a moment.
Then he grated his teeth in rage.\par

“Fools that we are!” he shouted. “To forget
that he is a gymnast. Why, he must have freed
himself within a minute after we locked him in.”\par

“By thunder! that’s so. But how did he get out
of the locker?”\par

“I don’t know.”\par

“The door was locked, wasn’t it?”\par

“Yes.”\par

An examination followed, but the two men could
not solve the mystery connected with Leo’s escape.\par

We will let our reader into the secret.\par

As Griswold said, the boy slipped from his bonds
with ease.\par

This done, he lit a match he had in his pocket and
began an examination of his cramped prison.\par

The sides of the locker were solid, but in the
flooring a board was loose, and he pulled it up.\par

Underneath was a small opening and into this
he crawled. The board was put in place again, and
finding a nail, Leo succeeded in fastening it.\par

Crawling around in the dark and wet the young
gymnast soon came to an opening leading up near
the engine-room of the tug.\par

He came up, and finding a sheltering nook proceeded
to secrete himself.\par

He could easily have dropped overboard and
swum ashore, but by so doing he would have lost
track of the rascals he had determined to bring to
justice.\par

After leaving the locker Griswold and Broxton
made an examination of the tug from end to end.\par

Several times they came close to where Leo was
lying, and he fairly held his breath until they
passed on.\par

At last the two rascals gave up the hunt in
disgust.\par

“He has slipped us,” said Broxton. “Better return
that coach and move on.”\par

This was done and soon the steam tug was ten
miles away.\par

A landing was made that night at another place,
and the two evil-minded men put up at the leading
hotel.\par

Leo had followed them ashore and now he felt
he had them just where he wanted them.\par

He hurried to the nearest telegraph office and
sent a message to Carl to come on at once.\par

This done, he called on the chief of police, and a
long talk followed.\par

Without delay the party, accompanied by two
policemen, hurried to the hotel at which the rascals
were stopping. They ascended the stairs and Leo
knocked on the proper door.\par

“What’s wanted?” came from Hank Griswold.\par

“There’s a fire next door,” said Leo in an assumed
voice. “Please dress and leave the hotel as soon
as possible.”\par

“A fire!” came from Broxton, as he leaped out
of bed.\par

In three minutes the two men had their clothes
on and then they threw open the door.\par

“Who—what—Leo Dunbar!”\par

The men were dumfounded at the sight of the
young gymnast, Carl and the police.\par

“The game is up,” cried Leo. “Officers, arrest
them.”\par

“You rat!” cried Griswold.\par

He struck Leo in the face and then tried to dash
past the youth.\par

He was successful, and reached the stairs before
the policemen could stop him.\par

Like a flash Leo recovered and made after the
man.\par

As he reached the top of the stairs Griswold
struck the bottom steps.\par

Whizz! Leo took a flying leap and landed on
the rascal’s shoulders.\par

Down went the fellow in a heap. He gave a
groan and then a yell of pain.\par

“You have broken my leg!” he screamed. “Oh,
my ribs are all caved in!”\par

He spoke the truth in one particular—his left leg
was broken and he was unable to make further
resistance.\par

In the meantime Carl and the policeman had
captured Broxton and handcuffed him.\par

A little later, before the guests in the hotel could
ascertain the cause of the disturbance, the two prisoners
were taken to jail.\par

Then Barton Reeve appeared on the scene.\par

“I am satisfied Griswold was hired to attack
me,” said Leo.\par

“Can’t you get him to confess?”\par

“He pretends it is all a mistake.”\par

“Let us both talk to him.”\par

“Oh, wait; I wonder if the police searched him,”
went on the young gymnast suddenly.\par

“We can soon find out,” rejoined Barton Reeve.\par

They questioned the captain in charge. Yes,
Griswold had been searched, and his stuff, quite a
heap, lay in a lump on a near-by desk.\par

There was some money, a knife, several keys and
a notebook. Leo began to search through the notebook.
He uttered a wild cry.\par

“Look here!” he ejaculated.\par

He had found an entry concerning the money
Griswold was to get from Nathan Dobb for his
dastardly work.\par

“Come with me,” he went on, and led the way to
Hank Griswold’s cell.\par

At first they could not make the rascal talk at all.\par

But after awhile Griswold began to think he
was in a terrible dilemma.\par

“Look here, supposing I confess,” he said, “will
you be easy on me?”\par

“Perhaps I will,” replied Leo. “One thing is
certain, I won’t be easy if you don’t confess.”\par

“I was coaxed into this job,” growled the villain.\par

“And who coaxed you to do it?” asked Leo
quickly.\par

“Nathan Dobb, the squire at Hopsville.”\par

“Why does he want to get Leo out of the way?”
questioned Barton Reeve.\par

“So as he can keep the thousands coming to the
boy,” was Hank Griswold’s reply, which filled Leo
with astonishment and pleasure.\par

\penalty-300%
\label{chapter-xxxviii-good-by-to-the-circus-boy}%
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\vspace*{50pt}\thispagestyle{empty}
{\noindent\interlinepenalty \@M\normalfont\Huge\bfseries%
CHAPTER XXXVIII.—GOOD-BY TO THE CIRCUS BOY.}

\unskip\vskip 40pt\nobreak

{\noindent}
Having said so much, Hank Griswold made a
complete confession, only holding back the fact
that he and Nathan Dobb had come together
through his trying to rob the squire’s house.\par

The confession was taken down in writing, and
then Griswold signed it in the presence of several
outside witnesses.\par

By this time it was late in the evening, but Leo
was too excited to sleep.\par

“Can’t we take the first train east?” he asked of
Barton Reeve. “I am anxious to let Squire Dobb
know what I think of him.”\par

“I will see Lambert and see if we can get off,”
replied the menagerie manager.\par

They sought out the general manager, and, after
putting the whole case to him, got permission to
leave the “Greatest Show on Earth” for three days.\par

There was a midnight train eastward, and this
they boarded.\par

Barton Reeve had secured sleeping accommodations,
but Leo was too excited to rest.\par

The following noon found them in Hopsville.\par

From the railroad station they walked to Nathan
Dobb’s house.\par

“Hullo! there is Daniel Hawkins’ wagon standing
in front,” cried Leo. “He must be calling on
the squire.”\par

The servant girl ushered them in. As they sat
in the hall waiting for Nathan Dobb they heard a
loud dispute in the office of the justice.\par

Hawkins and Nathan Dobb were having a quarrel
about some money the latter was to pay the
former for releasing Leo.\par

In the midst of the discussion Leo walked in,
followed by Barton Reeve.\par

Both Squire Dobb and old Hawkins were much
astonished at the unexpected appearance.\par

“By gum, Leo!” cried Daniel Hawkins. “You
good-fer-nothin’, where did you come from?”\par

Nathan Dobb turned slightly pale.\par

“Why—er—I didn’t look to see you so soon,
Leo,” he stammered.\par

“I know it; in fact, you didn’t look to see me
over again,” retorted the young gymnast bitterly.\par

“What—er—that is, I don’t understand you,
Leo.”\par

“You soon will understand me, Squire Dobb. I
have come back to show you up as a villain.”\par

“By gum!” It was all Daniel Hawkins could
say. It took away his breath to hear a boy talk
like that to the principal man in Hopsville.\par

“You young rascal!” began Nathan Dobb, growing
red in the face.\par

“Hold on there!” put in Barton Reeve.\par

“Who are you?”\par

“You know well enough. I am here to help Leo
obtain his rights.”\par

“What rights?”\par

“To all the money you are trying to rob him
of.”\par

“Me?”\par

“Exactly.”\par

“I haven’t a cent belonging to him.”\par

“We know better.”\par

“Hank Griswold has been caught and has made a
confession,” put in Leo. “So your game is up,
Nathan Dobb. I always thought there was something
wrong about your doings concerning my parents’
estate, and now I know it.”\par

Nathan Dobb had risen to his feet. The shot
from Leo told, and he sank back in his chair.\par

“Griswold under arrest!” he gasped.\par

“Yes, and you will be soon, too,” added Barton
Reeve.\par

“By gum!” came faintly from Daniel Hawkins.\par

“I—I—it is all a mistake,” stammered Nathan
Dobb. “I—er—never intended to defraud Leo out
of a cent.”\par

“I will never believe that,” replied our hero
warmly.\par

“Get an officer,” said Barton Reeve quietly.\par

“No! no! don’t arrest me! For the sake of my
family, have mercy!” groaned Nathan Dobb,
breaking down utterly.\par

“Will you promise to restore every cent due
Leo?”\par

“Yes! yes! He shall have it all!”\par

“I only want what is due me,” said Leo.\par

“You shall have every cent—I swear it.”\par

After this Nathan Dobb was easy to handle. He
told the whole story of the estate and how the
money was invested.\par

All the necessary papers were turned over to
Barton Reeve to be put into the hands of the
court.\par

“A good day’s work,” said Reeve when he and
Leo left the squire’s house. “You are now free
and rich.”\par

“I hardly know myself,” replied Leo, and he told
the plain truth.\par

It was not long after this that Leo came into possession
of property which, later on, when times became
better, proved to be worth nearly fifteen
thousand dollars.\par

Barton Reeve was appointed his guardian until
he should become of age. The great friendship between
the man and the boy, so strangely begun,
was never broken.\par

A few weeks after the exposure, and after Daniel
Hawkins had carried the news far and wide, Nathan
Dobb sold out his household effects and went West.
Whatever became of him is not known.\par

Several years have passed.\par

On his stony farm Daniel Hawkins worries out a
miserable existence. His wife is more of a tartar
than ever, and together they make one of the most
wretched couples living in the Hopsville district.\par

Mart Keene is still with the “Greatest Show on
Earth” and is earning a good salary. He has called
once or twice upon the Hawkinses, but he has nothing
in common with the mean farmer and his wife.\par

Carl Ross is likewise still on the road and is getting
a large salary. He has married pretty Natalie
Sparks and both are well and happy.\par

Leo has given up the circus profession and is now
at college. He is a diligent scholar and expects to
become a doctor. He has a score of friends who
wish him well and who predict for him a brilliant
future. But no matter how successful he may be
in years to come it is not likely that he will forget
the stirring times when he was simply Leo the
Circus Boy.\par

{\centering
THE END.
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{\vl 7 By Right of Conquest\par}
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{\vl 9 Captain Bayley’s Heir\par}
{\vl 10 Cat of Bubastes\par}
{\vl 11 Col. Thorndyke’s Secret\par}
{\vl 12 Cornet of Horse, The\par}
{\vl 13 Dragon and the Raven\par}
{\vl 14 Facing Death\par}
{\vl 15 Final Reckoning, A\par}
{\vl 16 For Name and Fame\par}
{\vl 17 For the Temple\par}
{\vl 18 Friends, Though Divided\par}
{\vl 19 Golden Canon\par}
{\vl 20 In Freedom’s Cause\par}
{\vl 21 In the Reign of Terror\par}
{\vl 22 In Times of Peril\par}
{\vl 23 Jack Archer\par}
{\vl 24 Lion of St. Mark\par}
{\vl 25 Lion of the North\par}
{\vl 26 Lost Heir, The\par}
{\vl 27 Maori and Settler\par}
{\vl 28 One of the 28th\par}
{\vl 29 Orange and Green\par}
{\vl 30 Out on the Pampas\par}
{\vl 31 Queen’s Cup, The\par}
{\vl 32 Rujub, the Juggler\par}
{\vl 33 St. George for England\par}
{\vl 34 Sturdy and Strong\par}
{\vl 35 Through the Fray\par}
{\vl 36 True to the Old Flag\par}
{\vl 37 Under Drake’s Flag\par}
{\vl 38 With Clive in India\par}
{\vl 39 With Lee in Virginia\par}
{\vl 40 With Wolfe in Canada\par}
{\vl 41 Young Buglers, The\par}
{\vl 42 Young Carthaginians\par}
{\vl 43 Young Colonists, The\par}
{\vl 44 Young Franc-Tireurs\par}
{\vl 45 Young Midshipman\par}
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{http://www.gutenberg.org}\par}

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This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including
how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe
to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.\par\bookmark[level=1,page=1]{CONTENTS}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-i-a-row-and-its-result]{CHAPTER I.—A ROW AND ITS RESULT.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-ii-capturing-a-runaway-lion]{CHAPTER II.—CAPTURING A RUNAWAY LION.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-iii-leo-leaves-the-farm]{CHAPTER III.—LEO LEAVES THE FARM.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-iv-leo-joins-the-greatest-show-on-earth]{CHAPTER IV.—LEO JOINS THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-v-a-leap-of-great-peril]{CHAPTER V.—A LEAP OF GREAT PERIL.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-vi-leo-asserts-his-rights]{CHAPTER VI.—LEO ASSERTS HIS RIGHTS.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-vii-leo-gains-his-liberty]{CHAPTER VII.—LEO GAINS HIS LIBERTY.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-viii-among-the-clouds-in-a-thunderstorm]{CHAPTER VIII.—AMONG THE CLOUDS IN A THUNDERSTORM.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-ix-the-mad-elephant]{CHAPTER IX.—THE MAD ELEPHANT.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-x-capturing-the-elephant]{CHAPTER X.—CAPTURING THE ELEPHANT.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xi-a-criminal-compact]{CHAPTER XI.—A CRIMINAL COMPACT.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xii-the-stolen-circus-tickets]{CHAPTER XII.—THE STOLEN CIRCUS TICKETS.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xiii-leo-makes-a-change]{CHAPTER XIII.—LEO MAKES A CHANGE.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xiv-leo-makes-a-new-friend]{CHAPTER XIV.—LEO MAKES A NEW FRIEND.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xv-an-act-not-on-the-bills]{CHAPTER XV.—AN ACT NOT ON THE BILLS.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xvi-an-unpleasant-position]{CHAPTER XVI.—AN UNPLEASANT POSITION.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xvii-carl-shows-his-bravery]{CHAPTER XVII.—CARL SHOWS HIS BRAVERY.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xviii-a-wonderful-trick-explained]{CHAPTER XVIII.—A WONDERFUL TRICK EXPLAINED.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xix-wampoles-new-scheme]{CHAPTER XIX.—WAMPOLE’S NEW SCHEME.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xx-another-stop-on-the-road]{CHAPTER XX.—ANOTHER STOP ON THE ROAD.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxi-an-unexpected-bath]{CHAPTER XXI.—AN UNEXPECTED BATH.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxii-wampole-shows-his-hand]{CHAPTER XXII.—WAMPOLE SHOWS HIS HAND.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxiii-the-greatest-show-on-earth-once-more]{CHAPTER XXIII.—THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH ONCE MORE.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxiv-in-the-circus-ring-again]{CHAPTER XXIV.—IN THE CIRCUS RING AGAIN.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxv-another-balloon-trip]{CHAPTER XXV.—ANOTHER BALLOON TRIP.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxvi-adventures-amid-the-flames]{CHAPTER XXVI.—ADVENTURES AMID THE FLAMES.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxvii-escape-from-the-burning-forest]{CHAPTER XXVII.—ESCAPE FROM THE BURNING FOREST.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxviii-the-rival-balloonists]{CHAPTER XXVIII.—THE RIVAL BALLOONISTS.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxix-porlers-move]{CHAPTER XXIX.—PORLER’S MOVE.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxx-mart-keenes-story]{CHAPTER XXX.—MART KEENE’S STORY.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxi-a-fall-from-the-clouds]{CHAPTER XXXI.—A FALL FROM THE CLOUDS.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxii-mart-a-prisoner]{CHAPTER XXXII.—MART A PRISONER.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxiii-leo-to-the-rescue]{CHAPTER XXXIII.—LEO TO THE RESCUE.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxiv-the-end-of-porler]{CHAPTER XXXIV.—THE END OF PORLER.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxv-a-cowardly-attack]{CHAPTER XXXV.—A COWARDLY ATTACK.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxvi-on-the-elevated-tracks]{CHAPTER XXXVI.—ON THE ELEVATED TRACKS.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxvii-the-capture-of-griswold]{CHAPTER XXXVII.—THE CAPTURE OF GRISWOLD.}
\bookmark[level=2,dest=chapter-xxxviii-good-by-to-the-circus-boy]{CHAPTER XXXVIII.—GOOD-BY TO THE CIRCUS BOY.}
\hbox{}
\end{document}

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