A STRANGER APPEARS ON THE SCENE
An hour after the conclusion of the performance David was on the road
once more; not, as before, afoot and weary, but safely ensconced in one
of the huge, lumbering "tableau" wagons used for the transportation of
canvas and perishable properties. The boss canvasman, not the hardened
brute that he appeared to be, had stored him away in the damp interior
of the ponderous wagon, first providing him with dry blankets on which
he could sleep with some security and no comfort. There was little
space between his mountainous, shifting bed and the roof of the van;
and there would have been no air had not the driver of the four-horse
team obligingly opened a narrow window beneath the seat on which he
rode.
With considerable caution the fugitive had been smuggled into the van,
under the very noses of his pursuers, so to speak. Somewhat dazed and
half sick with anxiety, he obeyed every instruction of his friend the
clown.
Blake and his men had watched the tearing down of the tent, the loading
of the entire concern and its subsequent departure down the
night-shrouded country pike. That Blake was not fully satisfied with
the story told to him by Thomas Braddock, and somewhat doubtfully
supported by his own investigations, is proved by the fact that he
decided to follow the show until he was positively assured that his
quarry was not being shielded by the circus people. With no little
astuteness he and his companion resolved that they could accomplish
nothing by working openly: their only chance lay in the ability to keep
the circus people from knowing that they were following them. In this
they counted without their hosts. At no time during the next three days
were their movements unknown to the clever band of rascals who followed
the show for evil purposes, and who, with perfect integrity, kept the
proprietor advised of every step taken and of every disguise affected.
Blake was not the first nor the last confident officer of the law to
more than meet his match in the effort to outwit an old-time road
circus. He was butting his head against a stone wall. Consummate
rascality on one hand, unwavering loyalty on the other: he had but
little chance against the combination. The lowliest peanut-vender was
laughing in his sleeve at the sleuth; and the lowliest peanut-vender
kept the vigil as resolutely as any one else.
Despite his uncomfortable position and the natural thrills of
excitement and peril, David was sound asleep before the wagon was
fairly under way. Complete exhaustion surmounted all other conditions.
He was vaguely conscious of the sombre rumbling of the huge wagon and
of the regular clicking of the wheel-hubs, so characteristic of the
circus caravan and so dear to the heart of every boy. His bones ached,
his stomach was crying out for food, and his body was chilled; but none
of these could withstand the assault of slumber. He would have slept if
Blake's hand had been on his shoulder.
Out into the country rolled the big wagon, at two o'clock in the
morning, following as closely as possible the flickering rear lantern
of the vehicle ahead. The rain had ceased falling, but there was a mist
in the air, blown from the trees that lined the road. Those of the
circus men who were compelled to ride outside the wagons were clothed
in their rubber coats; their more fortunate companions slept under
cover on the pole wagons, on top of the seat wagons, or in stretchers
swung beneath the property wagons or cages. Others, still more
fortunate, slept in property or trunk vans, or in the band chariots.
The leading performers and officials, including all of the women,
traveled by train. The gamblers, pickpockets and fakirs got along as
best they could from town to town by stealing passage on the freight
trains. Times there were, however, when the entire aggregation traveled
with the caravan. On such occasions the luckless roustabout gave up his
precarious bedroom to the "ladies" and sat all night in dubious
solitude atop of his lodging house. These emergencies were infrequent:
they arose only when railroad facilities were not to be had, or--alas!
when the exchequer was depleted.
On this murky night the performers remained over in S--, to take an
early train for the next stand. The railroad show was then an untried
experiment. Barnum and Coup and others were planning the great
innovation, but there was a grave question as to its practicability.
Later on Coup made the venture, transporting his show by rail. Such men
as Yankee Robinson, Cole and even P. T. Barnum traveled by wagon road
until that brave attempt was made. The railroad was soon to solve the
"bad roads" problem for all of them. Short jumps would no longer be
necessary; profitable cities could be substituted for the small towns
that every circus had to make on account of the distances and the
laborious mode of transportation. Still, if you were to chat awhile
with an old-time showman, you would soon discover that the "road
circus" of early days was the real one, and that the scientifically
handled concern of to-day is as utterly devoid of the true flavor as
the night is without sunshine.
Three times during the long, dark hours before dawn the chariot was
stalled in the mud of the mountain road; as many times it was moved by
the united efforts of five or six teams and the combined blasphemy of a
dozen drivers. Through all of this, David slept as if drugged. Daybreak
came; the ghostly wagon train slipped from darkness into the misty
light of a new "day." Cocks were crowing afar and near, and birds were
chirping in the bushes at the roadside. Out of the sombre, crinkling
night rolled the red, and white, and golden juggernauts, gradually
taking shape in the gray dawn, crawling with sardonic indifference past
toll-gate and farmhouse, creaking and groaning and snapping in weird,
uncanny chorus.
Early risers were up to see the "circus" pass. It was something of an
epoch in the lives of those who dwelt afar from the madding crowd.
The elephant, the cages of wild beasts, the horses, the towering
chariots, the amazing pole wagons--all slipped down the road and over
the hill, strange, unusual objects that came but once a year and seemed
to leave the countryside smaller and more narrow than it had been
before.
Hunched-up drivers, sleepily handling a half-dozen reins, looked
neither to right nor left, but swore mechanically for the benefit of
the tired horses, and without compunction in the presence of roadside
spectators, male or female. Wet, sour, unfriendly minions were they,
but they sent up no lamentations; their lives may have been hard and
unpromising, but lightly in their hearts swam the blissful conviction
that they were superior to the envious yokels who gaped at them from
fence corners and barnyards since the first dreary streak of dawn crept
into the skies. A shadowy, ungainly, mysterious caravan of secrets,
cherished but unblest, it straggled through the dawn, resolute in its
promise of splendor at midday. Wild beasts were abroad in the land, and
mighty serpents, too; but they slept and were scorned by the men who
slumbered above or below them.
The country people looked on and wondered, and shuddered at the thought
of the terrific creatures at their very door-yards. Then they hitched
up their teams and flocked to town in the wake of the peril, there to
marvel and delight in the very things that had awed them in their own
province. And all through the land people locked their doors and put
away their treasures. The circus had come to town!
It was eight o'clock before David was routed from his strange bed by
the boss canvasman. They were in a new town. He rubbed his eyes as he
stood beside the wagon wheel and looked upon the amazing scene before
him. Dozens of huge wagons were spread over the show-grounds; a
multitude of men and horses swarmed in and about them; curious crowds
of early risers stood afar off and gazed. The rhythmic pounding of iron
stakes, driven down by four precise sledge-men came to his ears from
all sides; the jangling of trace-chains; the creaking of wagons and the
whine of pulleys. Here, there, everywhere were signs of a mighty
activity, systematic in its every phase. Men toiled and swore and were
cursed with the regularity of a single well-balanced mind. Already the
horse tent and the cook tent were up. A blacksmith shop was clanging
out its busy greetings.
For a moment David forgot his own predicament. He stared in utter
bewilderment, vastly interested in the great transformation. Under his
very eyes a city of white was about to spring into existence.
Some one touched his shoulder, not ungently. He started in sudden
alarm. A rough-looking fellow in a soiled red undershirt was standing
at his elbow.
"The boss says you'd better come to the cook-top and get somethin' to
eat, young feller." That was all. He jerked his head in the direction
of the long, low tent in the corner of the lot and started off. David
followed, sharply conscious of a revived hunger.
A score of men were seated at the long tables, gulping hot coffee and
bolting their food. From the kitchen beyond came the crackling of fats,
the odor of frying things and the aroma of strong coffee. The clatter
of tin pans and cups, the rattle of pewter knives and forks and the
commands of hungry men to the surly lads who served them assailed the
refined ears of the young Virginian as he stopped irresolutely at the
mouth of the tent.
"Set down here, kid," said his escort, pointing to a place on the
plank, stepping over it himself to take his seat at the board. If the
stranger expected a greeting or comment on his appearance among these
men, he was happily disappointed. They looked at him with sullen,
indifferent eyes and went on bolting the breakfast. Some of them were
half naked; all of them were dirty and reeking with perspiration. There
was no effort at general conversation. David had the feeling that they
hated each other and were ready to hurl things at the slightest
provocation, such as the passing of the time of day.
A half-grown boy placed a huge tin cup full of steaming coffee on to
the table and said in a husky, consumptive voice: "'Ere's your slop,
kid."
Another boy jammed a panful of bacon and corn-bread across his shoulder
and advised him to hurry up and "grab it, you."
David ate in shocked silence. The man at his left laughed at his
genteel use of the knife and fork and the dainty handling of the bacon.
Sugar and cream were not served. He was hungry. The coarse but
well-cooked food pleased his palate more than he could have believed.
He ate his fill of the "chuck," as his neighbor called it. Then he was
hurried back to the wagon in which he had slept. It was empty now,
cavernous and reeking with the odor of damp canvas lately removed.
"Git in there, kid," said his guide briskly. "You gotta keep under
cover fer a spell. Stay in there 'tel Joey Grinaldi says the word.
Them's Braddock's orders."
David hesitated a moment. "Where is Mrs. Braddock?" he asked.
"Train ain't in yet. You don't suppose the highlights travel this away,
do you? Well, nix, I should say not. Say, are you goin' to learn the
business? If you are, I got some fishworm oil that's jest the thing to
limber up yer joints. In two weeks, if you rub this oil of mine all
over you reg'lar, you c'n bend double three ways." It was an old game.
David stared but shook his head.
"I'm not going to be a performer," he said, with a wry smile at the
thought of "fishworm oil."
"Well, that bein' the case, have you got any chewin' about yer clothes?"
"Chewing?" murmured David.
"Fine cut er plug, I don't care."
"I don't chew tobacco," said David stiffly.
"Oh," said the man in amaze. "A reg'lar little Robert Reed, eh? Well,
hop inside there. I gotta shut the door. Don't you cry if it's dark,
kid."
David crawled into the chariot and the door was closed after him. A
thin stream of daylight came down through the narrow slit beneath the
driver's seat. For a while he sat with his back against the wall,
pondering the situation. Then, almost without warning, sleep returned
to claim his senses. He slipped over on his side, mechanically
stretched out his legs and forgot his doubts and troubles.
He was aroused by the jostling and bouncing of the huge, empty wagon.
With a start of alarm he leaped to his feet, striking his head against
the roof of his abiding place, and hurried to the end of the wagon to
peer out through the slit. Bands were playing, whips were cracking and
children were shrieking joyously. It was a long time before he grasped
the situation. The "Grand free street parade" was in progress; he was
riding, like a caged beast, through the principal streets of the town!
From the security of his position he could look out upon the throng
that lined the sidewalks, without danger of being seen in return. After
the first great wave of mortification and shame, he was able to
consider his situation to be quite as amusing as it was fortunate. He
found himself laughing at the country people and their scarcely more
sophisticated city brethren with something of the worldly scorn that
dominated the "profession." Even the horses that drew the "Gorgeous
chariots of gold" eyed the gaping crowds with profound pity. There is
nothing in all this world so incredibly haughty as a circus, from
tent-peg to proprietor. Perhaps you who read this have felt your own
insignificance while gazing at an imperial tent-peg that happened to
lie in your path as you wandered about the grounds; or you have
certainly felt mean and lowly in the presence of a program-peddler, and
positively servile in contact with a boss canvasman. It is in the air;
and the very air is the property of the circus.
In time the twenty wagons, with their double and quadruple teams,
attended fore and aft by cavaliers and court-ladies, _papier mache_
grotesques, trick mules and "calico ponies," came once more to the
grounds, still pursued by the excited crowd. Far ahead of the parade a
loud-voiced "barker" rode, warning all people to look out for their
horses: "The elephant is coming!" Just to show their utter lack of
poise, at least fifty farm nags, in super-equine terror, leaped out of
their harness and into their own vehicles when "Goliath," the decrepit
old elephant, shuffled by, too tired to lift his proboscis, thus
exemplifying the vast distinction between themselves and the circus
horses which only noticed Goliath when he got in the way.
David had a long wait in the dark, stuffy chariot. Finally the door was
opened and Braddock looked in. Directly behind the proprietor was the
dirty sidewall of a tent. David blinked afresh in the light of
day,--although, alas, the sun was not shining.
"Hello," said Braddock shortly. His cigar bobbed up and down with the
movement of his lips. "Come out. You can duck under the canvas right
here. Lift it up, Bill."
The boy slid from the chariot to the ground and made haste to pass
under the wall which had been raised by a canvasman. Braddock followed
him into the huge tent. A small army of men were erecting the seats for
the afternoon performance. David realized that he was in the "main top."
A stocky, bow-legged man, his hands in his pockets and a short briar
pipe in his lips, advanced to meet them.
"Well, 'ow are you?" asked this merry-eyed stranger, his face going
into a hundred wrinkles by way of friendly greeting. "Oh, I say, David,
don't you know your old pal and playmate? Hi, there! 'Ere we are!"
David stared in astonishment. It was Grinaldi, the clown, without his
make-up or his wig! Never was there such a change in human face.
They clasped hands, David laughing outright in the ecstasy of relief at
finding this whilom friend.
"Keep shady, you," said Braddock, finding no pleasure in the boy's
change of manner. "Those pinchers came over on the train with us. And
say, we might just as well settle what's to be done about you. I've
thought it over seriously. I'm taking a risk in havin' you around,
understand that. But if you want a job with the show, I'll give you
one. Tell you what I'll do: I'll give you two and a half a week and
your board. That's good pay for a beginner. You to do clown work and--"
"But I can't be a clown--" began David.
"Well, what do you want?" roared Braddock, apparently aghast. "Do you
expect to ride around in carriages and live on goose liver? Say, where
do you think you are? In society? Well, you can get that out of your
head, lemme tell you that, you--"
"'Ere, 'ere, Brad," put in Joey sharply, noting the look in the boy's
pale face. "Don't talk like that. 'E's not used to that sort o' gaff.
Let me talk it over with 'im."
"Well, the offer don't stand long. He either takes it or he don't. If
he don't, out he goes. Say, you, where's all that money you had last
night? I'm not going to have anybody carryin' a wad around like that
and gettin' it nabbed and then settin' up a roar against the show,
gettin' us pulled or something worse. I insist on taking care of that
stuff, for my own protection, just so long as you stay with this show."
David looked helplessly to Joey Noakes for succor.
"I'll talk that over with 'im, too, Brad," announced the clown briefly.
"And let me add something else," resumed Braddock, with an unnecessary
oath. "I'm not going to have you hangin' around my wife and daughter if
you _do_ stay with us. Remember one thing: you're a cheap clown, and
you've got to know your place. My daughter's a decent girl. She's got
good blood in her, understand that. _Damn' fine blood._ I'm not going
to have her associatin' with a--"
"'Old on, Brad!" interrupted the old clown, glaring at him. "Cheese it,
will you? I won't stand for it. You got five 'undred from this boy and
you ought to treat 'im decent. He's got just as good blood in 'im as
Christie's got--and better, blow me, because it's probably good on both
sides--which is more than you can say for her, poor girl. Thank God,
she don't show that she's got your blood in 'er veins."
"Here! Do you mean to insinuate that she's not _mine_?" gasped
Braddock, suddenly a-tremble. Much as he trusted to the virtue of his
wife, he was never able to comprehend the miracle that gave him
Christine for a daughter. There was no trace of him to be seen in her.
"You know better than that," said the clown coldly.
"Well," said Braddock, nervously shifting his cigar and lowering his
gaze. If he had intended to say more, he changed his mind and walked
off toward the center of the tent where men were throwing up a circular
bank about the ring.
"He's a drunken dog," said the clown, glaring after him. "She's the
finest woman in the world. And to think of 'er bein' the wife of that
bounder."
David had been thinking of it and puzzling his tired brain for hours.
"How did she happen to marry--"
"No time for that now," said Grinaldi briskly. "Mebby I'll tell you
about her some other time, not now. You'd better keep away from her and
Christine for a couple of days. Brad will forget it in no time,
'specially if he thinks he can scrape some more o' that money out of
you. Oh, he's a slick one. He's got 'is eye on that wad. Now, let's get
down to business. I advise you to stick to the show for awhile--at
least until we're a good ways off. Take up 'is offer. It ain't bad. You
can 'ave chuck with me and Ruby. I'll look out for that. You just do
wot I tell you, and you'll be a clown. Not a real one, but good enough
to earn two and a 'arf. I'm not doin' this for you, my boy, because I
think I need an assistant. Joey Grinaldi has been a fav'rit clown in
two hemispheres for forty years. Some day I'll show you the medals I
got in London and Paris and--but never mind now. You start right in
this afternoon, doin' just wot I tells you. You'll be all right and
them blokes as is 'untin' for you won't be able to twig you from sole
leather. Wot say?"
"I'll do just as you say," said David simply.
"Good! Now come over 'ere by the band section and I'll tell how we'll
work it out. Of course, we'll improve it every day. All you needs is
confidence. We 'ave dinner at twelve-thirty in the performer's end of
the cook-tent. It's all right there. I'll fetch yours into the
dressin'-tent for you, so's you won't be seen. There's my daughter over
there. Ain't she a stunner? Say, she's a gal as is a gal. Best trapeze
worker in the business, if I do say it myself. And 'er mother was the
best columbine that ever appeared in a Drury Lane pantomime, poor
lass." He abruptly passed his hand across his eyes.
"The columbine?" said David, his eyes beaming. "I remember the
columbine and the harlequin and the pantaloon in Drury Lane one boxing
week when I was in London with my grandfather. Was a columbine really
your wife?"
"She was," said Joey proudly. "But," he added hastily, "it ain't likely
you saw _her_. She died when Ruby was born."
That afternoon David appeared in the ring, once more clad in the
striped suit and besmeared with bismuth. He was even more frightened
than at his first appearance, when he was driven by another fear. Ruby
Noakes, black-eyed and dashing, winked at him saucily from her perch on
the high trapeze, having caught his eye. When she slid down the stout
lacing and wafted kisses to the multitude, he was near enough to catch
her merry undertone:
"You have no idea how funny you are," she said, passing him by with a
skip.
"There's your friend, the detective," remarked Joey, later on, jerking
his head in the direction of the animal tent. Sure enough, Blake was
standing at the end of the tier of seats, talking with Thomas Braddock.
"But he doesn't reckernize you, David, so don't turn any paler than you
are already."
The new clown, wretchedly unsuited to his new occupation, managed to
get through the performance without mishap. He followed instructions
blindly but faithfully, barking his shins twice and tripping over an
equestrian banner once with almost direful results. The audience
laughed with glee, and Grinaldi congratulated him on the hit he was
making.
"Hit?" moaned David, rubbing his elbow in earnest. "Good heaven! Was
that a hit?"
"My boy, they'd laugh if you were to break your neck," said the clown
gravely.
Christine Braddock came on for her turn early in the program. David was
told that her mother, who persistently though vainly opposed a ring
career for her loved one, compromised with Braddock on the condition
that she was to appear early in the performance.
"Brad was a circus rider in his younger days, before he took to drink,"
explained Joey, as he and David sat together at the edge of the ring
while Briggs, the ringmaster, announced the approach of "the
world-famed child marvel, Little Starbright, and Monseer Dupont, in the
great-est eques-trian feats evah attempted by mor-tal crea-tuah!"
"When Christie was a wee bit of a thing he took 'er into the ring with
'im. She sat on 'is shoulder and the crowd thought it wonnerful. Arter
that he took 'er in reg'lar. Mrs. Braddock almos' lost 'er mind, but
Brad coaxed 'er into seein' it 'is way. It was before he took to
drinking steady. That gal 'as no more business being a circus rider
than nothink. But you can't make Brad see it that way now. He says
she's got to earn 'er bread and keep, and that she's no better than wot
'er father is. If circus riding is good enough for 'im, it's good
enough for 'is offspring, says he. Her mother just had to give in to
'im. Well, when she was about ten, Brad took to drinking. That was
before he bought old Van Slye out. One day he fell off the 'oss with
'er and broke 'is arm. Fort'nitly, the younker wasn't 'urt. So, then he
had sense enough to listen to 'is wife. He quit riding 'isself, but he
put big Tom Sacks into the act in 'is place. Tom is the present Mons.
Dupont--a fine feller and as steady as can be. He's powerful strong and
a fairish sort of rider--but nothink like wot Brad used to be in his
best day. Christine's getting a bit biggish for 'im to 'andle; I
daresay this is the last season for their double act. But for four
seasons she's been doing amazing fine work with old Tom. She seems to
like it, and she's as daring as the very old Nick. Don't know wot fear
is, I might say. She's so fairy-like and so purty that the crowds just
naterally love 'er to death. She's going to be a wonnerful 'ansome
woman, David, that gal is, take it from me. 'Ere she is!"
"She's like a rose," said David, following the slim, scarlet creature
with his eyes.
"And a rose she is, my heartie," said Joey. "When I was a lad at 'ome,
there was a chap named Thackeray writing wonderful clever tales. I
remembers one of them particular. It was called 'The Rose and the
Ring.' I never see Christine in them togs without thinking of the name
of that book--The Rose and the Ring, d' ye get my idea? Mr. Thackeray
was a well-known writer when I was a boy. That was thirty year ago. I
daresay he's dead and forgotten now."
David smiled. "He'll never die, Mr. Noakes. He's more alive now than
ever. 'The Rose and the Ring.' Why not 'The Rose _in_ the Ring'?"
"Hi! Hi!" cried Joey approvingly, "Right you are."
During the entire act of Little Starbright and Monsieur Dupont David
gazed entranced. He followed Grinaldi, but his eyes were not always
leveled against the spotted back of his mentor; they were for the
lithe, graceful figure in scarlet riding atop of the sturdy Tom Sacks,
sometimes standing upright on his shoulders, again leaning far out from
his thigh, or even more daringly dancing on his broad back while he
squatted on the pad. First on one foot, then the other, then clear of
his back with both of them twinkling in merry time to the quickstep of
the band, her dark hair fluttering from beneath the saucy cap, her
hands waving and her eyes sparkling. Kisses went wafting to every
section of the tent, and with them smiles such as David had never seen
before.
He was standing near when she leaped from the horse's back and skipped
to the center of the ring to blow her final kisses to the multitude. It
occurred to him all at once that he was staring at this wonderfully
graceful, fairy-like little creature with the eyes of a delighted
spectator and not as a clown. He guiltily looked for a reprimand from
Grinaldi. To his surprise and disappointment she passed him by without
a sign of recognition, slipping her tiny feet into the ground shoes and
shuffling off to the dressing-tent with the stride peculiar to ring
performers. For a moment he felt as if she had struck him in the face,
so quick was his pride to resent the slight.
"This ain't a parlor, my lad," said Joey, shrewdly analyzing the
feelings of his _protege_. "You mustn't expect the ladies to stop and
chat with you in the ring. It ain't reg'lar. She didn't mean
nothink--nothink at all, bless 'er 'eart."
When the performance was over, David was whisked into the men's section
of the dressing-tent and told to stay there until further orders. He
changed his clothes and "washed up," listening meanwhile to the
congratulations and the good-natured chaffing of the performers who
were there with him. Despite their ribald scoffing, he knew they were
his friends: there was something about these careless, inconsequent
knights of the sawdust ring, in spangles or out, that warmed the
cockles of his sore, despairing heart.
He came before long to laugh with them and to take their jibes as they
were meant--good-naturedly. Joey Grinaldi beamed with congratulation.
He laid himself out to make the going easy for his "gentleman pardner,"
appreciating the vast distinction that lay between these men and the
kind David had known all of his life. And David saw that he was trying
to make it easy for him. His heart swelled with a strange gratitude; he
unbent suddenly and met the rough kindnesses more than half way. They
were not the kind of men he was used to,--they were not gentlemen; but
they stood ready to be his friends, and something told him that they
would ring true to the very end if he met them half way.
They had their own undeviating regard for what they called honor: honor
meant loyalty and fairness, nothing more. Simple, genial, unpolished
braggarts were they, but their word was as good or better than a
gentleman's bond. David was soon to fall under the spell of this bland
comradeship: he was to see these men in a light so bright that it
blinded him to their vulgarities, their quaint blasphemy and their
prodigious lack of veracity as applied to personal achievements. He was
to find in them a splendid chivalry, almost unbelievable at first:
their regard for the women in the troupe was in the nature of a
revelation to him, who came from the land of gallantry itself.
"Say, kid," said Signor Anaconda, "the human snake," suddenly adopting
a serious mien,--which did not become him,--"you gotta change your
name. What'll we call him, fellers? Now, le' 's give him a reg'lar
story-book name. Prince Something-or-other. What say to--"
"That's all settled," said old Joey, his eyes full of soap and water
and squeezed so tightly together that they looked like wrinkles.
"Christine Braddock named 'im this morning. I forgot to tell you,
David. Your name is Snipe--Jack Snipe."
David flushed. "Why did she call me _that_?" he asked.
"Because you were lonesome, and there is nothink so lonesome as a
jack-snipe. Leastwise, that's wot she says. She asked me if I'd ever
seen a jack-snipe on a wet, dreary day, a-standing on a sandbar, all
alone like and forlorn. She said she always felt so sorry for the poor
little cuss--no, she didn't say cuss either. What was it she said,
Casey? You was there."
"She said 'thing,'" said Casey briefly.
"Right, my lad. Thing it was. Well, wot she says goes in this 'ere
aggergation, so from now on you are just Jack Snipe." He lowered his
voice. "There won't nobody call you David or Jenison after this, my
boy. It's too dangerous."
David was thoughtful. "Do you mean to say," he said, after a pause,
"that every person in this show knows who I really am?"
"You bet your life they do," said Casey.
"And what I am wanted for?"
"Certain. Wot's that got to do with it?"
"Do they think I'm--I'm guilty?"
"Well, I reckon most of 'em do," said the contortionist blandly. "But,"
he added in some haste, "they don't give a dang for a little thing like
that."
"But," said David fiercely, "I don't want them to think I am guilty. I
can't bear to think that every one is looking upon me as a criminal.
Why--why, what must the ladies of the--of the show think of me? I--I--"
Joey Grinaldi put his hand on the young fellow's shoulder: "They don't
think you done it, Jack--not one of 'em. I heard 'em speaking of you
last night as if you was a reg'lar angel. For the fust time since I've
knowed all of them women, they are all agreed on one thing: they _all_
agree that you are the sweetest kid they've ever seen and that you
never done anything naughty in your life. Come on, now. Mrs. Braddock
wants to see you a minute."
David's heart leaped. He followed the old clown into the open tent, his
eyes bright with the eagerness to look once more upon the strange,
lovely friend of the night before,--his true guardian angel.
She was standing near the entrance to the main tent, talking with half
a dozen of the women performers, all of whom were in street attire. As
soon as she saw him she smiled and motioned for him to join the group.
He was not slow to obey the summons. To the amazement of the interested
group the young Virginian lifted her hand to his lips. Mrs. Braddock
flushed warmly, an exquisite smile of appreciation leaping to her
rather sombre eyes.
"You must let me introduce you to these ladies," she said, after a few
low words of greeting. "This is Jack Snipe, our new clown," she said,
naming for his benefit the riders, the ropewalker, the snake-charmer
and the boneless wonder. David was profoundly polite, almost
old-fashioned in his acknowledgment of the introduction. The women were
suddenly conscious of a new-found glory in themselves. The "boneless
wonder" talked of his elegance for weeks, and always without resorting
to slang.
"Where is Miss Christine?" asked David, turning to Mrs. Braddock with a
shy smile.
She did not answer at once. When she did, it was with palpable
uneasiness. "My daughter usually takes her sleep at this time,
Dav--Jack."
David's cheek slowly turned red. He remembered what Braddock had said
to him.
"You are all very good to me," he murmured, for want of anything better
to say. His sensitive heart was thumping quickly, driven by
humiliation. She looked steadily into his eyes without speaking and
then walked away from the group, directing him to follow. They sat down
upon the tumbler's pad, just where they had been seated the night
before.
"My husband is hard sometimes, David," she said gently. "It will last
for a few days, that is all. We must not aggravate him now. In a little
while he will forget that he has--has said certain things. Then, I hope
that you and Christine will be good friends. I--I want her to know you
well, David. I want her to be with--with some one who is different from
the people here. You understand, don't you?"
"Yes," said David, suddenly enlightened. "I know what you mean. I shall
be very happy, too."
"Ah, how gently you did that," she cried, a wistful gleam in her dark
eyes. "How the blood tells its story! Yes, David, I want her to know
you; I want her to--to be with her own kind." Her face flamed with
sudden fervor; he was struck by the almost pathetic eagerness that
leaped into her eyes, transfiguring them. "I have tried so hard to give
her something of what I had myself, David, when I was a girl.
Everything depends on the next year or two. She is thinking for herself
now. It is the turning-point. You must know, David, you must see that
she is not like the others here."
"She is like you," he said, very simply.
The blood surged once more to her cheeks; her lips parted with the
quick breath of joy and gratitude. She thanked him very gently, very
gravely. No word was uttered against the man who was Christine's father.
"I prayed last night, David, that you might stay with the show until
the end of this season. I am determined that it shall be her last, no
matter what it may cost both of us."
"Cost both of us," thought he, and at once knew what she meant. The
cost, if necessary, would be the husband and father.
Then she told him, in hurried sentences, that she had watched him in
the ring, and that her daughter had come back to her with glowing
reports of his composure and cleverness. David's pride, at least, was
appeased. She _had_ looked at him, after all, and was interested.
He was struck by the sudden, curious change that came over Mrs.
Braddock's face. She was looking past him toward the entrance to the
circus tent. All the color, all the eagerness left her face in a flash;
the warmth died out in her big brown eyes and in its stead appeared a
look of positive dread and uneasiness--it might have been repugnance.
Her lips grew tense, and he could see that she started ever so
slightly, as if in surprise.
He glanced over his shoulder. Thomas Braddock was approaching, his face
red with anger and drink. At his side walked a tall, exceedingly
well-dressed stranger, who carried his silk hat in his hand and was
smiling blandly upon the proprietor's wife.
"Oh, that man again!" he heard her say between her stiff lips. There
was a world of loathing in the half-whispered sentence, which was so
low that it barely reached his ears. He looked up quickly, and saw her
face go darkly red again--the red of humiliation, he could have sworn.
"Go!" she said to David, quietly but firmly.
He turned away, vaguely conscious that the newcomer was more to be
feared than Thomas Braddock himself. Instinctively the boy experienced
a singular, instantaneous aversion to this immaculate intruder.
"Get out!" he heard Braddock roar after him as he paused at the
partition to look once more at the stranger.
The man was bowing low before the straight, motionless figure of Mary
Braddock. Her chin was high in the air, and David could almost have
sworn that he saw her nostrils dilate.
From a place beyond the flap in the partition he surveyed this
disturbing visitor.