A BLAZE OF GLORY
"Well," remarked Joe, after having talked rapidly and said considerable
to his friends, "what do you think of my news?"
"Great!" declared the ringmaster. "I didn't think things would take just
that turn, but after Loper's confession and what Ham told you, I believe
it all. That scoundrel ought to be sent away for life."
"He'll go for a long time if I have anything to say," declared the
treasurer. "Did you know we spotted more bogus tickets to-day?" he asked
Joe.
"No."
"Well, we did. I found it out just after you left. There were only a
few. The rush will come to-night."
"Unless we stop it," put in Jim Tracy.
"We'll stop it!" decided Joe. "That's why I wanted to get things started
in a hurry. The trap is all ready to spring. The detectives will be here
at eight o'clock, just when the rush is at its height at the ticket
wagon."
"Are you going to bring Ham back?" asked Jim, when the conference was
over.
"I certainly am," was the answer. "I think he's been on his last spree.
And he wouldn't have gone on this one only that he was tempted by some
person. Put this tempter out of the way, and it will mean Ham's safety.
Now we've got to work."
There was an exceedingly busy time at the circus from then on, and very
little of it concerned the show itself. The performance was delayed half
an hour that night to enable the trap to be sprung.
Joe and Jim Tracy met a certain train that came in from a large city,
and saw alight from it two quiet, unassuming men.
"There they are," said Joe. "Now things will move!" And he and the
ringmaster were soon in conversation with the two new arrivals.
A little later the four entered Joe's dressing tent at the circus
grounds. And some time after that four men, whose faces were black from
the smudge of machine oil and grease and whose clothes carried like
marks, left Joe's quarters.
"Down near the shipyards when the last of the day shift comes off will
be the time and place," said one of the four smudge-faced men.
"Right!" declared another.
From the big shipyard poured hundreds of men. As they began to emerge
from the gate the four soiled-faced individuals who had come from Joe's
dressing tent mingled with them. They heard some one ask:
"Are you sure the tickets'll be good?"
"Sure," was the answer. "This fellow and his pal are part of the show.
He sells 'em this way so there won't be such a crowd at the wagon, and
that's why he makes such a big discount. It sort of guarantees a pretty
big crowd, too. Oh, the tickets are good, all right. There's the ticket
guy now."
The crowd of men turned down a side street, and the four
smutty-countenanced men went with them. One of the four said:
"Wait till he sells a few tickets and then nab him."
"There's two of 'em," said another voice.
"Nab 'em both! They work together."
Soon the men from the shipyard surrounded the two men, one of whom had
been designated by the sentence: "There's the ticket guy now."
Money began to change hands, and tickets were passed around. The four
men who had kept together shoved their way through the crowd of ship
workers.
"How much are the tickets?" one asked.
"Thirty-five cents," was the answer. "They'll cost you fifty or
seventy-five at the wagon. The only reason we sell 'em this way is to
avoid the rush. Then, too, you're really buying 'em at wholesale."
"I'll take four," said the man of the quartette.
"Here you are! Four."
There was another clink of money and a rustle of slips of paper. Then
the man who had passed over the tickets, said:
"Here's your change. That was a five you gave me, wasn't it? Take your
change."
"And you take yours, Bill Carfax!" suddenly cried one of the four. "It's
quite a sudden change, too!"
There was a flash of something bright, a metallic click--two of them, in
fact--and the ticket seller tried to break away. But he was held by the
handcuffs on his wrists, one of the four grasping them by the connecting
chain.
"Get the other!" cried a sharp voice.
There was a scuffle, another flash of something bright, two more clicks,
and one of the four cried:
"That'll be about all from you, Jed Lewis, _alias_ Inky Jed."
The two handcuffed men seemed to know that the game was up. They
shrugged their shoulders, looked at each other, and grew quiet suddenly.
The set trap had been successfully sprung.
"Hey! what's the big idea?"
"What's it all about?"
"Don't we get our tickets?"
Thus cried the men from the shipyards.
"You don't want these tickets," said Joe Strong, for as Bill Carfax
looked more closely at one of the four he recognized him as the young
circus man. "You don't want any tickets these men could sell you."
"Why not?" demanded a man who had bought one.
"Because they're counterfeit," was Joe's answer. "This man, Bill
Carfax," and he nodded toward the one first handcuffed, "used to work
with the Sampson show. He was discharged--ask him to tell you why--and
soon after that we began to be cheated by the use of counterfeit
tickets. We have been trying ever since to find out who sold them, and
now we have."
"You think you have!" sneered the man who had been called "Inky Jed."
"We know it," said Joe decidedly. "Ham Logan overheard your plans
discussed, and he's told everything."
"Oh!" exclaimed Bill Carfax, and there was a world of meaning in that
simple interjection.
"And who might you guys be?" asked one of the shipyard men.
"I'm one of the circus owners," said Joe quietly, "and this is the
ringmaster," he went on, indicating Jim Tracy. "These other two
gentlemen are detectives who have been working on the case since we
discovered the counterfeits. We disguised ourselves in this way in
order to trap these two," and he pointed to the handcuffed men.
The ship workers nodded. One of them asked:
"And aren't they with your show, and can't they sell tickets at reduced
prices?"
"Never!" exclaimed Joe. "You might get in on the tickets you bought from
them, but it would be illegally. The counterfeits are clever ones," he
said, holding up four he had bought for evidence. "But we can detect the
difference by means of the serial numbers. And now, if you men really
want to see the show, go up to the lot and get your tickets from the
wagon, or buy them at one of the authorized agencies."
There were many questions fired at Joe and his friends by the shipyard
men, but they had time to answer only a few.
"We've got to get back to the performance," said Joe to the detectives.
"You can take them with you," and he nodded toward Bill Carfax and his
crony. "Jim and I will see you later."
"Oh, we'll take them with us all right!" laughed one of the detectives.
"Move lively, boys!" he added to the two prisoners. "The jig is up!"
And the two counterfeiters seemed to know it.
"What does it all mean?" asked Helen of Joe, when he got back a little
before the time to go on with his acts. He had washed his face and
changed to his circus costume. The two prisoners had been locked up.
"Well, it means we killed two birds with one stone," said Joe. "We got
rid of the men who have been making us lose money my means of the
counterfeit tickets, and we have also under lock and key Bill Carfax,
who tried several times to injure me, or at least to spoil my act, by
means of acid on the trapeze rope and by changing the fireproof
mixture."
"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Helen. "Then you were in danger?"
"I suppose so--danger of injury, perhaps, but hardly death. I think
Carfax, desperate as he was, would stop at that."
"How did you find out about him and the other man?"
"I'll just have time to tell you before my first act," said Joe. "It was
Harry Loper who gave me the first idea. When he broke down it was
because of what he had done, and on account of what Bill Carfax wanted
him to do again. It was Bill who got into the tent once and put acid on
my trapeze wire. And it was because he bribed poor Loper that he was
able to do it. Bill pretended it was only a trick to make me slip,
because he wanted to get even with me for discharging him. So poor, weak
Harry let him sneak into the tent, disguised so none of our men would
know him. Bill climbed up, put acid on the wire, and the fiery stuff did
the rest.
"Well, that preyed on Harry's mind, but he kept putting it away. But
finally, knowing the hold he had on him, Bill came back and gave him a
bottle of acid to work some further harm to me or my apparatus. But Ham
discovered that in time.
"Bill was provoked over his failure, and, when he wasn't helping Inky
Jed get out the bogus tickets, he followed the show and tried to prevail
on Harry to play another trick on me. Just what it was Harry doesn't
know. He refused to do it, and then he came and confessed to me. So much
for Harry. He's a sorry boy, and I think he'll turn over a new leaf.
"Now about Ham. Just as I feared, he got to drinking again. But it was
because Bill met him when poor Ham's nerves were on edge, and Bill
induced him to take liquor. Then Ham went all to pieces and started on a
spree which lasted until now. He managed to get from place to place,
always under Bill's eye, and at last he landed here, very weak and ill.
Mrs. Donlon looked after him.
"And it was here that Ham first heard Bill and his crony plotting about
the bogus circus tickets. The two counterfeiters planned to make a big
strike here with the shipyard workers. Then Ham sent the warning to me.
I called on him, learned the plans of Bill and Jed, and we sent for the
detectives. The latter, we learned, were about to make an arrest
anyhow, but it was of the men who really printed the bogus tickets. They
hadn't a clew, as yet, to Bill and Jed, who were the real backers of the
game. The detectives came on, disguised themselves with us, and we
caught the scoundrels in the very act. Now they're locked up."
"Oh, Joe, it's wonderful!" exclaimed Helen. "I'm so glad it's all over.
And are you going to bring Ham back to the show?"
"Just as soon as he's able to travel. Micky Donlon wants to join too,
and I may give him a chance later. Well, our troubles seem to be over
for a time, but I suppose there'll be more."
"Oh, look on the bright side!" exclaimed Helen. "Why be a fire-eater if
you can't look on the bright side?" she laughed.
"That's so," agreed her admirer. "Well, I've got to get ready to eat
some fire right now."
As Joe had said, everything was cleared up. Bill Carfax was at the
bottom of most of the personal troubles of the young circus man, and his
acts were actuated by a desire for vengeance. As to the ticket trick,
Bill was only a sort of agent in that. Jed Lewis, alias Inky Jed, was an
expert counterfeiter. He had already served time in prison for trying to
make counterfeit money, and when he fell in with Bill, and heard the
latter tell of some of his circus experiences, the more skillful
scoundrel became impressed with the chance of making money by selling
spurious tickets.
They had some printed and worked the scheme among crowds of men coming
from factories, just as they were doing when they were caught.
As Ham told Joe, the old fire-eater had overheard the plots and saw his
chance to do Joe a favor. Carfax, it was surmised, hoped to get Ham
Logan under his influence through drink, so that he might use him in
order to injure Joe, after having failed with Harry Loper.
It developed, afterward, that the paper mills had, innocently enough,
furnished the swindlers with the paper for the counterfeit tickets. The
material was secured through a trick, and Inky Jed knew an unscrupulous
printer who did the work for him.
It was Bill Carfax who had sent the man who so nearly exposed Joe's box
trick. But fortune was with the young circus man.
The music played, the horses trotted about, clowns made laughter, and
Helen performed graceful feats on Rosebud. Joe did some magical tricks,
walked the wire, slid down on his head, and then prepared for the
blazing banquet.
In order to show what he could do, Ted Brown had introduced some
novelties. After Joe and the guests had devoured the blazing food there
was a pause, and then, suddenly, from the center of the table spouts of
red fire burst out, so that the banquet ended in a blaze of glory.
Joe's new helper had used some fireworks effectively.
In due time Bill and his crony were tried, convicted, and sent away to
prison for long terms. Harry Loper changed his rather loose and weak
ways and became one of Joe's best friends. Ted Brown was continued as an
"assistant assistant," for in a few weeks Ham Logan was able to rejoin
the show, and he again became Joe's chief helper.
"Well, what are you going to spring next on the unsuspecting public as a
sensation?" asked Helen, when the show had reached a city where two days
were to be spent. "Have you other acts as good a the fire-eating?"
"Well, perhaps I can think up some," was the answer.
And so, with Joe Strong thinking what the future might hold for him and
the circus, we will take our leave for a time.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's Joe Strong The Boy Fire-Eater, by Vance Barnum