THE ESCAPE FROM THE CIRCUS
The next morning the circus arrived in Duluth. The tents were pitched
and then hurry and confusion began as everyone was getting ready for
the usual morning parade through the down-town streets of the city.
This was just what Billy had been waiting for, as he intended to watch
his chance and run away from the circus while it was on parade. But
imagine his disgust when one of the circus men brought a little flat
saddle and strapped it on his back and then put a fancy headpiece on
his head and brought the monkey that had had the fight with Polly
and tied it to one of his horns with a rope just long enough for it
to reach the saddle, where the monkey was supposed to dance as the
procession moved through the streets.
“I’ll run away even if I have to drag the monkey with me, for I shan’t
stay with the circus another day!” thought Billy. “I am so sick and
tired of it. Besides, all the time we are here Stubby and Button are
going farther and farther West away from us.”
At exactly half past ten the circus procession filed out of the main
tent headed by a band of twenty pieces following which came the
bareback riders on snow white horses or jet black ones, with horses and
riders all fixed exactly as they would be seen in the circus ring that
afternoon, the women riders in their short tulle skirts with bare necks
and arms and the men in their tights. Behind them came the performing
animals and gilded chariots drawn by tiny Shetland ponies driven by
little girls dressed as fairies or little boys dressed as princes.
After them came the elephants, camels, sacred bull, zebras and so on,
led by their keepers dressed in uniforms of black pants and red coats
trimmed with gold lace and cords. Following all this were the cages
with the animals in them, and one could see the giraffe sticking his
head out of the hole in the roof so he could rest his long neck, and
the tigers and lions pacing up and down their cages trying to get out.
All the time the procession was making its way slowly through the
streets the clown walked beside it talking to the crowds on the
sidewalk. Oh, it was most exciting to the small boys and girls who
never had seen a circus procession go by.
But oh my, how deadly tiresome it was to the poor performers and
animals that had to take part! Billy and Nannie happened to be about
the middle of the procession and as bad luck would have it, one of the
clowns had selected just that place to walk. Billy was growing more
desperate every block they went at not seeing a single good chance
to escape. For should he start to run away the clown would give the
alarm and one of the guards of the procession in policeman’s uniform
and mounted on horseback would give chase and capture him. Besides, he
would have to butt his way through the crowds of people who were lining
the sidewalks so closely it would be like butting through a stone wall.
“Oh! What shall I do?” and Billy had dropped his head in disappointment
and was paying no attention to the monkey on his back who kept on
dancing and hitting his head with the little tambourine he had in
his hand. All of a sudden he heard a great clattering of wheels and
tooting of horns coming down a side street and just as his part of
the procession got to the corner it parted so the fire engine and
hook-and-ladder could go across the street.
Now was their chance. “Follow me, Nannie!” called Billy and with a
bound forward he reached the middle of the street and ran under the
hook-and-ladder auto, though it was going at breakneck speed and he
ran the chance of being killed instantly. So did Nannie. Still it was
Billy’s way to take a chance every time, no matter how dangerous it
was. Once under the machine, they ran for all they were worth to keep
covered by its long ladders so no one could see them. Their escape had
been so sudden and just at a time when all eyes were on the fire engine
and hook-and-ladder, that no one belonging to the circus saw them.
The poor little monkey on Billy’s back was nearly scared to death so
when he saw the ladders over his head he jumped from the little saddle
on Billy’s back up on them. Luck was with him for the sudden jerk on
the rope untied the loose knot and he found himself free, much to his
delight as well as Billy’s.
Presently the hook-and-ladder stopped and Billy could smell smoke and
see fire ahead of them. But what made his heart bound with delight was
that it had stopped directly opposite the opening into an alley. With
a squeal of delight Billy and Nannie darted from under the machine and
ran down the alley, never stopping until they were many blocks away.
Now the question was, how was he to get the saddle from his back?
Should anyone see him with it they would know he had run away from the
circus. He would have to stay hid in the alley and not show himself
on the streets until after dark. Seeing a packing box leaning against
a fence, Billy nosed around until he found it was empty. Then they
squeezed themselves between the fence and the box and lay down to rest
and try to think out some way to free him from the saddle.
While turning his head to look at it he found that by stretching his
neck he could just get hold of the edge of the girth that strapped it
to his back. Consequently he began squirming and twisting until he got
a good hold with his teeth. Then with a mighty tug he pulled it toward
his head, and joy of joys! in three long strong pulls he had it up to
his neck. So all he had to do was to duck his head and the saddle fell
over his head and neck to the floor of the box.
[Illustration]
“Ha! Ha!” laughed Billy to himself. “I think I am pretty smart to rid
myself of that saddle. Now I can go wherever I wish and no one will
suspect that I am not just an ordinary goat out looking for something
to eat. Speaking of eats, I believe I’m hungry. Aren’t you, Nannie?
Now that we are rested, I think we had better go in search of food.”
So they squeezed themselves out of the box and went trotting down the
alley as independently as you please.
When they reached the corner where the alley crossed the street, they
found a grocery store with baskets of vegetables and fruit displayed
outside. Billy took a peek and no one being in sight, he reached for a
nice fresh cabbage and retired to the alley to eat it. Nannie did the
same. Having finished the cabbage, they ate a bunch of carrots and were
beginning on a head of lettuce when the grocery wagon drove into the
alley and the driver chased them away with his long whip and then threw
stones at them.
Billy was now feeling pretty fine, having had all he wanted to eat, so
he thought, “Now is the time for us to find the depot, so I can see if
we can’t steal a ride out of here back to Minneapolis. There we must
change cars and get on a train going west, or we will never catch up
with Stubby and Button.”
Had Billy only known it, he was at that minute within three blocks of
the very depot he was looking for. He did not know this, but hearing a
train whistle he thought he would follow the sound and see where it led
him, in town or out. By jumping a fence or two and crossing a vacant
lot, they soon came to a railroad track and looking down it what should
he see but the very circus train they had come on!
“Hurrah! This is surely good luck for us for now I know we shall get on
the right train to take us back. We’ll go over to the depot and watch
for a chance to sneak into a freight car going in the right direction
to carry us back to Minneapolis.”
Billy soon found a good place for them to hide from which they could
watch all the incoming and outgoing trains, but he saw no freight
cars with the doors open. What he _did_ see when it grew dark and the
lights were lighted was an express mail train all made up and ready to
start. He could see men throwing on mail bags and storing away express
packages while the engine blew off steam and waited for the signal. He
was watching this intently when the audacious thought struck him, “Why
not go on that train instead of waiting for some old slow freight? We
will try it. They can but throw us off and I’ll put up such a fight
they won’t dare do it after we have once started. But the hard part
will be to get aboard without one or the other of us being seen.
However, it is pretty dark, which will help some, and I am going to try
it.”
So they trotted across the intervening tracks and jumped up on the
platform. Now there were two platforms where this train stood and the
doors of the car were open on each side so a person could board the
train from either side. Billy noticed this, and while the man in charge
of the mail car was standing at one door talking to the driver of a
mail wagon that had just brought a big lot of mail bags, Billy and
Nannie stepped in the opposite door and tiptoed into a dimly-lighted
corner and hid behind a pile of mail bags. They had scarcely secreted
themselves when the train gave a jerk and they were off.
“Pretty slick work I call that!” said Billy. “This surely has been
our lucky day to run away from the circus and get started back to
Minneapolis.”
This train was the fast night express and made but one stop between
Duluth and Minneapolis, so when the train was out of the suburbs and
rolling along through the quiet country, the mailman turned the lights
down low and threw himself on a cot at the side of the car and was soon
fast asleep. He never awoke until the train whistled for St. Paul. Then
he was up and on his feet and ready to open the door the minute the
train stopped. As he was removing the inner bar that fastened the door,
he thought he heard a noise behind him, but he did not bother to look
around to see what it was. Imagine his surprise when the door slipped
open to see two big white goats leap past him and run down the platform
and disappear in the crowd!
“Well, I’ll be hanged! How in the world did those goats get in my car
and me not know it?”
As Billy and Nannie stood outside the station wondering what they would
do next, who should they see coming down the street but Stubby and
Button.
“Nannie, do my eyes deceive me, or is that really and truly Stubby and
Button I see coming toward us?”
“It really is!”
“Well, well, well! Of all that is wonderful, where in the world did
you come from? The last we saw of you, you were in the circus train
bound for Bismarck, North Dakota, and at this minute we were wondering
how we could get to you the quickest way.”
[Illustration]
“Yes,” spoke up Nannie, “we were debating which would be the safest and
easiest, to try stealing a ride on a train or foot it. But my, I am
glad you are here! Come here until we rub noses!”
“This beats any luck we have had for some time,” answered Stubby.
“I should say so,” agreed Button, “as we left the circus on purpose to
come back and look for you two! As you did not come on and we were to
be carried further West the next morning which would separate us more
and more every day they traveled, we determined to escape and come back
to St. Paul in the hope of meeting your circus when it broke camp and
came back here. But we expected to have the dickens’ own time to find
you. Now we are all together again, I say we take a look at this city
and try to get a little fun out of it, for so far our trip has had very
little pleasure in it. Then after we have had all the hilarious times
we care for, we can continue our journey west to the Pacific Coast.”
THE END
_The_ Billy Whiskers Series
[Illustration]
[Illustration: SAALFIELD]
_By Frances Trego Montgomery_
[Illustration]
The antics of frolicsome Billy Whiskers, that adventuresome goat Mrs.
Montgomery writes about in these stories make all the boys and girls
chuckle--and every story that is issued about him is pronounced by them
“better than the last.”
TITLES IN SERIES
1. Billy Whiskers
2. Billy Whiskers’ Kids
3. Billy Whiskers, Junior
4. Billy Whiskers’ Travels
5. Billy Whiskers at the Circus
6. Billy Whiskers at the Fair
7. Billy Whiskers’ Friends
8. Billy Whiskers, Jr., and His Chums
9. Billy Whiskers’ Grandchildren
10. Billy Whiskers’ Vacation
11. Billy Whiskers Kidnaped
12. Billy Whiskers’ Twins
13. Billy Whiskers in an Aeroplane
14. Billy Whiskers in Town
15. Billy Whiskers in Panama
16. Billy Whiskers on the Mississippi
17. Billy Whiskers at the Exposition
18. Billy Whiskers Out West
19. Billy Whiskers in the South
20. Billy Whiskers in Camp
21. Billy Whiskers in France
22. Billy Whiskers’ Adventures
23. Billy Whiskers in the Movies
24. Billy Whiskers Out for Fun
BOUND IN BOARDS
COVER IN COLORS
PROFUSE TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS
FULL-PAGE DRAWINGS IN COLORS
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY--AKRON, OHIO
BOOKS FOR BOYS
The Boy Scout Series
_By Major Robert Maitland and Colonel George Durston_
Where is there the boy not interested in adventure?
Where the boy not intensely interested in the Boy Scouts too?
Adventure plus Boy Scouts--there is nothing more to be desired, at
least that is the way the boys feel who have read these stirring tales.
TWELVE TITLES
1. The Boy Scouts in Camp
2. The Boy Scouts to the Rescue
3. The Boy Scouts on the Trail
4. The Boy Scout Firefighters
5. The Boy Scouts Afloat
6. The Boy Scout Pathfinders
7. The Boy Scout Automobilists
8. The Boy Scout Aviators
9. The Boy Scouts’ Champion Recruit
10. The Boy Scouts’ Defiance
11. The Boy Scouts’ Challenge
12. The Boy Scouts’ Victory
EACH VOLUME A 12MO, WITH AN ATTRACTIVE JACKET PRINTED IN COLORS
The Aeroplane Boys Series
_By Captain Frank Cobb_
Valorous deeds on land and sea are all very well--but now come tales
of the air to thrill the boy’s heart. And here are three than which
there are no better. High in the air the heroes fight out their own
salvation--their own and others too, who never would dare the heights.
BATTLING THE CLOUDS
AN AVIATOR’S LUCK
DANGEROUS DEEDS
EACH VOLUME A 12MO, WITH FRONTISPIECE, AND JACKET IN COLORS
THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY--AKRON, OHIO
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.