NOT ON THE PROGRAMME.
Neka read the note at a glance, yet he realized its importance just
as much as if he had studied it an hour.
Never had he been placed in such an awkward and uncomfortable
position. He did not know what to expect, and it is the unknown that
makes cowards of us all.
He dared not go on with his tricks, and yet here he was facing a vast
audience that was watching his every movement.
In the center of the stage stood a charcoal stove, wherein was
heating an iron bar to be used in the next trick. Trying to think of
some means of excusing himself to the audience, Neka approached the
stove and took out the bar.
That, at least, was all right, and he began to handle it
affectionately and licked it with his tongue.
Suddenly a strange hissing within the charcoal stove made him jump
away. Then, as if warned by Providence, he hurled a blanket, to be
used in the following trick, over the stove.
Bang! The blanket had scarcely dropped over the stove, when there
came a loud explosion. The stove was completely wrecked, and had
it not been for the blanket, the pieces must have flown in every
direction.
“That was his trick to blow me sky-high,” thought Neka, as he
shuddered. “Well, thank goodness, it’s over, and we are safe!”
It must not be supposed that he was not startled. As a matter of
fact, he was trembling violently in every limb and it was only his
strong nerve that kept him from collapsing utterly.
The audience, while shocked, thought the explosion part of a trick,
and remained quiet.
“Lower the stove on the trap and put out the fire!” called Neka to
Bindley at the wing, and this was immediately done. The few burning
bits scattered from under the blanket Neka picked up with his hands,
and then began to juggle them as if nothing out of the ordinary had
occurred. He brought his first turn to an end immediately after, and
once off the stage demanded an explanation of Joe Windom, which was
not long in forthcoming.
Joe had seen the drunkard on a corner a block from the theatre. The
man was muttering to himself, and as Joe passed him the lad had heard
him say something to the effect that Neka would be blown sky-high on
the stage. On reaching the show house, Joe had heard from Bindley how
the drunkard had been among the boy Fire King’s effects, and had at
once put two and two together, with the result described above.
“It was a narrow escape,” said Joe Windom. “You ought to have that
man arrested.”
“By all means,” added Longfellow Wadsworth.
The next morning Neka started out to find the fiend, and bring him
to justice. He was thoroughly aroused and resolved to make an example
of the fellow.
It was no easy matter to trace the drunken variety actor in such a
large city as Philadelphia. But Neka was determined, and did not give
up at the first or the second failure.
He started on the corner where the fellow had last been seen, and
from there traced him down to the riverside. Here he learned the
fellow had gone over to Camden, and Neka accordingly crossed the
ferry.
In Camden Neka struck the trail and followed it to a third-rate
boarding-house situated down among the machine works.
As he stood on a corner he heard a loud cry for help and almost
immediately a young man came running past him.
Then, on looking down the block, Neka saw the drunken variety actor
in a fierce hand-to-hand fight with two other men.
The fight grew hotter each instant and for the time being Neka
thought it best not to interfere. He stood and watched the encounter
with keen interest.
The two strangers soon began to get the best of the variety man, and
before the other could resist he was well pounded and rolled over and
over in the gutter. Then, of a sudden, one of the men slipped and
fell on the prostrate man.
“Oh, oh! me collar-bone is broke!” yelled the drunken man, and with a
jerk he straightened out and fainted dead away.
Alarmed at this turn of affairs the two young men ran off and two
blocks away Neka saw them join the fellow who had first skipped out.
By this time a crowd was collecting, and soon a policeman came up.
The man still remained unconscious and an ambulance was sent for.
The surgeon on the ambulance said the man was quite severely injured,
having sustained a compound fracture of the collar-bone and a broken
arm. He was taken away immediately after and Neka did not take the
trouble to follow.
“He’s punished enough,” he said to himself. “Perhaps in the hospital
he will have a chance to think over his misdeeds.”
Neka had never before stopped in Camden, and he now resolved to take
in the sights of the busy little city. The streets were full of snow,
and flying sleighs made matters lively and jolly.
He walked along several of the principal thoroughfares, gazing into
the windows and at the flying turnouts, and at noon stepped into a
restaurant for lunch.
The lunch was a good one and he took his own time in eating it. When
he had finished, he walked up to the desk to settle.
And then he made the unpleasant discovery that he had come away from
his hotel in Philadelphia with only seven cents in his pocket.