JOE STRONG ON THE HIGH WIRE
OR
_MOTOR-CYCLE PERILS OF THE AIR_
By VANCE BARNUM
Author of "Joe Strong, the Boy Wizard," "Joe Strong
on the Trapeze," etc.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
HEARST'S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY CO.
PUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY
HEARST'S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY COMPANY
JOE STRONG ON THE HIGH WIRE
CONTENTS
I. "GOOD-BYE!"
II. THE SHAKY BRIDGE
III. TURNED TURTLE
IV. A STRANGE INTEREST
V. RATHER DUBIOUS
VI. MAKING THE APPARATUS
VII. FAILURE
VIII. A NEW IDEA
IX. THE FIRST EXHIBITION
X. A CHANCE REMARK
XI. JOE WONDERS
XII. DAYS OF DARING
XIII. A BAD FALL
XIV. THE NEW MACHINE
XV. A BIG CLIMB
XVI. ACROSS A CHASM
XVII. BACK IN THE CIRCUS
XVIII. IN MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
XIX. JOE'S MARKSMANSHIP
XX. OUT WEST
XXI. RECOGNITION
XXII. GOOD NEWS
XXIII. A WILD RIDE
XXIV. THE CABLEGRAM
XXV. JOE'S INHERITANCE
ILLUSTRATIONS
"I'm coming!" shouted Joe. "Be with you in a second!"
Then Joe felt himself falling toward the net.
Then the lad found himself whizzing across the dizzy heights.
This car was moving much faster than the other had been.
JOE STRONG ON THE HIGH WIRE
CHAPTER I
"GOOD-BYE!"
"Come on, Ben, I want to introduce you to Lizzie."
"Lizzie? I thought you said her name was Helen."
"Oh, this is a different sort of lady. Of course there's a Helen too.
Come on, right over this way."
Two boys, or, rather, two youths, walked arm in arm across a lot
whereon stood several tents, one large and the others smaller. From
one came the loud trumpetings of elephants and an occasional roar of a
lion. In another tent scores of horses could be seen under the raised
sides, eating hay from canvas mangers. From still a third tent came
appetizing odors of food.
The scene was a circus, and it was as lively and animated a scene
as such always are, with men hurrying to and fro getting the animals
and wagons ready for the street parade and arranging for the two
performances that were to follow.
"Well, Ben, do you feel like coming back?" asked Joe Strong, the taller
of the two lads.
"Feel like coming back? I should say I do, Joe! But if it hadn't been
for you I never should have been able to come back."
"You might, Ben."
"No, I'm sure I shouldn't. I'd never have had the money to pay for the
operation, and that's what saved me from becoming deaf and dumb, Joe."
"Well, I'm glad I was able to have it done for you, Ben. Are you sure
you'll be able to take up the tank work again, and stay under water as
long as you used to?"
"The doctor says he doesn't see any reason why I can't."
As the two lads walked on toward the dressing tent, where the men and
women performers attired themselves in the gay suits they appeared in
at the public performances, peculiar sounds came from the canvas house.
The noise was, as nearly as it can be shown in print, like a series of
hoarse barkings, expressed by:
Hook! Hook! Hook! Ook! Ook!
"What in the world is that?" asked Benny Turton, who, as he walked
beside Joe Strong, showed somewhat the effects of a recent illness and
operation.
"That's Lizzie, saying good-morning," explained Joe.
"Well, I can't say that she has a very cheerful voice," returned Ben
with a smile.
"Still you'll find Lizzie a very cheerful and companionable young
lady," went on Joe, laughing.
"But I can't get over thinking it was a Helen I was to meet," said
Ben. "You know the Helen I mean--the one billed as Mademoiselle
Mortonti--she was with the show when I was, and I used to think you
were quite gone on her. She hasn't left, has she?"
"Oh, no," Joe answered. "Miss Morton is still with Sampson Brothers'
Show. But it's Lizzie I want you to meet now. You'll have to perform
with her in the tank, you know, if you take up the work I'm going to
leave."
"Is she a good swimmer?" asked Ben.
"One of the best in the world. She can beat you and me all to pieces."
"I'll have to practise up," said Ben, who was quite curious.
"You can never equal Lizzie," retorted Joe. "Come on now, and you'll
meet her in proper style. You might give her this, for it will be a
sure way of getting in her good graces."
As he spoke Joe Strong, who had entered the dressing tent, picked up
from a pail near the entrance a dead fish, and slipped it into Ben's
hand.
"Here! What--what in the world do you mean?" exclaimed Ben, looking at
the fish he had unwittingly taken.
"It's for Lizzie," explained Joe.
"But--but it isn't cooked."
"I know. Lizzie likes her fish raw!" Joe had hard work not to laugh at
the queer look on Ben's face.
"You've sure got me going," laughed Ben. "I give up. What's it all
about?"
"This," answered Joe, moving over toward a heavy wooden box. "Ben
Turton, allow me to present you to Lizzie, one of the best trained
sea-lions in captivity," and as Joe turned back the cover of the crate
a sea-lion wiggled her way out, and, flopping to a position in front of
Joe, raised up her sleek head and "Hooked!" in loud tones.
"Yes, Lizzie, you shall have it," Joe went on. "Give her the fish, Ben.
That's what she is begging for."
Hardly knowing what he was doing, Ben Turton held out the fish, which
the sea-lion gently took from his hand. There was a flash of small,
white and very sharp teeth and--the fish disappeared.
"Whew!" whistled Ben. "So your Lizzie is a seal, is she? And that's
how she eats fish! I shouldn't like to have her take a bite out of me."
"No danger," said Joe. "She's as gentle as a baby. Look," and he
fearlessly placed his hand in the mouth of the sea-lion, or seal, as
most persons wrongly call the sea-lion. "Lizzie and I have been working
together in the tank for some time now," he added.
"Do you mean that you actually swim in the tank with her?" asked Ben,
somewhat incredulously.
"That's what I do. And that's what has made the act so popular. I have
made a lot of changes since I temporarily took your place, Ben, and I
didn't tell you about all of them, for I wanted to surprise you. The
seal is one of the surprises."
"I should say it is!" cried Ben. "A big surprise!"
"Well, I must get ready for my farewell appearance," Joe went on.
"Come on in while I dress, and you can be planning for something new
yourself. You're going to take the work up where I leave off, you know."
"Yes, I suppose so, but I didn't figure on acting with a seal, Joe."
"Oh, you'll soon get used to that. Lizzie's a great tank actress. She
just loves to do tricks. I'll show you, and later on when the afternoon
performance is over you can put on the rubber suit yourself and get in
the tank with her. You'll like Lizzie."
"Well, perhaps I shall," said Ben, but he was rather dubious.
In the dressing tent Joe Strong donned a queer rubber suit, red in
color, and made to resemble the scales of a fish. In fact Joe was known
as the "boy fish" just as Ben, before he had been taken ill, was billed
as the "human fish."
"It seems like old times to be here again," remarked Ben, as several
of the circus men and women came in to see him, while Joe was getting
ready for his act.
"I'm glad it does," remarked the boy fish. "And I'm glad you can take
your old place back. It's a good act, and I did hate to leave the
circus without it. But I'm going to say good-bye to-day, and you can
fill my place."
"What are you going to do, Joe?"
"Well, you know I told you I had become quite an expert on the
motor-cycle."
"Yes, you mentioned it. But so much has happened lately, and in such a
short time, that I had almost forgotten it."
"I don't blame you. Well, I have an idea I can work up an act of my own
on the gasoline bicycle that will beat anything I ever did in the tank.
So I'm going to try."
"Are you going to leave the circus?"
"Yes. I have an idea I can make more money starring by myself. It will
be easier for me, too, as I can map out my own route, and if there
comes a day when I don't feel like showing I won't have to. I don't
mind hard work, but with a circus the show has to go on, and one has to
go on with it whether one wants to or not. So I'm going to cut loose."
"Well, I wish you all success, Joe. I'm glad to have my old act back in
the circus."
By this time the parade was over and the afternoon performance would
soon begin. Joe took Ben into the "main top," or the big tent where the
main show would be given.
"Hello!" exclaimed Ben, as he saw a big glass tank filled with water,
in which goldfish were swimming about. "You've made a change here, too!"
"Yes, it's a little showier, I think. Do you like it?"
"I sure do. Now I'm going to watch you act. I'll have to do as nearly
like you as I can."
With a blare of trumpets the grand entry started and then, when the
camels, the elephants and the horses with their gaily dressed riders
had filed out of the big tent, the individual and team acts began.
Joe Strong, the boy fish, went into the big tank of water and swam
about, doing fancy strokes and also going through a number of
sleight-of-hand tricks, including some with a pack of celluloid cards.
All the tricks were performed under water, Joe, of course, holding his
breath.
As a climax Joe performed with the trained seal, Lizzie, who was
released from her crate by an attendant when Joe gave the signal.
Lizzie flapped her way up a flight of steps leading to the top of the
tank, and dived in with scarcely a ripple.
"Say! won't she eat up those goldfish?" asked Ben of Helen Morton, who
stood near him watching Joe. Helen had finished some trick and fancy
riding on her trained horse, Rosebud.
"No, Lizzie can't get the fish," Helen explained. "The tank has double
sides, you see, and the fish swim in between the inner and outer sheets
of glass, so the seal can't get at them. That was my idea, Ben."
"It's a good one, all right."
Joe ate bananas under water, while Lizzie consumed fish. Then the two
went through several other tricks, the act ending when Joe had remained
under water, without coming up to breathe, for four minutes and a half.
This was not his record, but it was a long time, and the big crowd
applauded vigorously when Jim Tracy, the ring-master, announced the
time.
"I don't believe I'll be able to do that," said Ben, with a dubious
shake of his head.
"Oh, yes you will, in time," said Helen. "You'll get back to your old
form after a little practice. We're all glad to have you back with us."
"And I guess you'll be sorry to see Joe leave," suggested Ben.
"Indeed we shall!" cried Helen, and she spoke with such warmth that Ben
looked at her curiously, while Helen blushed and turned away her head.
"Well, what do you think of the act, Ben?" asked Joe, when the main
performance was over.
"It's great! You've improved it a hundred per cent. over my tank act. I
only hope I can keep it up to the mark."
"Oh, you can, Ben. Do you want to try it now?"
"I think I'd better have a little practice, yes. Then I'll sort of get
used to Lizzie."
"Oh, the seal isn't hard to act with. Come on."
A little later Ben Turton was again practising his former act as the
"human fish," and, to his delight, he found that his recent illness and
operation had not incapacitated him from doing underwater work.
He could not remain under as long as Joe had, though, but this would
come with practice. Lizzie, the trained seal, performed equally well
with either Joe or Ben, so that part of the problem was solved.
"And there's no reason why Ben can't go on with the performance
to-night," said Joe to Jim Tracy, the ring-master and one of the owners
of the Sampson Brothers' Circus. "That will let me get an early start."
"Just as you say, Joe," replied Jim Tracy. "You seem glad to leave us."
"Not at all. It's only that as long as I'm going to start out on my own
hook, the sooner I begin the better. No, I'm sorry to go, for I have a
lot of friends here."
Joe gave Benny instructions about caring for the seal and the goldfish
when the circus moved on, and also left with the "human fish" some of
the simpler tricks which Benny, in time, could learn to do. Then Joe
got ready his motor-cycle. He had a new idea in regard to using that
machine in some daring trick work, and he wanted to put his plans into
execution. He intended to ride over to see a certain man in Hertford, a
town about twenty-five miles from the place where the circus was then
showing, and he planned to reach his destination that evening, and stay
all night.
"And now are you really going to say good-bye, Joe?" asked Ben, as the
former boy fish came up with his motor-cycle.
"Yes, I'll be getting along now. You've got everything down as fine as
I can tell you, and you'll be able to start right in to-night. But I
sort of hate to go, now the time has come," and there was a suspicion
of tears in the lad's eyes.
"Come and see me once in a while," urged Ben. "I never can thank you
enough for all you have done for me. I shan't forget it."
"Oh, yes, I'll see you some time," Joe promised. "Perhaps I'll be
showing in the same town some day where the circus is billed."
He bade farewell to his many friends and acquaintances in the show,
and, last of all, he shook hands with Helen Morton.
"Good-bye, Joe," she said, and her eyes were not altogether dry. "Let
us hear from you now and then."
"I surely will!" Joe said with energy. "I'll write often."
"So will I," returned the girl in a low voice. "And, Joe, don't--don't
take too many risks, will you?"
"No," he answered.
He walked slowly away from her, mounted the machine, and, waving his
cap to the little crowd of circus folk gathered near the big tent, rode
off down the road.
"Good-bye!" called his friends after him. "Good luck and good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" answered Joe.