A CHANCE REMARK
Joe Strong had succeeded. He had demonstrated that he could ride his
motor-cycle across a high wire, and that was what he had set out to do.
And it had proved to be a thrilling exploit. Joe could tell that by the
wave of excitement which swept over the big crowd outside. Mr. Brader
and his men were excited too, but in a milder manner, for they had seen
the preliminaries of Joe's performance, and knew what to expect.
But the crowd outside fairly went wild, shouting, cheering and
applauding. Some of the crowd even pushed past the watchman at the gate
and swarmed into the lot.
"They're going to make a hero of you, Joe," said Mr. Brader as he
looked at the onrushing throng.
"Not if I know it!" Joe exclaimed, and he started for the side door of
the factory. But he was too late. The crowd pressed around him, men and
boys trying to shake him by the hand, that they might be able to say
they had met the daring motor-cycle rider of the high wire.
Some boys were examining Joe's machine so closely that they were in
danger of wrecking it, and he had to beg them good-naturedly to let it
alone.
Others swarmed about the wire, looking at the supporting shears and
trying their weight on the inclined approaches. As they were likely to
displace the arrangement, the men from the factory had to make them
move away.
Altogether it was a great ovation for Joe, and he appreciated it very
much, even as modest as he was.
"If the crowds at the county fairs or other exhibitions where I show
will only make as much fuss as this, the management will think I am at
least earning my money," said Joe to Mr. Brader, when the excitement
had quieted down and the crowd had been driven out of the factory lot.
"So you are fully determined that that's what you're going to do--go
about giving exhibitions?"
"For a while, yes, if I can get some engagements."
"Oh, I guess you can do that easily enough. The act is sure to be a
thriller. I think it will draw better than an aeroplane exhibition. And
if I were you I'd have some photographs made, so as to give folks an
idea what it is like."
"I could do that," agreed Joe. "And if I could induce some moving
picture concern to put me on a film, I'd get pretty well known over
the country."
"A fine idea, Joe! I know some moving picture people and I'll speak to
them about it. I think it would make a good scene for them. It could be
released for one of the weeklies or features."
Mr. Brader was as good as his word, and a few days later Joe received
word that a camera man would visit him on a certain day to "film" him.
"Maybe, for all you know, you'll be acting for the movies yet," said
Mr. Brader, with a smile. "You surely could give them some thrills."
"Well, if they'll pay enough I'll do it," said Joe. He was not
mercenary, but he realized that this was his way to make a living, and
he decided that the time to earn money was when he was young, and while
he had such good strength and nerves.
Every day, for a week or more, Joe practised riding his motor-cycle on
the high wire, and each day crowds gathered outside the fence to watch
him. Of course this was in the nature of a free exhibition, but Joe did
not care.
He realized that it would be very difficult to do his act in a tent if
he had the wire as high and as long as he had it now. But he knew both
dimensions could be made less, and still the thrill would be retained.
"So if I want to go back to the circus, or join some show where I'll
have to be inside, I know I can do it," the youth reflected. Just at
present his idea was to offer to do the act for the management of
county fairs and large expositions, and to have it take place in the
open to draw a crowd. Joe would be paid, not by the people watching
him, but by the fair management.
"I've got to book myself just as Professor Rosello used to book his
show," Joe said.
The moving picture man came and took Joe and his motor-cycle on several
hundred feet of film, showing him getting ready to ascend the slanting
approach, after his spin across the level ground, his speedy flight
across the straight course, and his startling descent. Pictures were
also taken, showing Joe close up to the camera as he bowed and smiled
to an imaginary audience, and views were made of the crowd outside the
fence.
Later on the film was released to a chain of theatres throughout the
country, and as Joe's name appeared on the film he received what was
practically a free advertisement.
Joe also advertised in some theatrical and circus papers, announcing
what sort of an act he had, and offering to bring himself and his
paraphernalia to any fair or open-air exhibition, and to do his
"death-defying ride," as the moving picture film described it.
He asked a large sum for each performance, and he had to do this to
make up for the heavy expense he would be under. He had to take with
him considerable apparatus, and he also needed men to aid him. He
decided to take two of Mr. Brader's helpers as he traveled about the
country, for they knew best about the apparatus, and how to set it up.
Particularly must the wire be anchored well at each end. If it should
break, or pull loose when Joe was in mid-air, he would get a fall that
would almost certainly kill him. On the solicitation of Mr. Brader, Joe
decided to use a life-net stretched under the whole length of the wire.
If he fell he would fall into this, but even then there was risk, for
the heavy motor-cycle might tear through the meshes at the very point
where Joe might fall with it, and let him fall to the ground.
The youth began to get letters almost at once, asking as to his terms
and other details. These he answered. His correspondence he attended
to in the morning, then he would practise a little on the wire and in
the afternoon perhaps go off for a ride on his machine, after having
changed the wheels.
Joe received a letter from Professor Rosello, his first employer. The
magician said he had fully recovered now, and was going to take his
show out on the road again. He inquired if Joe did not want to join
him, instead of doing the dangerous wire act, which the professor had
seen advertised in one of the theatrical papers.
And, for a moment, the boy was almost tempted to go back to his
sleight-of-hand work, at least while waiting for an engagement to do
his wire act, having as yet received no definite offers. But he had
faith in himself and his attraction and he decided he would stick to it.
"They'll want me--some fair or exhibition will--sooner or later," Joe
told himself, "and I want to be ready to jump right in. I'll hang on a
bit longer."
Meanwhile he kept on with his practice until he could do the act at
night, with powerful electric lamps placed near the spot where the wire
emerged from the ground.
"I don't want to miss the wire with my front wheel or it will give me a
bad upset," Joe reflected. "But as I may have to do the trick at night
I must be ready for it."
So the lad practised night and day while waiting. And at last his
chance came, as he had thought it would.
The management of a big county fair in Clayton, a city about two
hundred miles from Hertford, wrote to him, asking for his terms and
for other details. Joe's reply was quickly answered with a note to the
effect that his price was satisfactory, asking him to come on and give
an exhibition for two days, and sending him a contract to sign.
"There's my chance!" exulted Joe, as he showed the letter to Mr.
Brader.
"I'm glad of it, Joe," the manufacturer said. "Good luck to you!"
The anchors were taken up, the wire coiled and the shears taken apart
for transportation. Joe was glad he did not have the cumbersome
platforms to move, as his transportation bill and the railroad fare
for himself and his two helpers were heavy enough. So far he had been
living and paying his expenses from the money he had saved while with
the circus. And, though he still had a sum to his credit, Joe was
anxious to be earning something. Now his chance had come.
"If I can't get any money from my mother's English estate I'll have to
earn the cash myself," thought Joe.
He looked up the route of Sampson Brothers' Circus when he had
completed the arrangements for going to the Clayton fair, and found
that the show with which he had been formerly connected would be
playing in a town about ten miles distant.
"I'll ride over and see the boys," decided Joe.
And, though he did not say so aloud, he included the "girls" with the
"boys"--at least one girl.
Jeroleman and Ryan, Joe's two helpers, very quickly packed the
apparatus for transportation. Then, one day, having bidden good-bye to
Mr. Brader, Joe set forth to give his first public exhibition with his
motor-cycle on the high wire.
His journey to Clayton was without incident, and he found the fair in
full progress when he arrived. He learned that a certain daring aviator
had disappointed the management by failing to appear, and they had
engaged Joe instead.
There was ample space to set up the wire in the middle of the oval
race-track, and from there a good view of Joe's daring feat could be
had from all over the grounds.
There was no trouble in setting up the wire, and at last the time
came when Joe was to give his exhibition. A record-breaking crowd was
in attendance, for the attraction had been well advertised, and, Joe
learned later, his moving pictures had been shown in town a few days
before. So he had an audience all ready and waiting for him.
"Well, is everything all right?" asked the daring motor-cyclist, as he
came out of his dressing tent, wearing a suit of white tights which
would make him very conspicuous as he flashed along the high wire on
his motor-cycle.
"Everything as tight as a drum," reported Jeroleman.
"And the life-nets are there too," said Ryan.
"Well, I hope I'll not need them," Joe said, with a smile, as he put
on his head-guard. He wore this, but he had decided against the padded
suit since he had the life-net to depend on in case of a fall.
He had looked over the anchors, the shears, the wire and his
motor-cycle, and he was now ready to start. The ground had been
carefully smoothed for him.
The aerial wire-rider, which is as good a name as can be invented for
Joe, mounted his machine at the end of the stretch. There was a little
wait, as Jeroleman and Ryan took their places, one at either end of the
wire, to help Joe if he should meet with an accident. The crowd waited
in anxious suspense.
"Is everything ready?" cried Joe dramatically. He had learned that
while in the circus.
"Ready!" answered Jeroleman.
"Ready!" echoed Ryan.
"Here I come!" Joe cried.
He started the motor, kicked up the rear support and a second later was
rushing across the ground toward the wire.
The grooved front wheel took the wire easily, and the rear wheel
followed.
"There he goes!" shouted some one in the crowd, as Joe, conspicuous in
his white tights, shot up the wire incline.
Up and up he went. Then out on the straight stretch.
"There he is! He's riding the high wire!" cried hundreds.
And Joe was. Just as he had done in private, he did now in public. On
and on he rode, fifty feet up in the air, with nothing but a slender
wire between him and the nets below. On and on he went, a flashing
figure in the sunlight, until he reached the other support and then
down to the ground he rushed, bringing up with a squeaking of brakes at
the fringe of spectators, kept back a safe distance by means of a rope.
Ryan ran up and helped Joe off the motor-cycle. There was really no
need of this, as the lad was not in the least exhausted. But it made
the trick look more spectacular and dangerous, though it was dangerous
enough, as one may easily guess.
"Great! That was great!"
"Most thrilling thing I ever witnessed!"
"I wouldn't take that ride for a million dollars!"
These were some of the excited comments Joe heard made in the crowds
that watched him. But as our hero walked back to his little dressing
tent, having bowed his acknowledgments to the applause, he heard a
chance remark that set his blood to tingling as neither the applause
nor the ride had done.
"By Jove! that was cleverly done," some man in the crowd exclaimed.
"My! that boy has as much nerve as a girl I knew in England. Janet
Willoughby was a daring rider!"
Joe started. Janet Willoughby was the maiden name of his mother.