e for gambling," he said solemnly, and Helen could not
help believing him. "And I don't care for cards, except to do tricks
with them. It isn't any fun for me to play, as I could too easily fool
the other players--if I wanted to. No, Helen, I'm not spending my money
that way--I don't gamble."

"Oh, Joe, I'm so glad! I was afraid you might be, and yet I didn't see
how you could be. I thought I knew you better than that. I'm so glad!"

Impulsively she held out her hand, and Joe took it in a warm clasp.

"Now I must hurry away," the girl went on, "or I won't be mended up
when the show begins."

She moved off, with a bright look and a nod to Joe, who sat watching
the men finish their work of cleaning the glass sides.

"Gambling," mused Joe, as he watched Helen enter the tent where Mrs.
Watson had her quarters. "Gambling! I wonder if they are spreading such
reports about me just because I don't spend my money on them?"

It was time to put the tank together and to put the water and goldfish
in, in readiness for the afternoon show. Joe went to see about this,
still puzzling over Helen's question.

The goldfish were carried in a separate tank which the ring-master had
provided for them, and Joe, having seen that they were fed, had them
turned into the big glass box in which he was soon to go through his
act.

"Ah, Senor Strong," called Senorita Tanlazo, the snake charmer, as she
passed Joe on her way to look after her reptiles in their air-holed
box, "ah, why did you not take advantage of my offer, and use my nice
big anaconda in the tank with you?"

"Thank you again, but no," said Joe. "The anaconda is a little too
ill-tempered for me."

"Yes, he is that. I was only joking when I suggested that you use him,"
said the Spanish woman. "I have to be very careful how I handle him of
late. He is getting ready to shed his skin, and that always makes a
snake treacherous. But have you put anything new in your act of late? I
have not been able to watch you, though they tell me you are quite a
drawing card."

"No, I haven't been able to hit on anything new," Joe said. "I wish I
could. If you hear of anything I wish you'd let me know."

"I will," promised the snake charmer, as she passed on. "Here is a
theatrical paper you might like to look at," she said. "I am through
with it; so you need not keep it for me."

She handed Joe a magazine which chronicled the doings of actors and
actresses, news of circuses, theatrical comp