"What sort of a bed is
it--cracked stone?"

"No, cinders."

Joe was glad to hear that, for cracked stone would have worked havoc to
his tires.

"He can't ride no railroad line," declared another man, positively.

"Why not?" Joe wanted to know.

"You can't ride over the railroad trestle, and it's more than a mile
long, counting the approaches. If you walk you won't make any better
time than if you went around the long way. You can't ride that machine
over the open ties. It would rattle it all to pieces. The only way you
can do is to walk and push it."

Joe thought for a moment.

"I think I can ride the trestle," he said.

"How?" demanded the man.

"By keeping on the steel rail. That's smooth enough."

"You never can do it!" declared the man who had offered the objection.
"You never can do it in this world. You'll be off in no time, and it's
a long fall to the river. You can't do it!"

"Can't I?" asked Joe coolly. "You come and watch me. I'm going to ride
my motor-cycle across the railroad trestle bridge on the single rail!"

Several in the crowd looked at him admiringly, while others shook their
heads.

"He'll kill himself!" murmured one old man.

"He sure has got nerve!" exclaimed a boy, admiringly.

Meanwhile a crowd of villagers followed Joe as he rode off in the
direction of the railroad. It was his only chance of getting to the
circus on time.

CHAPTER XXI

IN STRANGE PERIL

Joe was running his machine at reduced speed as he went off in the
direction that had been indicated as the location of the railroad
tracks. Beside him ran some of the more fleet-footed of the youths of
the town, and behind them came some men. All were hurrying to see if
Joe would make good his boast.

Yet, it was not so much a boast as it was a determination to do this
risky act in order not to be late at the circus and so disappoint a big
crowd and cause trouble for the management.

"It's my own fault for going off so far into the country," mused Joe,
"and I've got to make up for it as best I can."

"Turn down here to the railroad," a lad called to Joe. "This is the
short cut."

Joe steered his machine down a lane, and he soon saw stretching ahead
of him the cinder-covered embankment of a single line of railroad. In
the distance Joe could see a big depression where the river ran. The
stream itself was not very large, but it flowed at the very bottom of a
wide and deep valley, and to cross this a long tre