ripps was a rapid talker, a brisk man of business, and he disposed
of the cases presented in quick order.

Andy saw four or five dissipated looking men discharged at a word. The
applicants for work were ordered to appear at Tipton, two days later.

Several were after an advance on their salary. Some farmers appeared
with claims for foraging done by circus hands. Finally Andy got to the
front and tendered the card Mr. Harding had given him.

"All right," shot out Scripps sharply, giving the lad a keen look.
"You're the one who blocked the game on Benares? Good for you! We'll
remember that, later."

Scripps glanced over a pasteboard sheet on his desk, first asking Andy
his name and age, and writing his answers down in a big-paged book.

"Half-a-dollar a day and keep, for the present," he said.

"All right," nodded Andy--"it's a start."

"Just so. Let me see. Ah, here we are. Report to the Wild Man of Borneo
side top at twelve."

"Yes, sir."

"Hammer the big triangle there till two. Then--let me see again. Know
how to ride a horse?"

"Oh, yes," replied Andy eagerly.

"All right, at two o'clock report for the jockey ring section at the
horse tent. They'll hand you a costume."

Scripps wrote a number on a red ticket and handed this to Andy--his pass
as an employee. Just then a newcomer bundled up the steps
unceremoniously, a red-faced, fussy old fellow.

"Mail's in," he announced. "Give me the O.K."

Scripps fumbled in a drawer of his desk and brought out a rubber stamp
and pad.

"Mind your eye, Rip," he observed, casting a scrutinizing look over the
intruder.

"Which eye?" demanded the old fellow.

"The one that sees a bottle and glass the quickest."

"H'm!" grumbled Ripley, or "Rip Van Winkle," as he was familiarly known
by the show people. "My eyes are all right. Don't fret. I've been twenty
years with this here show, man and boy--"

"Yes, yes, we know all about that," interrupted Scripps. "You're
seasoned, right enough. Don't leave the rig to come home without a
driver, though, and money letters aboard, as you did last week. Here is
a new hand. Break him in to keep his time employed."

Ripley viewed Andy with some disfavor. Evidently he regarded him as a
sort of guardian.

Andy, however, silently followed him outside. Ripley soon reached a
close vehicle, boarded up back of the seat and with two doors at
the rear.

A big-boned mottled horse, once evidently a beauty, was between the
shafts. As