s right. Thacher takes the bread out of my mouth, sink
him!"

"You say, 'twenty dollars' if I fix Thacher so he can't act well,"
declared Murdock in a cold-blooded way that made Andy shiver, "he won't
act for a spell after to-night, I'm thinking."

"Come to the point--what did you do?"

"Why, after doing their regular stunt on a separate trapeze, Thatcher
somersaults and catches a bar swing from centre. He hangs by his knees
and Benares swings from aloft and catches his hands in his dive for
life. Well, the minute Thacher lands on the centre trapeze to-night down
he goes forty feet head-first. It's broken limbs or nothing, for I cut
the bar free first thing after the afternoon performance. It's held in
place now by only two little pieces of thread that a child's finger
could break."

"Um!" remarked Daley. "I guess I'll cut for it. They think I'm a hundred
miles away. It mustn't be known that I was this near the circus or
they'd suspect me. I presume they'll be wiring for me to come back now."

"Oh, sure. They won't suspect me, either. I sneaked in the big tent and
fixed the trapeze when no one was about. See here, Daley, if you do get
your job back you'd ought to give me an extra ten."

"I'll see about it," said Daley.

The two worthies walked from the place. Andy watched them cross fields
away from the main road and away from both Clifton and Centreville.

Little thrills of horror ran all over the boy. This was his first view
of the dark, plotful side of circus life, and it appalled him.

"Why," he exclaimed, "it may be murder. Oh, those wretches! The Benares
Brothers. I saw them yesterday. I remember the dive for life. I had to
hold my breath when one man made that somersault, away up at the top of
the tent. It was more than thrilling when he caught the other trapeze
with his knees. It was curdling when his partner made his dive for life.
One second over time, one miss of an inch, and it looked sure death. And
now that trapeze has been tampered with, and--"

The excited Andy did not finish the sentence. He forgot all his own
plans and the possible danger of arrest at Centreville.

He jumped down from the hay bales and dashed out of the barn. Andy sped
along the highway circus-ward at the top of his speed.

The situation had appealed to him in a flash. The two plotters had
talked in plain English. There was no misunderstanding their motives
and acts.

Andy had a vivid picture in his mind--the big circus