ing was a
trick--Joe had only pretended to be on fire and had taken that
sensational means of appearing to extinguish the blaze.

But the ringmaster noted a queer look on his friend's face. It was not
the look it usually wore when Joe had completed some hazardous or
sensational trick.

"Are you hurt, Joe--burned?" asked Jim Tracy anxiously.

"No," was the answer. "It was all part of the act!"

The ringmaster looked satisfied, and it was not until some time
afterward that he learned what a narrow escape Joe had had.

"This will be part of the fire-eating stunt at every show," said Joe to
the ringmaster. "You might make the announcement so the people won't be
scared."

"I will! Say, it's some stunt all right!" And then Jim began with his
sonorous "Ladies and gentlemen!" He stated that the young fire-eater
would show his familiarity with, and mastery over, fire by setting
himself ablaze and leaping into the tank to extinguish the flames. The
ringmaster added that there would be no danger to either the audience or
the performer in this feature.

Joe bowed to the applause that followed, and then hurried to his
dressing room to don dry clothes for his mystery box trick.

"I should think, if you were going to do tank work, you'd wear a suit
better adapted to it--like mine," said Benny Turton, whose apartment was
next to Joe's in the dressing tent.

"I'm going to," Joe announced, looking around to make sure no one
overheard. "The fact of the matter is, Benny, I didn't count on pulling
off this stunt. It was an accident. Some of the alcohol I use on the tow
was spilled on my sleeves and caught fire. Then more flames burst out.
Luckily they were at my back, so when I ran the flames were fanned away
from me. But I knew the tank was the safest place to go, and in I
jumped."

"But I heard you tell Jim it was all arranged."

"I did that so the crowd wouldn't get into a panic. However I am going
to work the trick at each performance after this, only I'm going to wear
a different suit."

And Joe did. He had a garment partly made of asbestos, though outwardly
it did not resemble that fire-resisting material any more than do the
asbestos curtains in theaters. And at the conclusion of his fire-eating
act Joe would seemingly burst into fire and run blazing across the stage
to leap into the tank of water.

This finish to the act never failed to win great applause. And once in
the tank Joe did some of the under-water tricks