mean when you say this mixture is
doped?"

"Just that!" exclaimed Harry, looking up with haggard face. "I can't
stand it any longer. I promised not to tell, but I've got to. I--I can't
see any harm come to you."

"Harm!" cried Joe. "Do you mean this is poison?"

"No, not that. He said it wouldn't do you any harm--that it would only
make the act turn out wrong--that you, nor anybody, would not be hurt.
But I don't believe him. I believe he wants to harm you, and I'm going
to tell all I know. I can't stand it any longer."

"Look here, Harry!" said Joe sternly, "are you perfectly sober? Do you
know what you're saying?"

"Yes, I know that, all right, Mr. Strong," whined the lad. "I won't say
I haven't been drinking, for I have. I did it to try to forget, but it
wouldn't work. I'm plenty sober enough to know what I'm saying."

"And you tell me this chemical preparation will work harm to me and
those who help me in the fire acts?"

"I don't know as to that, Mr. Strong. He told me that it wouldn't harm
you. But I don't believe him! I won't trust him any more."

"Who do you mean?" asked Joe. "Do you know anything about this?" he
demanded sternly of Ted Brown. "You prepared this mixture, didn't you?"

"Yes, Mr. Strong, I did. I made it just the way you told me. If you
think--"

"No, he doesn't know anything about it," murmured Harry, who seemed to
have recovered some of his composure, now that the worst of his
confession was over. "He didn't have a hand in it. I'm to blame. If I
hadn't let him into your tent he couldn't have doped the stuff. Oh, I'm
sorry! I was a fool to believe him, but he promised me a lot of money
just to keep still, and I've done it up to now. But I'm through with
him!"

"Look here!" cried Joe. "How long has this been going on? Was this
mixture ever doped, as you call it, before?"

"Oh, no, not that I know," was the answer. Joe knew this much, at least,
was true. The mixture had always worked perfectly before, and if it had
been tampered with that would not have been the case.

"Then what do you mean?" cried the young magician. "Speak up, can't you?
Be a man! If you haven't done anything really wrong you won't be
punished. I'm after the person back of you. Speak up! Who is he?"

He realized that Harry Loper was but a weak tool in the hands of some
one else, and many things that had seemed strange came back to Joe with
a sudden rush now. He might be able to learn who it was that had such
en