no exception.

Joe saw that everything was in readiness for his sleight-of-hand work,
and then examined his Box of Mystery. As this was a very special piece
of apparatus, he was very careful about it. His ability to get out of
it, once he was locked and roped in, depended on a delicate bit of
mechanism, and the least hitch in this meant failure.

But a test showed that it was all right, and as by this time it was
nearly the hour for the parade to come back and the preliminaries to
begin, Joe went over to the circus office to see if any matters there
needed his attention.

As he crossed the lot to where the "office" was set up in a small tent,
the first horses of the returning parade came back on the circus
grounds. Following was a mob of delighted small boys and not a few men.

"Looks as if we'd have a big crowd," said Joe to himself. "And it's a
fine day for the show. We'll make money!"

He attended to some routine matters, and then the first of the afternoon
audience began to arrive. As Joe had predicted, the crowd was a big one.

The young performer was in his dressing room, getting ready for the big
swing, which he would perform before his mystery tricks, when Mr. Moyne,
the circus treasurer, entered. There was a queer look on Mr. Moyne's
face, and Joe could not help but notice it.

"What's worrying you?" asked Joe. "Doesn't this weather suit you, or
isn't there a big enough crowd?"

"That's just it, Joe," was the unexpected answer. "There's too big a
crowd. We have too many people at this show, and that's what is worrying
me a whole lot!"

Joe Strong looked in surprise at the treasurer. What could Mr. Moyne
mean?

CHAPTER IV

THE RUSTED WIRE

"Yes," went on the circus treasurer, as he rubbed his chin reflectively,
"it's a curious state of affairs, and as you're so vitally interested I
came to you at once. There's going to be trouble!"

"Trouble!" cried Joe with a laugh. "I can't see that, Mr. Moyne. You say
there's a big crowd of people at our circus--too much of a crowd, in
fact. I can't see anything wrong in that. It's just what we're always
wanting--a big audience. Let 'em fill the tent, I say, and put out the
'Straw Seats Only' sign. Trouble! Why, I should say this was good luck!"
and Joe hastened his preparations, for he wanted to go on with the big
swing.

"Ordinarily," said Mr. Moyne, in the slow, precise way he had of
speaking, brought about, perhaps, by his need of being exact in