e fire-eater they're taking to the hospital now," said the
policeman who had first spoken to the young circus performers. "They
took him into a drug store to wrap him in oil and cotton batting."

"Will he live?" asked Helen.

"Just a chance," was the answer. "Say, if I had to get my living eating
fire I'd starve," confided the policeman. "It must be some stunt! I
always thought it was a fake, but this fire burned real enough."

"Oh, it isn't all fake," said Joe, "though of course there's a trick
about it."

"You seem to know," said the policeman, and he smiled at Joe and Helen.
His chief troubles were about over with the departure of the ambulance
and the knowledge that filtered through the crowd that the most of the
excitement was over.

"Oh, I'm in the circus business," confessed Joe. "I never ate fire," he
went on, "but--"

"Oh, I know you now!" cried the officer. "I was on duty out at the
circus grounds this afternoon, and I went into the tent when you did
that box act. Say, that's some stunt! Do they really pay ten thousand
dollars to the fellow who tells how it's done?"

"Well, we've never paid out the money yet," said Joe, with a smile. "But
it's there, waiting for some one to claim it."

"Then I'm coming to-night to watch you," said the officer, who appeared
delighted that he had recognized one of the "profesh."

"Come along," replied Joe. "Here, wait a minute! There are a couple of
passes. Come and bring a friend. If you tell how I do the trick you'll
get the ten thousand. Only you'll have to post a hundred dollars as a
forfeit to the Red Cross in case you don't guess right. That's included
in the offer."

"Oh!" The officer did not seem quite so pleased. "Well, I'll come
anyhow," he went on, accepting the passes Joe handed him. The policeman
had allowed Joe and Helen to stay in an advantageous place where they
could watch the fire.

"Where are they taking the man who did the dangerous trick that caused
all the trouble?" asked Helen, as she prepared to walk on with Joe.

"To the City Hospital, Miss. He's a bad case, I understand."

"Poor fellow," murmured Helen. "Do you think we could go to see him, and
do something for him, Joe?" she asked solicitously. "He's in almost the
same line of business as ourselves."

"Well, I don't know," was the slow answer.

"I can fix it up if you want to see him--that is, if the doctors and
nurses will let you," said the policeman. "I know the hospital
superinte