u start to become a fire-eater--Oh, Joe,
think of that poor fellow in the hospital!"

"He didn't get that way from eating fire--or pretending to eat it--for
the amusement of the public. He might just as easily have been burned
the way he is by lighting the kitchen stove for his wife to get
breakfast. His accident was entirely outside of his act, you might say.
Why, I use lighted candles in some of my tricks. Now, if some one
knocked over a candle, and it caused a fire on the stage and I was
burned, would you want me to give up being a magician?"

"Oh, no, I suppose not," said Helen slowly. "But fire is so dangerous.
And to think of putting it in your mouth! How can you do it, Joe? Oh, it
can't be done!"

"Oh, there's a trick about it. I haven't mastered all the details yet,
so as to give a smooth performance, but I can make an attempt at it."

"Joe Strong! do you mean to say you know how to eat fire?" demanded
Helen, and now her eyes showed her astonishment.

"Well, not exactly eat it, though that is the term used. But I do know
how to do it. I learned, in a rudimentary way, when I was with Professor
Rosello--the first man who taught me sleight-of-hand. He had one
fire-eating act, but it didn't amount to much. He told me the secret of
it, such as it was.

"But if I put on that stunt I'm going to make it different. I'm going to
dress it up, make it sensational so that it will be the talk of the
country where circuses are exhibited."

"And won't you run any danger?" questioned the girl quickly.

"Oh, I suppose so; just as I do when I work on the high trapeze or ride
my motor cycle along the high wire. But it's all in the day's work. And
now let's talk about something pleasant--I mean let's get off the shop."

Helen sighed. She was plainly disturbed, but she did not want to burden
Joe with her worries. She knew he must have calm nerves and an
untroubled mind to do his various acts in the circus that night.

After supper and before the evening performance Joe made a careful
examination of his trapeze apparatus. Beyond the place where the acid
had eaten into the wire strands, causing them to become weakened so that
they parted, the appliances did not appear to have been tampered with.
Nor were there any clews which might show who had done the deed. That it
could have happened by accident was out of the question. The acid could
have gotten on the wire rope in one way only. Some one must have climbed
up the rope lad