re," answered Joe. "Here's a coupon that happened
to escape destruction. It was one sold several weeks ago at our ticket
wagon, before we noticed this trouble. I bought the ticket myself, so I
know. I happened to be passing the wagon, and a boy was trying to reach
up to buy a fifty cent seat. He wasn't quite tall enough, so I reached
for him.

"Then, when I looked at him, I saw that fifty cents meant a lot to him.
I gave him back his half dollar out of my own pocket, and passed him in
to a reserved seat. But I forgot to turn the ticket in to the wagon, and
it's been in my pocket ever since. Now I'm glad I saved it, for it will
serve as a tester."

"Yes," admitted the chemist, "it will. It's a good thing you have this.
But, Mr. Strong, this is going to take some time. I'll have to compare
all these tickets with the admittedly genuine one, and I'll have to make
some intricate tests."

"Well, I hoped you might be able to tell me right off the reel which of
these coupons were good and which bad," said Joe. "But I can appreciate
that it isn't easy. We certainly have been puzzled. So I'll leave them
with you, and you can write to me when you have any results. I'll leave
you a list of the towns where we'll be showing for the next two weeks.
And now suppose we get at the fire-eating business."

"All right," was the reply of the chemist. "But with the understanding
that you do all the eating. I haven't any appetite that way myself."

They both laughed, and then, for some hours, Joe Strong was closeted
with the chemist.

When Joe emerged from the office of Mr. Waldon there was a look of
satisfaction on the face of the young magician.

"I think I can make quite an act, after what you've told me," he said.
"As soon as I get it perfected I'll send you word and you can come to
see me."

"I will, if you aren't too far away," promised the chemist.

That night, following the closing of the performance, Joe invited Helen,
Jim Tracy, and a few of his more intimate friends and associates into
his private dressing tent.

"I have the nucleus of a new act," he said, when they were seated in
chairs before a small table, on which were several pieces of apparatus.
"Just give me your opinion of this."

Joe lighted a candle, picked up on a fork what seemed to be a piece of
bread, and touched it to the candle flame. In an instant the object that
was on the fork burst into a blaze, and, before the eyes of his friends,
Joe calmly put th