and its noisy organ
ceased to play. He could hear the band within the circus now, the dull
thud of hoofs on sawdusted earth, and the crack of a whip. A mirthless
voice, with an intention of mirth in it, said, 'Look out! Catch her!
She'll tumble!' A laugh spouted up from the spectators within, and was
half smothered by the canvas of the show. Not far from him was a slit
in the canvas wall, with a pale yellow spirit of light in it. A man came
into the gleam.

'Now, where,' the man asked, in a voice of anger, 'is that boy?

The voice of some invisible person responded in an alternation between a
hoarse bass and a shrill falsetto:

'Perchance he wanders with the paling moon, where Delos' tower awaits
the lagging dawn, which fronts not yet her summit, or perchance----'

'Oh, go to 'ell!' said the voice that had first spoken. 'Where _is_ that
boy?'

'You might,' began the invisible person, in a cracked soprano, and
concluded in a tone three octaves lower, 'have let me finish.'

'Let you finish!' said the other. 'Would you finish? _Can_ you finish?
He stood comically silhouetted--a balloon propped by two monstrous
sausages and topped by a football. 'Billy,' he said, in a grave voice,
after a minute's pause, 'where is that boy? Miriam can't do three turns.
If Pauer isn't here in five minutes, the fat's in the fire.'

'Well,' said the falsetto voice, 'why don't you'--the hoarse basso
carried on the phrase--'send somebody else?'

'Who am I to send? asked the man in view. 'I'd give five bob,' he added,
'to get him here.'

'Tell me where he is,' said Paul, 'and I'll get him for half the money,
if I have to carry him.'

The man to whom he spoke turned round and stared at him.

'Who are you?' he asked.

'A hungry vagabond,' said Paul, 'willing to earn a meal.'

'Do you know the town?'

'No; I'm a stranger.'

'That,' said the fat man, pointing, 'leads to the gate. Turn to the
right, run three hundred yards, and there's a pub on the left. You can't
mistake it. Tell Herr Pauer he's waited for. Sixpence if you're smart.'

'Shilling!' said Paul, half on the run already. The fat man hung fire.
'Shilling!' said Paul again.

'Shilling if he's here in ten minutes,' said the other.

Paul ran. The fatigue which had weighed upon his limbs seemed gone. Once
free of the clogging and slippery mire which had been wrought out of the
wet turf by many travelling feet, he raced along the firm high-road at
his best speed. He made a