nd
Joe summoned him, half his face "made up," with streaks of red, white
and blue grease paint.

"Oh, Bill, we're in such trouble!" cried Helen,

"Trouble!" exclaimed Bill. The word seemed hardly to fit in with his
grotesque character. "What trouble?"

"It's about my money," Helen went on. "I'm going to lose it all, Joe
thinks."

"Oh, not all!" exclaimed the young trapeze performer quickly. "Only
what you invested in oil stock. Here's the story, Bill," and Joe
related his part of it, Helen supplying the information needed from her
end.

"Now," went on Joe, as he concluded, "what we want to know is--can
Helen save any of this oil money?"

Bill Watson was silent a moment. Then he slowly shook his head.

"I'm afraid not," he answered. "Money invested in wild-cat oil wells
is seldom recovered. Of course you could bring a lawsuit against this
Sanford, but the chances are he's skipped out by this time."

"Oh, no, he hasn't," Helen exclaimed. "I had a letter from him only
the other day. He asked me if I didn't want to buy some more stock. I
know where to find him."

Once more the veteran clown shook his head.

"He might allow you to find him if he thought you were bringing him
more cash for his worthless schemes," he said, "but if he found out you
wanted to serve papers on him in a suit, or to get hold of him to make
him give back the money he took from you, Helen, that would be a
different story. I'm afraid you wouldn't see much of Mr. Sanford then.
He'd be mighty scarce."

"Could we sell back the stock to the oil company?" Joe wanted to know.

"Hardly," answered the clown. "They make that stock to sell to the
public, and they never buy it back unless there's a chance for them to
make money. And, according to Joe's tale, there isn't in this case."

"Not by what that man said," affirmed the young trapeze performer.

"I suppose the only thing to do," went on the old clown, "would be to
give the case into the hands of a good lawyer, and let him see what he
could do with it. Turn over the stock to him, give him power to act
for you, Helen, and wait for what comes. You'll be traveling on with
the show, and you can't do much, nor Joe either, though I know he would
help you if he could, and so would I."

"That's what!" exclaimed Joe heartily.

"I'll do just as you say," agreed Helen. "But it does seem too bad to
lose my money, and I counted on doing so much with it. But it can't be
helped."