to look at the people, but
kept his eyes on the stage. Now, however, he glanced around, and the
dance was hardly begun before he brought it to a close, the musicians
gazing at him in surprise.

The cause of his sudden stopping was startling enough to have
disconcerted a much older performer.

Facing him, and not more than two rows of seats from the stage, sat the
two men he was so anxious to meet.

"Go on!" the leader of the orchestra whispered hoarsely, and from the
wings he heard the angry command of the stage manager:

"Get to work, boy! Do you want to queer the whole show?"

Jet nerved himself to begin the dance, but he was so exceedingly
awkward that several of the audience guyed him, a fact which deprived
him of the small remnant of self-possession remaining.

Without stopping to consider what the result might be, he ran at full
speed from the stage, and the spectators hooted and yelled derisively.

"What is the matter with you?" the manager asked fiercely, as he shook
Jet until his teeth chattered.

"Them men are there!" the boy cried brokenly. "I must go right out an'
get hold of them."

"You'll go and stay, you little villain! If you couldn't dance I
wouldn't say a word, but I know what you are able to do. Where are you
off to now?"

"I want to change these clothes so's I can go around to the front of
the house."

"What for?"

"Them men are there, an' I've got to find out where they're stopping."

"What are they to you?

"Don't stop to ask questions now, but let me go!" Jet cried,
impatiently, as he tore himself from the angry man's grasp, threw off
the stage costume and ran from the building.

With no idea his enemies had recognized him, he continued on without
fear until reaching the corner of the building, where one of the men
was standing half hidden by the shadow.

The fellow's hand was raised, and as Jet came up he struck the boy a
crashing blow on the head with a stout stick, felling him to the ground
like one suddenly deprived of life.

CHAPTER V

BAFFLED

When Jet regained consciousness he was lying on the ground alone,
feeling dizzy and suffering from a most severe pain in his head.

He raised his hand as if to relieve the anguish, and found that his
hair was matted together with a certain sticky substance, which, by aid
of a light from a near-by lamp, he discovered to be blood.

From the theater music could be heard, thus telling that the
performance had not y