which had been playing softly, suddenly stopped at a wave of
Joe's hand. He stood for a moment motionless before the veiled figure.

"Her spirit is dissolving into thin air!" he said in a low voice, which,
nevertheless, carried to every one in the crowd.

Suddenly Joe took hold of the veil in the center and directly over the
outlined head of the figure in the chair. Quickly the young magician
raised the soft, black silk gauze, whisking it quickly to one side.

The audience gasped.

The chair, in which but a moment before Helen Morton had been seated,
was empty! The girl had disappeared--vanished! Joe stooped and raised
from the stage the newspaper. It showed not a sign of break or tear.

Then, before the applause could begin, the girl appeared, walking out
from one of the improvised wings of the circus stage. She smiled and
bowed. The act had been a great success. Now the silent admiration of
the throng gave place to a wave of hand clapping and feet stamping.

"Was it all right, Joe?" asked Helen, as he held her hand and they both
bowed their appreciation of the applause.

"Couldn't have been better!" he said. "We'll do this trick regularly
now. It takes even better than my ten thousand dollar box mystery. You
were great!"

"I'm so glad!"

The two performers were bowing themselves off the stage when suddenly
there came the unmistakable roar of a wild beast from the direction of
the animal tent. It seemed to shake the very ground. At the same time a
voice cried:

"A tiger is loose! One of the tigers is out of his cage!"

CHAPTER II

A DANGEROUS SWING

There is no cry which so startles the average circus audience as that
which is raised when one of the wild animals is said to be at large. Not
even the alarm that the big tent is falling or is about to be blown over
will cause such a panic as the shout:

"A tiger is loose!"

There is something instinctive, and perfectly natural, in the fear of
the wild jungle beasts. Let it be said that a tiger or a lion is loose,
and it causes greater fear, even, than when it is stated that an
elephant is on a rampage. An elephant seems a big, but good-natured,
creature; though often they turn ugly. But a lion or a tiger is always
feared when loose.

But the chances are not one in a hundred that a circus lion or a tiger,
getting out of its cage, would attack any one. The creature is so
surprised at getting loose, and so frightened at the hue and cry at once
rai