ll she would not
have made the proper sort of assistant in those acts. Besides, she
would not have been able to mix the chemicals Joe required to render
himself immune from such fire as he actually came in contact with,
though momentarily.

"I've got to train in a new man," decided Joe. He mentally considered
various circus employees, rejecting one after another, and finally
selected one of the young men who acted in the blazing banquet scene.
This youth was a bright, manly fellow, and had introduced some new
"business" in the act which made it more interesting.

"I'll train him in," decided Joe, "with the understanding that if Ham
comes back he'll get his old place. If he comes back! I wonder if he
ever will, and if he'll be in a condition to help me."

Joe shook his head dubiously.

The circus moved on. It had played to good business, and there was more
good business in prospect. Mr. Moyne, the treasurer, was on the anxious
seat much of the time, fearing another flood of bogus tickets, but the
efforts mentioned, on the part of the swindlers, following the use of
new paper, was all they had to complain of so far.

"Either the detectives are too close to the trail of the cheats to allow
them to work in safety, or they've given it up altogether," decided the
treasurer.

"I hope so," said Joe. "Still it won't do to relax our vigilance. I
wrote to the detective firm, as I said I would, jacking them up a bit.
Maybe they are ready to make an arrest, and that would stop the
swindlers."

The young man Joe had picked out to act as his chief assistant in the
fire scenes was Ted Brown. Ted was about eighteen years old, and this
was his first position with a circus. But he was making good, and he had
not yet been afflicted with the terrible disease known as "swelled
head," something which ruins so many performers.

Ted learned rapidly, and Joe felt that it would be safe to trust him
with some of the secrets of the tricks--the mixing of the fire-resisting
chemicals and the like. Joe's choice seemed to be a good one, for Ted
did well, and his part in the banquet scene was made even better by his
knowledge of the inner workings of the material used.

But though Joe did not lose materially by the desertion of Ham, if that
was what it was, since he could now depend on Ted, the young circus man
many times found himself wondering if he would ever see the old
fire-eater again.

The circus opened one afternoon in a large city-