elf. The performance was delayed half
an hour that night to enable the trap to be sprung.

Joe and Jim Tracy met a certain train that came in from a large city,
and saw alight from it two quiet, unassuming men.

"There they are," said Joe. "Now things will move!" And he and the
ringmaster were soon in conversation with the two new arrivals.

A little later the four entered Joe's dressing tent at the circus
grounds. And some time after that four men, whose faces were black from
the smudge of machine oil and grease and whose clothes carried like
marks, left Joe's quarters.

"Down near the shipyards when the last of the day shift comes off will
be the time and place," said one of the four smudge-faced men.

"Right!" declared another.

From the big shipyard poured hundreds of men. As they began to emerge
from the gate the four soiled-faced individuals who had come from Joe's
dressing tent mingled with them. They heard some one ask:

"Are you sure the tickets'll be good?"

"Sure," was the answer. "This fellow and his pal are part of the show.
He sells 'em this way so there won't be such a crowd at the wagon, and
that's why he makes such a big discount. It sort of guarantees a pretty
big crowd, too. Oh, the tickets are good, all right. There's the ticket
guy now."

The crowd of men turned down a side street, and the four
smutty-countenanced men went with them. One of the four said:

"Wait till he sells a few tickets and then nab him."

"There's two of 'em," said another voice.

"Nab 'em both! They work together."

Soon the men from the shipyard surrounded the two men, one of whom had
been designated by the sentence: "There's the ticket guy now."

Money began to change hands, and tickets were passed around. The four
men who had kept together shoved their way through the crowd of ship
workers.

"How much are the tickets?" one asked.

"Thirty-five cents," was the answer. "They'll cost you fifty or
seventy-five at the wagon. The only reason we sell 'em this way is to
avoid the rush. Then, too, you're really buying 'em at wholesale."

"I'll take four," said the man of the quartette.

"Here you are! Four."

There was another clink of money and a rustle of slips of paper. Then
the man who had passed over the tickets, said:

"Here's your change. That was a five you gave me, wasn't it? Take your
change."

"And you take yours, Bill Carfax!" suddenly cried one of the four. "It's
quite a sudden change, too!"