coming in than we have sold tickets for?"

"That's it."

"Well, where do the extra admissions come from? I mean where do the
people get their admission slips from--the extra people?"

"That's what we can't find out," the treasurer aid. "As far as the
ticket takers can tell only one kind of admission slip for the fifty
cent seats is being handed them. But the number, as tallied by the
automatic gates, does not jibe with the number of ordinary admissions
sold at the ticket office. To-night there is a difference of about eight
hundred and seventy-five."

"Do you mean," asked Joe, "that that number of persons came in on
tickets that were never sold at the ticket wagon?"

"That's just what I mean. There is an extra source from which the
ordinary admission tickets come. As I told you this afternoon, we are
having no trouble with our reserved seats. There have been no duplicates
there. But there is a duplication in the fifty cent seats, where one may
take his pick as to where he wants to sit."

"Don't we have tickets on sale in some of the downtown stores?" Joe
asked.

"Oh, yes, several of the stores sell tickets up to a certain hour. Then
they send the balance up here for us to dispose of."

"How about their accounts? Have you had them gone over carefully?"

"They tally to a penny."

"How about the unsold tickets these agents send back to us? Isn't there
a chance on the way up for some one to slip out some of the pasteboards,
Mr. Moyne?"

"There is a chance, yes, but it hasn't been done. I have checked up the
accounts of the stores, and there is the cash or the unsold tickets to
balance every time. But somehow, and from some place, an extra number of
the ordinary admission tickets are being sold, and we are not getting
the money for them."

"It is queer," said Joe. "I have an idea that I want to try out the
first chance I get. Save me a bunch of these ordinary admission tickets.
Take them from the boxes at random and let me have them."

"I will," promised the treasurer. "There is nothing we can do to-night
to stop the fraud, is there?" he asked. Mr. Moyne was a very
conscientious treasurer. It disturbed him greatly to see the circus lose
money.

"I don't see what we can do," said Joe. "If we start an inquiry it may
cause a fight. Let it go. We'll have to charge it to profit and loss.
And don't forget to let me have some of those tickets. I want to examine
them."

Mr. Moyne promised to attend to the matter.