.

"What's up, boys?" demanded Frazer Moore; and, perceiving, added
himself to the rescuing party. Ditto, Mike; then Littlejohn and Danny.
This was the chance of a lifetime! to be themselves "performers." Only
Melvin and Herbert rose, hesitating, amazed--and, seeing the little
ones, whom everybody tried to catch and who eluded every grasp, in
such imminent peril of trampling horse-hoofs, they also followed the
leader.

Even Mr. Winters rose to his feet and watched in deep anxiety the
outcome of this escapade, and the darting nimbleness of two small
figures which everybody, from the ring-master down, was chasing like
mad. Only the trained horsemen and their following troupe of monkeys
kept on unmindful; while from the seats on every side ran shouts of
laughter. To most of those onlookers this seemed a part, a
delightfully arranged part, of the entertainment. Only those nearest,
and the farrier was one of them, realized that the strange old man
with the croaking voice was an alien to that scene. A half-crazed old
man who felt called upon to deliver his "message" of warning to a
sinful world, at all times, seasons, and places. He had stumbled upon
this as a fine field and, unbalanced though his mind was, it had yet
been clear enough for him to purchase a ticket and enter in the
customary way.

"Oh! will he take the twins away?" asked Dorothy, clasping her hands
in dismay. "And will they--be--killed!"

"I think not, to both questions. Evidently he has not perceived the
children though they were quick enough to discover him. The pity! that
one should inspire such fear in his own household! But, see! See!"

Mr. Winters forgot the old exhorter for the moment and laughed aloud.

In the ring the clown had, at first, pretended to join in the pursuit
of the nimble runaways, but only pretended. Then he suddenly perceived
that they were growing breathless and had almost fallen beneath the
feet of a mighty Norman horse. The man beneath his motley uniform rose
to the emergency. Catching the bridle of a near-by pony, he flung the
monkey from its back, scooped the babies up from the ground, set them
in the monkey's place and, mounting behind them, triumphantly fell
into line.

It was all so quickly done that its bravery was but half appreciated;
and the absurdly grinning mask which he now waggled from side to side,
as if bowing to an outburst of applause, roused a roar of laughter. As
for Ananias and Sapphira--their felicity wa