Polly answered with an independent toss of her
head. "This is the night we're goin' to make them rubes in there sit up,
ain't it, Bingo?" she added, placing one arm affectionately about the
neck of the big, white horse that stood waiting near the entrance.

"You bin ridin' too reckless lately," said Jim, sternly, as he followed
her. "I don't like it. There ain't no need of your puttin' in all them
extra stunts. Your act is good enough without 'em. Nobody else ever done
'em, an' nobody'd miss 'em if you left 'em out."

Polly turned with a triumphant ring in her voice. The music was swelling
for her entrance.

"You ain't my MOTHER, Jim, you're my GRANDmother," she taunted; and,
with a crack of her whip she was away on Bingo's back.

"It's the spirit of the dead one that's got into her," Jim mumbled as he
turned away, still seeing the flash in the departing girl's eyes.

Chapter III

Polly and Bingo always made the audience "sit up" when they swept into
the ring. She was so young, so gaily clad, so light and joyous in all
her poses. She seemed scarcely to touch the back of the white horse, as
they dashed round the ring in the glare of the tent lights. The other
performers went through their work mechanically while Polly rode, for
they knew the audience was watching her only.

As for Polly, her work had never lost its first interest. Jim may have
been right when he said that the spirit of the dead mother had got into
her; but it must have been an unsatisfied spirit, unable to fulfil its
ambition in the body that once held it, for it sometimes played strange
pranks with Polly. To-night, her eyes shone and her lips were parted in
anticipation, as she leaped lightly over the many coloured streamers of
the wheel of silken ribbons held by Barker in the centre of the ring,
and by Toby and the "tumblers" on the edge of the bank.

With each change of her act, the audience cheered and frantically
applauded. The band played faster; Bingo's pace increased; the end of
her turn was coming. The "tumblers" arranged themselves around the ring
with paper hoops; Bingo was fairly racing. She went through the first
hoop with a crash of tearing paper and cheers from the audience.

"Heigh, Bingo!" she shouted, as she bent her knees to make ready for the
final leap.

Bingo's neck was stretched. He had never gone so fast before. Barker
looked uneasy. Toby forgot to go on with his accustomed tricks. Jim
watched anxiously from the ent