o Spaniards were starting their act now, and were high up in the
air.

"Whew!" whistled Joe. "I wonder what's up. Can it be that this rope
is doctored? I won't let them see me looking at it."

He hurried over to his own particular place in the tent.

"Lively, Joe!" called Jim Tracy. "You're late as it is!"

"I'll be right on the job in a moment," the young performer answered.
"I had to get another trapeze--the lioness cracked mine."

"Oh, all right--but hustle."

Under pretense of fastening the short trapeze to the larger one Joe
pushed back the loose silk covering the ropes. To his surprise, on one
rope was a dark stain. Joe rubbed his fingers over the strands. They
were rotten, and crumbled at the touch. Joe smelled of the dark stain.

"Acid!" exclaimed Joe. "Some one spilled acid on this rope. Talk
about putting on something to ripen it! This is something to rot it!"

He tested the rope in his hands. It did not part, but some of the
strands gave, and he did not doubt but that if he trusted his weight to
it it would break and give him a fall.

"Now I wonder if they did that on purpose to queer me," mused Joe. "If
they did they waited for a most opportune time to give me the doctored
trapeze. They couldn't have known I was going to break mine. I wonder
if they did it on purpose.

"Of course I wouldn't have been killed, and probably not even much
hurt, if the rope did break," thought Joe. "I'd only fall into the
life net, but it sure would spoil my act and make me look like an
amateur. Maybe that's their game! If it was----"

Joe paused, and looked over in the direction of the two Spaniards.
They were going through their act, but Joe thought he had a glimpse of
Tonzo looking over toward him.

"They want to see what happens to me," thought Joe. "Well, they won't
see anything, for I sha'n't use this trapeze. I'll change my act."

"Hey, what's the matter over there, Joe?" called Jim Tracy to him.
"You ought to be up on the bar."

"I know it, Mr. Tracy. But I've got to make a change at the last
minute. I can't use this extra trapeze."

"All right; do anything you like, but do it quick!"

Joe signaled to his helper, who began hoisting him to the top of the
tent by means of rope and pulley. Once on his own regular trapeze,
which he had tested but a short while before, Joe went through his act.

He had to improvise some acts to take the place of those he did on the
short trapeze. But