he large
cities, but, in the main, it made a circuit of places of smaller
population.

Joe kept on with his trapeze work, now and then adding new feats,
either by himself or with the Lascalla Brothers. On their part they
seemed glad to adopt Joe's suggestions. Occasionally they made some
themselves, but they were more in the way of spectacular effects--such
as waving flags while suspended in the air, or fluttering gaily colored
ribbons or strands of artificial flowers. But Joe liked to work out
new and difficult feats of strength, skill and daring, and he was
generally successful.

He had not relaxed his policy of vigilance, and he never went up on a
bar or on the rings without first testing his apparatus. For he never
forgot the strangely rotted rope. That it had been eaten by some acid,
he was sure.

He did not again get sight of that particular small trapeze, nor did he
ask Sid or Tonzo what had become of it. He did not want to know.

"It's best to let sleeping dogs lie," reasoned Joe. "But I'll be on
the lookout."

Matters had been going along well, and Joe had been given an increase
of salary.

"Well, if I can't get a fortune from some of my mother's rich and
aristocratic ancestors," Joe thought with a smile, "I can make it
myself by my trapeze work. And, after all, I guess, that's the best
way to get rich. Though I'm not sure I'll ever get rich in the circus
business."

But the calm of Joe's life--that is if, one can call it calm to act in
a circus--was rudely shaken one day when in his mail he found a badly
scrawled note. There was no signature to it, but Joe easily guessed
from whom it came. The note read:

"You want to look out for yourself. You may think you're smart, but I
know some smarter than you. This is a big world, but accidents may
happen. You want to be careful."

"Some of Sim Dobley's work," mused Joe, as he tore up the note and cast
it aside. "He's trying to get my nerve. Well, I won't let that worry
me. He won't dare do anything. Queer, though, that he should be
following the circus still. He sure does want his place back. I'm
sorry for him, but I can't help it."

Joe did not regard the warning seriously, and he said nothing about it
to Helen or any one else.

"It would only worry Helen," he reflected.

The show was over for the night. Even while the performers in the big
tent had been going through with their acts, men had taken away the
animal cages and