he accident now, and speculated as to
what might happen to the show. Their train carried a goodly number of
the "artists," as they were called on the bills, and without them a
successful and complete show could not be given.

"We may even have to omit the afternoon session," Joe stated.

"Who said so?" Helen demanded.

"Mr. Tracy."

"Well, it's better to lose that than to have the whole show wrecked,"
said the snake charmer. "I remember being in a circus wreck once, and
I never want to see another."

"Did any of the animals get loose?" asked Joe.

"I should say they did! We lost a lion and a tiger, and for weeks
afterward we had to keep men out hunting for the creatures, which the
excited farmers said were taking calves and lambs. No indeed! I don't
want any more circus wrecks. This one was near enough."

This brought up a fund of recollected circus stories, and from then on,
until the train stopped on the siding near the grounds, the performers
took turns in telling what they had known of wrecks and other accidents
to the shows with which they had been connected. Joe listened eagerly.
It was all new to him.

"I only hope my glass tank isn't cracked," said Benny again. He seemed
quite worried about this.

"Well, if it's broken they'll have to get you another," Joe told him.
The tank was carried in one of the cars of the derailed train.

"They might, and they might not," said Benny. "My act hasn't been
going any too well of late, and maybe they'd be glad of a chance to
drop it from the list. I only hope they don't, though, for I need the
money."

Benny spoke wistfully. He seemed greatly changed from the boy Joe had
known at first. Benny had grown thinner, and he often put his hand to
his head, as though suffering constant pain. Joe and Helen felt sorry
for him.

Still there was little they could do, except to cheer him up. Benny
had to do his own act--which was a unique one that he had evolved after
years of practice. It was not alone the staying under water that made
it popular, it was the tricks that the lad did.

"Well, we're here at last," said Joe, as he and his friends alighted
from their sleeping car. "Better late than never, I suppose."

Men were busy on the circus grounds, putting up tents, arranging the
horses and other animals, putting the wagons in their proper places and
doing the hundred and one things that need to be done.

"I wonder what's going on over there," said Hele