bbery,"
mused Joe as he took the message from the waiting lad. "But, no, it
can't be that. Denton and Harrison are still in jail--or they were at
last accounts--and the robbery is cleared up as much as it ever will
be. Can't be that."

And then, unwilling and unable to speculate further, and anxious to
know just what was in the message Joe tore open the envelope. The
message was typewritten, as are most telegrams of late, and the message
read:

"If you are at liberty, can use you in a single trapeze act. Forty a
week to start. Wire me at Slater Junction. We show there three days.
Jim Tracy--Sampson Bros. Circus."

"What is it?" asked the professor as he noted a strange look on Joe's
face. In fact, there was a combination of looks. There was surprise,
and doubt, and pleased anticipation.

"It's an offer," answered Joe, slowly.

"An offer!"

"Yes, to join a circus."

"A circus!"

The professor did not seem capable of talking in very long sentences.

"Yes, the Sampson Brothers' Show," Joe went on. "You know I went to
see them that time they played the same town and date we did. I met
the 'human fish' and----"

"Oh, yes, I remember. You did some acts on the trapeze then."

"Yes, and this Jim Tracy--he's ring-master and one of the owners--made
me a sort of offer then. But I didn't want to leave you. Now he
renews the offer."

The boy wizard handed the message to the professor who read it through
carefully. Then after a look at Joe he said:

"Well, my boy, that's a good offer, I'd take it. I sha'n't be able to
pay you forty a week for some time, though you might make it if you
took my show out on the road alone, or with one assistant. Then, too,
there's always a chance to make more in a circus--that is, if you
please your public. I might say thrill them enough, for your trapeze
act will have to be mostly thrills, I take it."

"Yes," assented Joe. And, somehow, a feeling of exultation came to
him. While doing puzzling tricks before a mystified audience was
enticing work, yet Joe had a longing for the circus. He was almost as
much at home high in the air, with nothing but a slack wire or a
swaying rope to support him, as he was on the ground. Part of this was
due to his early attempts to emulate the feats of circus performers,
but the larger part of it was born in him. He inherited much of his
daring from his mother, and his quickness of eye and hand from his
father.

Moreover, m