hrough a
pulley, and, at a nodded signal, one of the ring-men hauled the lad up
to the top of the tent to the little platform where Joe had stood when
taking his place on the high trapeze.

Joe signaled to the ring-master that he was going to make a jump into
the net from that height, and at once the crowd again became aware that
something unusual was going on. It was a jump seldom made, at least in
The Sampson Brothers' Circus. The platform was fully twenty feet
higher than the trapeze from which Joe and his fellow-performer had
dropped a few minutes before. And, as Sid Lascalla had said, there was
a risk even in jumping into a life net. But Joe Strong seemed to know
what he was about.

"Say, he's going to do some jump!" exclaimed Benny Turton, who came
into the ring at that moment, dressed in his shimmering, scaly suit,
ready to do his "human fish" act.

"That's what!" cried Jim Tracy. "Give him the long roll and the boom!"
he called to the leader of the musicians.

As Joe poised for his jump the snare drummer rattled out a "ruffle,"
and as it started Joe leaned forward and leaped.

Down he went, for a few feet, as straight as an arrow. Then he
suddenly doubled up into a sort of ball, and began turning over and
over. The crowd held its breath. The drum continued to rattle out its
thundering accompaniment. How many somersaults Joe turned none of the
spectators reckoned, but the youthful performer kept count of them, for
he wanted to "straighten out," to land on his feet in the net.

"He'll never do it!" predicted Tonzo Lascalla.

And it did begin to look as though Joe had miscalculated.

But no. Just before he reached the springy life net he straightened
out and came down feet first, bouncing up, and down like a rubber ball.
The instant he landed the bass drum gave forth a thundering "boom," and
as Joe rose, and came down again, the drummer punctuated each descent
with a bang, until the crowd that had applauded madly at the jump was
laughing at the queer effect of Joe's bouncing to the accompaniment of
the drum.

"He did it!" cried Jim Tracy. "It was a great jump. We'll feature
that now."

He looked at Sid and Tonzo Lascalla, as though asking why they had not
worked something like this into their acts previously. But the
Spaniards only shrugged their shoulders and raised their eyebrows.

"That was great, Joe!" exclaimed Benny Turton, as Joe leaped to the
ground over the edge of the life net.