"Great!"

Joe smiled happily.

"It was wonderful," added Helen Morton, who was about to put her trick
horse, Rosebud, through his paces. "It was wonderful--but I don't like
to see anybody take such risks."

"Anybody?" asked Joe in a low voice.

"Well, then--you," she whispered, as she ran off to her ring.

"Well, I did it, you see," observed Joe to his two partners. "I guess
I know how to fall into a net."

"You sure do!" averred the ring-master. "Try that at each performance,
Joe."

"Only--be careful," added Tonzo Lascalla. "We do not want to have to
get another partner."

The act of Joe and the two other "Lascalla Brothers" came to an end
with Joe and Sid hanging suspended from the legs of Tonzo, who
supported himself on a swinging trapeze. It made an effective close.

Joe was through then, and could watch the rest of the show or go to
bed, as he pleased. He elected to stay in the "main top" and watch
Helen in her act. He was also much interested in the "human fish."

"Pshaw!" Joe heard Jim Tracy murmur, as he, too, looked at Benny in the
tank. "He isn't staying under as long as he used to, not by half a
minute. I wonder what's the matter with him. First we know he'll be
cutting the time, and we'll hear a howl from the public. That won't
do! I'll have to give him a call-down."

Joe felt sorry for Ben, who did not seem at all well. Joe thought he
had better not interfere, but he resolved to speak to the
water-performer privately, and see if he could not help him.

Joe repeated his sensational acts at the next day's performances, and
that night he and the others in the circus moved on to the next stand.
Joe wrote a line to Professor Rosello, telling him of the success.

It was a quite novel experience for Joe, traveling with a circus. But
he was used to sleeping cars by this time, on account of the going from
town to town with the magician.

However, he had never before had a berth in a train filled with circus
performers, and, for a time, he could not sleep because of the
strangeness. But he soon grew used to it, and in a few nights he could
doze off as soon as he stretched out.

Joe's new suit of pink tights arrived. It matched those of the
Lascalla Brothers. In fact, Joe was now billed as one of that trio,
though, of course, he went by his own name in private. He was
sufficiently dark as to hair and complexion to pass for a Spaniard.

To quote his own words, Joe was "taking to t