CHAPTER VII
SHIVERS AND HIS SHADOW
Half a hundred motley fools came trooping into the sawdust arena,their voices raised in song and shout.
Mud clown, character clown, harlequin, fat boy, jester, funnyrustic, vied with each other in mirth-provoking antics so aptlydescribed by the circus press agent as a "merry-hodgepodge offun-provoking, acrobatic idiosyncrasies of an amazing character."
And so they were.
Children screamed with delight, while their elders smiled adignified approval of the grotesque, painted throng that troopedgayly down the uneven course.
The music of the circus band stopped short. Then came a fanfareof trumpets, and far down the line from behind the crimsoncurtains near to the bandstand, a dignified figure all in white,emerged and tripped along the grassy way, halting now and thento gaze fixedly at some imaginary object just above the heads ofthose on the upper row of seats, the very drollery of which gazewas irresistible.
Shivers, Prince of Clowns, the greatest fun maker and characterclown of all that mad, painted throng, had made his entry.
Shivers had joined out with the Sparling show for the first timethat season. He was known as the leading clown in the business.>From the first, Shivers had taken a liking to Teddy Tucker, andshortly after leaving Edmeston he had conceived the idea ofmaking a full-fledged clown of Teddy. The permission of themanager had been obtained and this was Teddy's first appearanceas assistant to Shivers. Teddy was considerably smaller,of course, and made up as the exact counterpart of Shiverstrailing along after him like a shadow, the lad made a mostamusing appearance. Every move that the clown made, Teddymimicked as the two minced along down the concourse.
Shivers was a shining model of the clown both in methodand makeup. His stiffly starched bulging trousers disappearedunder the stiff ruffles of a three-quarter waist. A broadturnover collar of the nurse style was set off with a large bowof bright red ribbon, and a baker's cap, perched jauntily on oneside of the head, completed his merry makeup. This too describesTeddy Tucker's outfit.
"Now, be funny!" directed Shivers.
"I can't help but be if I act like you," retorted Teddy, whereatthe clown grinned.
Pausing before the dollar seats the clown pulled out theruffles of his snow-white waist, poising with crossed legs onone toe. Teddy did the same, and a great roar was the rewardof their drollery.
"La, la! La, la, la!" hummed the clown, stumbling over a ropeto the keen delight of those in the reserved seats--the samerope, by the way, that he had been falling over twice each dayfor the past month. Then he blew a kiss to a fragile slip of agirl who was perched on a trapeze bar far up toward the dome ofthe great tent.
Zoraya, for that was her name, smiled down, gracefully swung offinto space, soaring lightly into the strong, sure arms of herworking mate.
Just the suspicion of an approving smile lighted up the faceof the clown for the moment, for he dearly loved this littlemotherless daughter of his, who had been his care since shewas a child.
Shivers had taught her all she knew, and Zoraya was theacknowledged queen of the lofty tumblers.
But the clown half unconsciously caught his breath as the litheform of Zoraya shot over the trapeze bar, described a graceful"two-and-a-half" in the air, and, shooting downward, hit the netwith a resounding smack that caused the spectators to catch theirbreath sharply.
The clown shook a warning head at her, and Teddy so far forgothimself as to stub his toe and measure his length uponthe ground.
"Don't do it, Bright Eyes!" cautioned Shivers, shaking his headwarningly at the girl, as the child bounced up from the impact,kicking her little feet together and turning a somersault on theswaying net. "It isn't in your contract. Folks sometimes breaktheir necks trying kinkers that's not in the writings."
Her answer was a merry, mocking laugh, and Zoraya ran lightlyup a rope ladder to the platform where she balanced easily foranother flight.
"My, I wish I could do stunts like that!" breathed Teddy.
"Just like a bird. La, la, la! La, la, la!" sang the paintedclown, turning a handspring and pivoting on his head for a grand,spectacular finish.
His refined comedy, so pleasing to the occupants of the reservedseats, had now been changed to loud, uproarious buffoonery as hebowed before the blue, fifty cent seats where his auditors weremassed on boards reaching from the top of the side wall cleardown to the edge of the arena.
He took liberties with their hats, passed familiar criticisms ontheir families and told them all about the other performers inthe ring, arousing the noisy appreciation of the spectators.
Teddy was put to his wits end to keep up with this rapid-fireclowning, and the perspiration was already streaking the powderon his face.
All at once, above the din and the applause, the ears ofthe clown caught a sound different from the others--a screamof alarm. Shivers had heard such a cry many times before duringhis twenty years in the sawdust ring, and, as he expressed it,the sound always gave him "crinkles up and down his spine."
There was no need to start and look about for the cause.He understood that there had been an accident. But the clownlooked straight ahead and went on with his work. He knew, bythe strains of the music, exactly what Zoraya should be doing atthe moment when the cry came--that her supple body was flashingthrough the air in a "passing leap," one of the feats thatalways drew such great applause, even if it were morespectacular than dangerous.
"No, it can't be Zoraya!" he muttered. But the clown cast onenervous, hesitating glance up there where her troupe was workingin the air. The cold sweat stood out upon him. Zoraya was notwith them. His eyes sought the net. It was empty. He saw afigure clad in pink, white and gold shooting right throughthe net.
Then, too, he saw something else. A slender, pink-clad figurewas darting under the net with outstretched arms.
"It's Phil. He's going to catch her," shouted Teddy jubilantly.
But Phil went down under the impact of the heavy blow as Zorayastruck him. A throng of ring attendants gathered about them, andin a moment the two forms were picked up and borne quickly fromthe ring.
Once, years before, Shivers had been through an earthquake inSouth America, when things about him were topsy-turvy, when thecircus tent came tumbling down about him, and ring curbs went upinto the air in most bewildering fashion.
Now, that same sensation was upon him again, and quarter polesseemed to dance before his eyes like giddy marionettes, whilethe long rows of blue seats appeared to be tilted up at adangerous angle. Then slowly the clown's bewilderment mergedinto keen understanding, but his painted face reflected none ofthe anguish that was gripping at his heart strings.
Teddy brushed a hand across his own eyes.
"I--I guess they're both killed," he said falteringly.
Just then the voice of the head clown broke out in the oldNetherlands harvest song:
"Yanker didel doodle down, Didel, dudel lanter, Yankee viver, voover vown, Botermilk und tanther."
"Poor Zoraya!" muttered the clown under cover of the applausethat greeted his vocal effort. And his associates looked downfrom their perches high in the air, gazing in wonder upon theclown who was bowing so low that, each time he did so, he wasobliged to turn a somersault to gain his equilibrium.
"Dangerously hurt--went through the net head first. Hurry!"panted a belated clown, running by to his station."Boy hurt, too."
"Told you so!" grumbled Teddy.
But Shivers did not flinch, and, as he neared the reserved seatson the grandstand, his voice again rang out, this time in avariation of the ancient harvest song:
"Yankee doodle, keep it up, Yankee doodle, dandy; Mind the music and the step, And with your feet be handy."
Never had the show people seen Shivers so uproariously funny.Under the spell of his merriment, the audience quickly forgot thetragic scene that they had just witnessed.
Teddy, however, noticed little dark trenches t
hat had ploughedtheir courses down through the makeup of the clown's cheeks fromhis eyes. Teddy knew that tears had caused those furrows.
As Shivers looked down the long, grassy stretch ahead of him,that he still must cover before his act would be finished, thegoal seemed far away. He flashed one longing glance toward thecrimson curtains that shut off the view of the paddock and thedressing tents, vaguely wondering what lay beyond for him and forlittle Zoraya. Then Shivers set his jaws hard, plunging into amad whirl of handsprings and somersaults, each of which sent himnearer to the end of that seemingly endless way.
"Here, here, what are you trying to do?" gasped Tucker, unable tokeep up with the clown's rapid progress by doing the same things.Teddy solved the problem by running. He could keep up in noother way.
At last Shivers reached the end. With a mighty leap he sprangfor the paddock and the dressing tent. And how he did run!Such sprinting never had been seen in the big show, even betweenman and horse in the act following the Roman chariot races.
Once a rope caught Shivers' toes. He fell forward, but cleverlylanded on his shoulders and the back of his neck, bouncing uplike a rubber man and plunging on.
Shivers had darted through the crimson curtain by the timeTeddy Tucker had succeeded in picking himself up from havingfallen over the same rope.
Stretched out on a piece of canvas in the dressing tent, her headslightly elevated on a saddle pad, they found Zoraya, her pallorshowing even through the roughly laid on makeup.
Phil was sitting on a trunk holding his head in his hands, for hehad received quite a severe shock.
"If she regains consciousness soon she may live," announcedthe surgeon. "If not--"
"No, no!" protested the white-faced clown, dropping on his kneesby the side of the child, folding Zoraya tenderly in his arms."She must not die! She cannot die!"
His jaunty baker's cap tilted off and fell upon her tinseledbreast, while groups of curious, sorrowful painted faces pressedabout them in silent sympathy.
Teddy crushed his white cap between his hands twistingit nervously.
"She isn't hurt. Can't you see? Look, she is smiling now,"pleaded the clown.
The surgeon shook his head sadly, and Shivers buried his head onZoraya's shoulder, pressing his painted cheek close to hers,while the dull roar of the circus, off under the big top, driftedto them faintly, like the sighing of a distant cataract.
An impressive silence hovered over the scene, which was broken,at last, by the quiet voice of the circus surgeon.
"The child is coming back, Shivers. She has fought it out, butshe will perform no more, I am afraid, for bones broken as arehers never will be quite the same again."
"She don't have to perform any more, sir," snapped the clown."I'll do that for her. You put that down in your fool's capand smoke it. Yes, sir, I'll--"
"Daddy!" murmured the lips that were pressed close toShivers' ear.
It was scarcely a whisper, more a breath that Shivers caught, butfaint as it was, it sent the blood pounding to his temples untilthey showed red, like blotches of rouge under powder.
"D-a-d-d-y--y-o-u-r--Zory got an awful--b-u-m-p."
Three harlequins who had been poising each on one knee, chins inhands, gazing down into the face of the little performer,suddenly threw backward somersaults in their joy.
"Yes, Phil's quickness saved you," spoke up the surgeon. "Had itnot been for him you would be dead now."
Teddy Tucker, the tears streaming down his cheeks, was hoppingabout on one foot, vigorously kicking a shin with the other foot,trying to punish himself for his tears.
"I'm a fool! I'm a fool! But--but--I can't help it," he sobbed,wheeling suddenly and dashing into his own dressing tent.
"Call for Shivers!" bellowed the voice of the callboy, thrustinghis head inside the entrance flap. "All the Joeys out for theround off!"
"Coming!"
Shivers gently laid the broken form of Zoraya back, pressed ahurried kiss on her painted lips and bounded away to take hiscue, the circus band out there by the crimson curtains swingingbrazenly into the enlivening strains of "There'll Be a Hot Timein the Old Town Tonight!"
The Circus Boys in Dixie Land; Or, Winning the Plaudits of the Sunny South Page 9