CHAPTER IX
PHIL MAKES A DISCOVERY
"I guess I'll leave my bag in the station and go over to thelot," decided the lad.
"The stake and chain gang will just about be on the job bythis time."
It is a well known fact in the circus world that there is nobetter place to get information than from the stake and chaingang, the men who hurry to the lot the moment their train getsin and survey it, driving stakes to show where the tents are tobe pitched, and it is a familiar answer, when one is unable toanswer a question to say: "Ask the stake and chain gang."
That was exactly what Phil Forrest had in mind to do.
He followed a show wagon to the circus lot, where he found themen already at work measuring off the ground with theirsurveyor's chains, in the faint morning light.
"Morning," smiled Phil, sauntering over to where he observed theforeman watching the work of his men.
"Morning," growled the showman. Phil knew he would growl becausethe fellow had not yet had his breakfast.
"Seems to me the circuses are coming this way pretty fast?"suggested the lad.
"What d'ye mean?"
"I hear that there are to be two over in Corinto within twodays--yours and--and. What's the name of the other one?"
"Sparling's," grunted the foreman.
Phil grinned appreciatively. He had drawn his man out on thefirst round.
"That's it. That's the name. I shouldn't think he'd want toshow in the same place the day after you had been there?"
"Why not?"
" 'Cause the folks will all spend their money going toyour show."
The foreman threw back his head and laughed.
"That's exactly what they will do, kid. That's what we wantthem to do. We'll make that Sparling outfit get off the earthbefore we get through with them. The boss has his axe out forthat outfit."
"Indeed?" cooed Phil.
"Yes. He's going, between you and me, to keep a day ahead ofthem all the way over this circuit."
"Smart, very smart," laughed Phil, slapping his thigh as if heappreciated the joke fully. "Have an orange. I always carrysome about with me when I'm going to visit a circus."
"Thanks, that will taste good at this time of the morning.It will keep me going until the cook tent is ready. The cooktent is where we get our meals, you understand. 'Course youdon't know about those things."
"No indeed!"
"Outsiders never do," replied the man.
"I was wondering something a moment ago, when you told me aboutgetting ahead of the other fellow."
"Wondering?"
"Yes."
"What?"
"Wondering how you know where the other fellow is going?"
"That's a dark secret, kid," answered the stake and chainforeman, with a very knowing wink.
"But if you know where he is going he must know where you arebilled for at the same time," urged Phil.
"He don't."
"But why not?"
"In the first place we bill ourselves only a few days ahead.And, in the second, we have a way of finding out where Sparlingis going for the next month or so ahead. Sometimes furtherthan that."
"Well, well, that's interesting--" The foreman hurried off togive some directions to his men, slowly returning a fewminutes later.
"I should like to know how you do it?"
"Say kid, there's tricks in the show business just the same as inany other. Mebby there's somebody with the Sparling outfit whokeeps us posted. Mind you, I ain't saying there is; but thatthere might be."
"Oh, I see," muttered Phil, suddenly enlightened. "Then someonein the other show is giving away his employer's secrets.Fine for you, but pretty rough on the other fellow."
"Let the other fellow take care of himself, the same way we do,"growled the foreman, following it with a threatening command toone of his men.
"That hardly seems fair," objected Phil.
"All is fair in war and the circus business. You seem a gooddeal interested in this competition business?" snapped the manwith sudden suspicion in voice and face.
"I am. But where is this--this Sparling show going to--do youknow what towns they are going to play for the next month?Can you tell that, too?"
"I can come pretty close to it," grinned the showman, whereuponhe named the towns on Phil's route list without so much asmissing one of them. But the stake and chain foreman did notstop here; he went on and gave a further list that Phil only knewof as having heard mentioned by Mr. Sparling in his variousconversations with the circus lad.
Phil was amazed.
"Then they must be going west. I see," nodded the boy.
"No, you don't see. You only think you do."
"No?"
"No. If you was a showman and knew your business you'd know thatthe Sparling outfit was going to make a sudden turn after alittle, and head for Dixie Land."
"Down south," exclaimed Phil.
"Sure. Why not? You see you lubbers don't know any more aboutthe show business than--"
"And you are going to follow them?"
"Follow them? No. We're going to lead them. They'll follow us."
"You're like a wildcat train then?"
"Something of the sort."
"Where's the boss?"
"There he comes now. I'll have to hustle the men, or he'llscorch the grass off the lot with his roars."
The foreman hastened to stir up his surveyors and Phil movedoff that he might get a better look at Mr. Sully, the owner ofthe show. Phil found him to be a florid-faced, square jawed manwhose expression was as repulsive as it was brutal. Sully wore ared vest and red necktie with a large diamond in it. He gave theCircus Boy a quick sharp look as he passed. "I'll bet he willknow me the next time he sees me," muttered Phil. "But whetherhe does or not I have made some discoveries that Mr. Sparlingwill be glad to know about, though they will not make himparticularly happy, I'm thinking."
Phil was hungry, and he was anxious to get back to the village towrite a letter, but decided that he would wait until the tentswere up. Then again, he wanted to see the wagons brought on sohe could count them and get a fair inventory of the show and whatit possessed. He soon discovered that the Sully HippodromeCircus was no one-horse affair, though considerably smaller thanthe one with which he was connected.
Not until the people were getting ready for the parade did Philleave the lot. Then he hastened downtown and got his dinner andbreakfast all in one, after which he sat down to write a fullaccount of what he had learned to Mr. Sparling.
"There, if anything happens to me he is pretty well informedso far. It's enough to enable him to lay those plans he hasin mind, whatever they may be. I can see him hammering hisdesk and getting red in the face when he reads this letter."
Phil was cautious enough not to mention the name of the Sullyshow in his letter, and tried to couch it in such terms, thatwhile Mr. Sparling would understand perfectly, another might not.
Phil took the letter to the post office, then went out on thesidewalk where he stood leaning against a lamp post to watch theparade, which he did with critical eyes.
"A pretty good-sized show," he mused. "But all their trappingsare second hand. They have bought them up from some show thathas discarded them. That's one thing the Sparling outfitnever does. All their stuff is new nearly every season.Sully may have some of our old trappings, for all I know."
The parade was a long one; there were a good many cages, besidesa fair-sized herd of elephants.
"Hm-m-m! Three tuskers among the bulls," muttered Phil."Pretty well up to our herd, but I wouldn't trade Emperorfor any two of them, at that."
After the parade had passed, Phil once more strolled over tothe circus lot and hung about until time for the afternoonperformance to begin, when he bought a ticket and entered,occupying a reserved seat where he could see all that wasgoing on.
The lad smiled at the thought of how his position had changed.He was so used to being over there in the ring that i
t did notseem quite right for him to be occupying a chair in the audience.He could scarcely resist the impulse to hurry back to thedressing tent and prepare for the ring.
The grand entry came on; then his attention was centered on theperformance, which he watched with the keen eyes of an expert,noting the work of every performer, completely forgetting thecheering audience in his absorption.
It was really a fair performance. He was forced to admit this,especially of the aerial acts. But the bareback riding he didnot think compared favorably with his own, especially so far asthe men riders were concerned. One woman rider was verygood, indeed.
Phil drew a long breath when the performance had come toan end. A circus performance, to him, was a matter of thekeenest interest. The fact that he himself was a circusperformer did not lessen that interest one whit, but ratherintensified it. Yet the glamour of his youthful days had passed.It was now a professional interest, rather than the wonderinginterest of a boy who never had seen the inside of thedressing tent.
Phil did not hang about the grounds. He went downtown, but wasonce more on hand for the evening performance, where he notedthat the show was cut short fully half an hour, and this withoutapparent good reason.
He had made the acquaintance of a "candy butcher" during the hourbefore the show, and from him had learned some further detailsthat were of interest to him and his investigation.
The Circus Boy, after watching the striking of the tents,returned to the railroad station and took a late train for thetown where the circus was to show next day. It was not a longrun, so he took a day coach. In it he saw several familiarfaces--faces that he had noticed about the circus lot thatafternoon, and from their appearance he was forced to concludethat these men belonged to the shows.
"Those fellows are crooks, as sure as I am alive," decided thelad, after listening to the conversation of the couple just aheadof him. "That's what Mr. Sparling told me. I could hardlybelieve it. I'll spend part of the time outside tomorrow andmake sure. I shall know those fellows when I see them, if theyare on the grounds."
It had not occurred to Phil Forrest that he might be recognizedalso, though he knew full well that circus people had keen eyes,especially in an outfit such as this.
The next morning he hunted up his friend the candy butcher,inviting that worthy to take breakfast with him which the lad,a boy about his own age, was glad to do. From the "butcher"Phil learned a whole lot of things that added to his store ofknowledge, among them being the fact that Sully's outfit waseven worse than it had been painted.
Mingling with the crowds about the main entrance, before thedoors were opened that afternoon, Phil once more saw the same menhe had observed on the train the previous evening. From theiractions he was more than ever satisfied that he had not beenmistaken in his estimate of them.
"I shouldn't be surprised if they were looking for somepockets to pick," mused the lad, "but I do not see themdoing anything yet."
As a matter of fact, the men were plying their trade, buthis eyes had not been quick enough to catch them at it.Phil, however, was more successful just before theevening show.
Standing among the people massed out in front he saw a man'shand steal slowly toward the handbag of a well-dressed woman.Phil traced the hand back until he made out the owner, who wasone of the same men that had come through on the train with him.
A gasoline torch lighted the operation faintly, and Phil gazedwith fascinated eyes while the stealthy hand opened the bagquickly extracting its contents.
Almost at the instant the woman looked down, perhaps attracted bythe tug at the bag.
"I've been robbed!" she cried.
The words stirred Phil to instant action.
In another second the thief felt a vise-like grip about the wristthat held the plunder.
"Here's the man that did it, madam. Call an officer," saidPhil calmly.
The Circus Boys in Dixie Land; Or, Winning the Plaudits of the Sunny South Page 11