He went down the rope ladder and climbed up another to the second platform.  The show would not start for several hours yet, and the tent was filled with men putting in place the stage for Joe’s magic tricks and other apparatus for various performers.  The parade was just forming to proceed down town.

Joe found that Harry Loper had done his work well, at least as far as the platforms were concerned.  They were firmly fastened.  The one to which Joe leaped after his swing needed to be considerably stronger than the one from which he “took off.”

The next act of the young circus performer was to climb up to the very top of the tent, and there to examine the fastenings of the trapeze ropes.  He spent some time at this, having reached his high perch by a third rope ladder.

“I guess everything is all right,” mused Joe.  “Perhaps I did Harry an injustice.  He might have taken some stimulant for a cold—­they all got wet through the other night.  But still he ought to be careful.  He was a little too talkative for a man to give his whole attention to fastening a trapeze.  But this seems to be all right.  I’ll do the big swing this afternoon and to-night, in addition to the box trick and the vanishing lady.  Helen works exceedingly well in that.”

Having seen that his aerial apparatus was all right, Joe next went to his tent where his magical appliances were kept.  Many stage tricks depend for their success on special pieces of apparatus, and Joe’s acts were no exception.

Joe saw that everything was in readiness for his sleight-of-hand work, and then examined his Box of Mystery.  As this was a very special piece of apparatus, he was very careful about it.  His ability to get out of it, once he was locked and roped in, depended on a delicate bit of mechanism, and the least hitch in this meant failure.

But a test showed that it was all right, and as by this time it was nearly the hour for the parade to come back and the preliminaries to begin, Joe went over to the circus office to see if any matters there needed his attention.

As he crossed the lot to where the “office” was set up in a small tent, the first horses of the returning parade came back on the circus grounds.  Following was a mob of delighted small boys and not a few men.

“Looks as if we’d have a big crowd,” said Joe to himself.  “And it’s a fine day for the show.  We’ll make money!”

He attended to some routine matters, and then the first of the afternoon audience began to arrive.  As Joe had predicted, the crowd was a big one.

The young performer was in his dressing room, getting ready for the big swing, which he would perform before his mystery tricks, when Mr. Moyne, the circus treasurer, entered.  There was a queer look on Mr. Moyne’s face, and Joe could not help but notice it.

“What’s worrying you?” asked Joe.  “Doesn’t this weather suit you, or isn’t there a big enough crowd?”