Before pasting on the paper the men looked closely at the joinings of the box.  They seemed rather puzzled in spite of the cock-sureness of the first individual.

The pasting was not a work of art, but it was effective.  The corner of the box was plastered over with sheets of white paper, in which there was no break.

“If I get out of the box without cracking, tearing, or disturbing the paper you have pasted on, without moving it in any way, you’ll admit that you’re wrong, won’t you?” asked Joe, as he prepared to do the trick again.

“Yes,” was the answer.  “I will.  But I’ve got you sewed up!”

“Pasted up would be a better word,” returned Joe, with a smile.  “But that remains to be seen.”

The box was placed in position, and Joe took his place in it.  The lid was slammed down, locked, and the rope was knotted about it.  The two men who had done the pasting assisted in this.

Then the curtains were drawn, and Helen and the firemen took their places.  There was a period of waiting.  The tense suspense of the audience was manifest.  Even Jim Tracy and Bill Watson, veteran circus men though they were, seemed a bit worried.  The man who had claimed the ten thousand dollars and his companion seemed a bit ill at ease.

Then, suddenly, the curtains parted and Joe Strong stood in plain view, outside the box, bowing to the applause that greeted him.  When it had subsided, he said: 

“Will you two gentlemen kindly look at the paper seals you placed on one corner of the box?  If they are unbroken and undisturbed I take it you have lost.  Kindly look and announce what you find.”

The men shuffled to the case and bent down over the corner that was covered with the pasted sheets.  Look as they did, they could find no evidences of a break or tear in the paper.  And it had not been removed and put back again.  The men admitted that.

“Then you have to admit that I didn’t get out of the box by means of a secret panel in that corner, don’t you?” asked Joe, when the two had asserted that the paper was intact.

“Yes, I guess you win,” said the first man.  “But there’s some trick about it!”

“Oh, I admit that!” laughed Joe.  “It is a trick, and if you discover it you get ten thousand dollars.  But not to-night.  Red Cross is richer by a hundred dollars.”

“Um!” grumbled the man, as he walked off, and many in the audience laughed.  Joe had won.

The circus performance went on to its usual exciting close in the chariot races, and when preparations were being made to travel on to the next city, Helen had a chance to speak to Joe.

“It was a narrow escape,” she said.

“Just what it was!” he replied.  “If he had picked the other corner—­the left instead of the right—­he would have had me.  But luck was with us.”

“I’m glad,” said Helen.  “But how did he happen to select any corner?  Some one must know more about your trick box than you think.”