True, Joe did not actually need Ham to go on with his acts.  He could break in another man to help him, to hand him the proper article at just the right time, to see to the mixing of the fire-resisting chemicals and to the preparation of the viands that seemed to be composed of fire itself.

“And that’s what I’ll have to do,” mused Joe, when he became convinced some days later that Ham was not to be found.

He wished that Helen was able to act as his assistant in the fire scenes, as she did in the box trick and the vanishing lady act.  But she could spare no more time from her own act with Rosebud, since she was billed as one of the “stars.”  Then, too, Helen had a fear of fire, and though she had succeeded in overcoming part of it, still she would not have made the proper sort of assistant in those acts.  Besides, she would not have been able to mix the chemicals Joe required to render himself immune from such fire as he actually came in contact with, though momentarily.

“I’ve got to train in a new man,” decided Joe.  He mentally considered various circus employees, rejecting one after another, and finally selected one of the young men who acted in the blazing banquet scene.  This youth was a bright, manly fellow, and had introduced some new “business” in the act which made it more interesting.

“I’ll train him in,” decided Joe, “with the understanding that if Ham comes back he’ll get his old place.  If he comes back!  I wonder if he ever will, and if he’ll be in a condition to help me.”

Joe shook his head dubiously.

The circus moved on.  It had played to good business, and there was more good business in prospect.  Mr. Moyne, the treasurer, was on the anxious seat much of the time, fearing another flood of bogus tickets, but the efforts mentioned, on the part of the swindlers, following the use of new paper, was all they had to complain of so far.

“Either the detectives are too close to the trail of the cheats to allow them to work in safety, or they’ve given it up altogether,” decided the treasurer.

“I hope so,” said Joe.  “Still it won’t do to relax our vigilance.  I wrote to the detective firm, as I said I would, jacking them up a bit.  Maybe they are ready to make an arrest, and that would stop the swindlers.”

The young man Joe had picked out to act as his chief assistant in the fire scenes was Ted Brown.  Ted was about eighteen years old, and this was his first position with a circus.  But he was making good, and he had not yet been afflicted with the terrible disease known as “swelled head,” something which ruins so many performers.

Ted learned rapidly, and Joe felt that it would be safe to trust him with some of the secrets of the tricks—­the mixing of the fire-resisting chemicals and the like.  Joe’s choice seemed to be a good one, for Ted did well, and his part in the banquet scene was made even better by his knowledge of the inner workings of the material used.