“Feeling all right?” he asked her.

“Well, yes, pretty well,” she answered.

“What’s the matter?” asked Joe quickly, as he detected an under note of anxiety in the girl’s voice.  “Is your star horse, Rosebud, lame or off his feed?”

“Oh, no,” she answered.  “It’s just—­Oh, here comes Mother Watson, and I promised to help her mend a skirt,” said Helen quickly, as she turned to greet the veteran clown’s wife.  “See you later, Joe!” she called to him over her shoulder as she started away.

The young magician moved away toward his own private quarters.

“I wonder what’s the matter with Helen,” he said.  “She doesn’t act naturally.  If that Bill Carfax has been around again, annoying her, I’ll put him out of business for all time.  But if he had been around I’d have heard of it.  I don’t believe it can be that.”

Nor was it.  Helen’s anxiety had to do with something other than Bill Carfax, the unprincipled circus man who had so annoyed her before Joe discharged him.  And, as Joe had said, the man had not been seen publicly since the fiasco of his attempt to expose Joe’s mystery box trick.

“Well, I suppose she won’t tell me what it is until she gets good and ready,” mused Joe.  “Now I’ll go in and have a little practice at the big swing before the parade.”

Joe did not take part in the street pageant, though Helen did, riding her beautiful horse to the admiration, not only of the small boys and their sisters, but the grown-up throng in the highways as well.  Helen made a striking picture on her spirited, but gentle, steed.

It was not that Joe Strong felt above appearing in the parade.  That was not his reason for not taking part.  He had done so on more than one occasion, and with his Wings of Steel had created more than one sensation.

But now that he did a trapeze act, as well as working the sleight-of-hand mysteries, his time was pretty well occupied.  He had not, as yet, done the big swing in public since that act was abandoned on the death of the man who had been injured while doing it.  But Joe had been perfecting himself in it.  He had had a new set of trapezes made, and had ornamented them and the two platforms in a very striking manner.  In other words, the trick had a new “dress,” and Joe, as one of the circus proprietors, hoped it would go well and attract attention.

This was from a business standpoint, and not only because Joe was himself the performer.  Of course it was natural that he should like applause—­all do, more or less.  But Joe was one of the owners of the circus—­the chief owner, in fact—­and he wanted to make a financial success of it.  Nor was this a purely selfish reason.  Many persons owned stock in the enterprise, and Joe felt it was only fair to them to see that they received a good return for their investment.  Any trick he could do to draw crowds he was willing to attempt.

So, while the parade was being gotten ready, Joe went inside the main top, which by this time was erected, to see about having his platforms and trapeze put in place.  In this he was always very careful, as is every aerial performer.  The least slip of a rope may cause disaster, and no matter how careful the attendants are, the performers themselves always give at least a casual look to their apparatus.