“Oh, always during the course of the entertainment, sir.  Indeed, it has never happened at any other time—­never at all.”

“Oho!” said Cleek.  “Then it is only when they are dressed and made up for the performance, eh?  Hum-m-m!  I see.”  Then he relapsed into silence for a moment, and sat tracing circles on the floor with the toe of his boot.  But, of a sudden:  “You came here directly after the matinee, I suppose?” he queried, glancing up at young Scarmelli.

“Yes; in fact, before it was wholly over.”

“I see.  Then it is just possible that all the performers have not yet got into their civilian clothes.  Couldn’t manage to take me round behind the scenes, so to speak, if Mr. Narkom will lend us his motor to hurry us there?  Could, eh?  That’s good.  I think I’d like to have a look at that lion and, if you don’t mind, an introduction to the parties concerned.  No! don’t fear; we won’t startle anybody by revealing my identity or the cause of the visit.  Let us say that I’m a vet, to whom you have appealed for an opinion, regarding Nero’s queer conduct.  All ready, Mr. Narkom?  Thanks—­then let’s be off.”

Two minutes later the red limousine was at the door, and, stepping into it with his two companions, he was whizzed away to Olympia and the first step towards the solution of the riddle.

CHAPTER XVII

As it is the custom of those connected with the world of the circus to eat, sleep, have their whole being, as it were, within the environment of the show, to the total exclusion of hotels, boarding-houses, or outside lodgings of any sort, he found on his arrival at his destination the entire company assembled in what was known as the “living-tent,” chatting, laughing, reading, playing games, and killing time generally whilst waiting for the call to the “dining-tent,” and this gave him an opportunity to meet all the persons connected with the “case,” from the “chevalier” himself to the Brazilian coffee planter who was “backing” the show.

He found this latter individual a somewhat sullen and taciturn man of middle age, who had more the appearance of an Austrian than a Brazilian, and with a swinging gait and an uprightness of bearing which were not to be misunderstood.

“Humph!  Known military training,” was Cleek’s mental comment as soon as he saw the man walk.  “Got it in Germany, too; I know that peculiar ‘swing.’  What’s his little game, I wonder?  And what’s a Brazilian doing in the army of the Kaiser?  And, having been in it, what’s he doing dropping into this line—­backing a circus, and travelling with it like a Bohemian?”

But although these thoughts interested him, he did not put them into words nor take anybody into his confidence regarding them.