“Do you remember anything about your parents?” he asked.

“Seems as though there was a man with a white face,” replied Jerry.

“That would be you, Robert,” said the woman named Helen.

“Are you my father?” Jerry asked, putting an arm timidly about the clown’s shoulder.

“Of course he is!” cried Mr. Burrows, blowing his nose until it made a formidable sound.  “Bowe, you take your wife and child into the dressing tent, so the circus can go on.  Sultana is getting restless.”

Whiteface took Jerry up in his arms and his new-found mother clung to his hand as they started to leave the arena, tears still in her eyes.  She stopped to call to Danny and Chris to follow them.  Sultana lifted up her trunk and trumpeted.  As they tramped along, the spectators craning their necks to get a better view, Jerry heard Mr. Burrows saying in a loud voice to the audience in the section where he had sat: 

“Ladies and gentlemen, there is no occasion for alarm.  The elephant, Sultana, recognized in the boy, Jerry Elbow, the son of our famous clown, Robert Ellison Bowe, who was stolen from the circus in a neighboring State three years ago by a disgruntled employee.  The police of the country had been searching for him and Mr. Bowe had spent thousands of dollars in the effort to find him.  What money and mind and trained detective intelligence failed to do, the retentive memory of the elephant, Sultana, has accomplished and, thanks to her, a grieving father and mother are reunited with their long-lost son.  The performance will now continue and you will see what a great degree of intelligence is possessed by these pachyderms in the tricks which they will now perform for your gratification.”

And how the people shouted and applauded at that!

“Bow to them.  They are cheering for you,” said Whiteface to Jerry.  “They are glad you have been found.”

Jerry waved his hands to them and bowed and a patter of hand-clapping ran along the audience as they passed until they reached the entrance.

Chris suddenly cried, “Danny!  Look at them el’funts!  They’re standin’ on their heads!  Lookee!”

Jerry just had to see that and he squirmed around in Whiteface’s arms.

“They’re funny!” he laughed.  “Which one is Sult Anna?”

“She’s the one at the table,” replied his mother, “ringing the bell for a waiter to bring her something to eat.”

“Can el’funts do that?” Jerry asked amazed.

“Much more than that, Gary,” she responded.

“I guess el’funts know more’n some people,” Danny remarked.

Jerry craned his neck to see the elephants.

“Are they going to jump the fence now?” he asked.

Whiteface burst into a joyous laugh.

“Helen, I told you my idea for a circus poster would fetch the children!” he said.  “They don’t jump a fence,” he explained to Jerry.

“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Jerry.  “The picture shows them doing it!”