Twisting his legs about the rope the boy next took a weak grip on it with both hands, then started slowly to descend. This he knew how to do, so the feat was attended with no difficulty other than the strength required, and of which he had none to spare just at the present moment.
"Look out!" he called. He thought he had shouted it in a loud tone. As a matter of fact no sound issued from his lips.
But Mr. Sparling whose eyes had been fixed upon the boy, saw and understood.
"He's falling. Catch him!"
Phil shot downward head first. Yet with the instinct of the showman he curled his head up ever so little as he half consciously felt himself going.
CHAPTER VI
THE SHOWMAN'S REWARD
Phil struck the net with a violent slap that was heard outside the big top, though those without did not understand the meaning of it, nor did they give it heed.
Mr. Sparling was the first to reach him. The lad had landed on his shoulders and then struck flat on his back, the proper way to fall into a net. Perhaps it was instinct that told him what to do.
The lad was unconscious when the showman lifted him tenderly from the net and laid him out on the ground.