CHAPTER IX
PHIL MAKES A DISCOVERY
"I guess I'll leave my bag in the station and go over to the lot," decided the lad.
"The stake and chain gang will just about be on the job by this time."
It is a well known fact in the circus world that there is no better place to get information than from the stake and chain gang, the men who hurry to the lot the moment their train gets in and survey it, driving stakes to show where the tents are to be pitched, and it is a familiar answer, when one is unable to answer a question to say: "Ask the stake and chain gang."
That was exactly what Phil Forrest had in mind to do.
He followed a show wagon to the circus lot, where he found the men already at work measuring off the ground with their surveyor's chains, in the faint morning light.
"Morning," smiled Phil, sauntering over to where he observed the foreman watching the work of his men.
"Morning," growled the showman. Phil knew he would growl because the fellow had not yet had his breakfast.
"Seems to me the circuses are coming this way pretty fast?" suggested the lad.