"You know all about it? Well, I thought as much. But I am sorry you have admitted it. That necessitates my reading you a severe lecture."
This Phil did, laying down the law as Conley never had supposed the Circus Boy could do. Billy repeated the lecture to the rest of the crew, later on, and all agreed that Phil Forrest, the young advance agent, had left nothing unsaid. Phil's stock rose correspondingly. A man who could "call down" his crew properly was a real car manager.
While the Sparling Show profited by Teddy's ruse, Phil felt unhappy that his advantage had come by reason of the falsehood that Teddy had told; and that night Phil read his young friend a severe lecture.
"If I find you doing a trick like that again," concluded Phil, "you close there and then."
CHAPTER XXIV
CONCLUSION
"Who is the man in charge of Sparling Advance Car Number Three?" demanded Mr. Starr, manager of "The Greatest Show on Earth."
"A young fellow named Forrest. That is all I know about him," answered the treasurer of the show.
"He used to be a performer and a good one, too," spoke up the assistant manager.
This conversation took place in the office tent of the show that Phil Forrest had been fighting almost ever since he took charge of Car Three.