What happened then will have to be reserved for our next chapter.
CHAPTER IX
BILLY WHISKERS JOINS THE CIRCUS
WHEN the show manager saw all the performers and even the clown come running out of the ring right in the midst of their fourth act, he was naturally very greatly surprised and excited.
He thought that they had all gone crazy and flew around like a hen with her head off trying to make them return and go on with their work.
At last one of them, more composed than the others, made him understand that something very unusual had happened and that they did not dare go back into the ring.
“Look and see for yourself if you can’t believe me,” he finally said.
So the frantic manager pulled aside the tent flap just in time to be greeted by the shouts and cheers that the great audience gave to Billy Whiskers and the monkeys when they saw the astonishing feats they were performing, as though they were all trained to the business.
“That beats me hollow,” fairly stuttered the flabbergasted manager. “I can’t understand it at all, but I hope I know a good thing when I see it, and I’m no judge if this doesn’t prove the greatest feature and biggest drawing card the show ever had. The trouble will be to keep them at it right along. Those monkeys,” you could see he didn’t like the monkeys from the way he spoke, “are about as much to be depended upon as the east wind. That big goat seems to make them toe the mark. I wonder where he came from and who owns him? There is one thing certain, this show from now on has just got to have him at any price.”