Jim was tired, and his side throbbed dully, but a sudden inspiration came to him, and he drew Lou over to the other side of the road.
“Sit down here and wait for me,” he told her. “I won’t be long. That’s where the circus is going to be, and perhaps I can fix it for you to see it.”
59Turning, he shouldered his way through the knot of loungers, and entering the lot, approached the stout gentleman.
“Want an extra hand?” he asked. “Anything from a ballyhoo to a rough-rider?”
The stout man wheeled and surveyed him in momentarily speechless wrath at the interruption. Then his eyes narrowed appraisingly as he noted the tall, lean, well-knit figure before him, and he demanded:
“How the h–l did you know that the Wild West act was all knocked to pieces?”
“It isn’t now,” Jim smiled. “Lend me a horse and a pair of chaps, and I’ll show you in five minutes what’s going to be your star act to-night.”
“You’re no circus man, nor a Westerner, neither.” The boss still stared. “And you don’t look like a bum. What’s your game, anyway?”
“To pick up a little loose change and get a horse between my knees again.”
The thought of the forlorn little figure which he had left by the roadside kept Jim’s 60smile steady, and added a desperate artificial buoyancy to his tired tones: