Suddenly the rider swept by with his horse at a dead run, and swooping down, seized the square of white in his teeth, and while the tent rang with applause, Lou sat very still. It was Jim! It was he, her “partner,” whom the people were all clapping their hands at, who was doing all these wonderful things! But his face had looked somewhat pale beneath that big hat, and his smile sort of fixed.
The bandage was gone from his head, and the plaster which had replaced it was hidden, 67but she could not have been mistaken. What if he were suffering, if his back and side were paining him again? She recalled the exhaustion with which he had slept at noontime, and the long, weary hike that followed it, and her heart contracted within her. It was for her that he was doing this, so that she might see the show!
One of the ladies in the seats before her leaned forward and exclaimed:
“Didn’t he look like Jimmie Abbott? If we didn’t know that he was on a fishing trip up in Canada─”
Lou did not catch the rest of the remark. Her eyes were glued upon the rider and her ears stilled to everything around her. With a final flourish he dashed for the dingy curtain at the exit and it parted to let him pass. It did not close quickly enough behind him, however; not quickly enough to conceal from the gaping audience his lurching fall from the saddle into the group of acrobats waiting to come on in their turn.
Then it was that a small, pink-checked cyclone whirled through the rows of closely 68packed humanity and half-way round the arena to the curtain, while above the clamor of the band arose a shrill cry; “Jim! Jim!”
“Did you see her?” The lady who had commented upon the rider’s appearance demanded of the gentleman beside her. “She called him Jim, too; isn’t that odd? Do you suppose, Jack, that she is with the circus; that little country girl?”
“Oh, it was only part of the show,” the stout gentleman replied in a bored tone. “Or else the chap was tight. He certainly rode as if he had some red-eye tucked under his belt; wonder where he got it around here?”