“Not when you are by me,” said Jacqueline.
“I’ll be there,” he said, smiling. “You will see me when you are ready. Look! There’s the governor! It’s your call! Quick, my child!”
“Good-bye,” said Jacqueline, catching his hand in both of hers, and she was off and in the middle of the ring before I could get to a place of vantage to watch.
Up into the rigging she swung, higher, higher, hanging like a brilliant fly in all that net-work of wire and rope, turning, twisting, climbing, dropping to her knees, until the people’s cheers rose to a sustained shriek.
“Ready!” quavered Miss Crystal, hanging from her own trapeze across the gulf.
It was the first signal. Jacqueline set her trapeze swinging and hung by her knees, face downward.
“Ready!” called Miss Crystal again, as Jacqueline’s trapeze swung higher and higher.
“Ready!” said Jacqueline, calmly.
“Go!”