"Through your schemes, and over my protest, Haidee made the ascent with me."
"I'll admit that."
"If she hadn't made the ascent, there'd have been no fire."
"Do you mean to say——"
"Now, don't jump at any conclusions. I know what I'm talking about when I tell you that there'd have been no fire if Haidee hadn't made the ascent with me. That isn't saying, mark you, that the girl is to blame for what happened. Would she want to burn the aëroplane and drop herself and me plump into the show grounds? If——"
Just then a weird thing happened. The calliope gave a sharp clatter of high notes.
All present in the tent gave astounded attention to the canvas-covered music box.
"Spooks!" grinned Joe.
"There was enough steam left in the calliope to play a few notes," suggested Burton.
"But the notes couldn't play themselves," said Matt, and made a rush for the calliope.