Helen's face showed the relief she felt.
"He'll have to go to a hospital, though," continued the medical man. "His neck is badly strained, and so are the muscles of his shoulder. He won't be able to swing on a trapeze for a week or so."
Bill Watson whistled a low note. He knew what it meant for a circus performer to be laid up.
"Please take him to a hospital," cried Helen impulsively, "and see that he has a good physician and a nurse—I mean, you look after him yourself," she added quickly, as she saw the doctor smiling at her.
"And have a trained nurse for him. I'll pay the bill," she went on. "I'm so glad that money came to me. I'll use some of it for Joe."
"She just inherited a little fortune," explained Bill in a whispered aside to the medical man. "They're quite fond of each other—those two."
"So it seems. Well, he'll need a nurse and medical treatment for a while to come. I'll go and arrange to have him taken to the hospital. Has he any friends that ought to be notified—not that he is going to die, but they might like to know."
"I guess he hasn't any friends but us here in the circus. His father and mother are dead, and he ran away from his foster-father—a good thing, too, I guess. Well, the show will have to go on and leave him here, I suppose."
"Oh, yes, certainly. He can't travel with you."
The ambulance came and took Joe away. Jim Tracy communicated with the hospital authorities, ordering them to give the young trapeze performer the best possible care in a private room, adding that the management would pay the bill.