None of the performers were in the dressing tent then, being out in the big one doing their acts. Joe knew his way to Helen's room, having been there many times, for there would often be little impromptu gatherings in it to talk over circus matters between the acts.
He looked about for a letter, thinking she might have left one for him before going away. He saw nothing addressed to himself, but on the ground, where it had evidently dropped, was an open note. Joe could not help reading it at a glance. To his surprise it was signed by Sanford, the tricky law clerk.
"I shall be glad to see you if you will call on me when you reach Lyledale," the letter read. "I am glad you think of buying more stock. I have some to sell. I will be at the Globe Hotel."
"Whew!" whistled Joe. "It's just as I feared. She's been doing business with Sanford again—trying to make good her loss on the oil stock. He has an appointment with her here in Lyledale. That's where she's gone—to meet him. She must have sold some of her other securities to get money to buy more stock. I must stop this. I've got to follow her. Poor Helen!"
Joe had found out what he wanted to know by accident. Helen, he reasoned, must have received the letter that day, or perhaps the day before, and had planned to meet Sanford on reaching Lyledale where the circus was then playing. In order to do this she had to be excused from the afternoon performance.
"But I'll put a stop to that deal if I can," Joe declared. "I'll tell her how foolish and risky it is to invest any more money with Sanford. I only hope she'll believe me."
Joe's time was his own until the night performance. He decided he would at once follow Helen to the hotel and there remonstrate with her, if it were not too late.
"Queer that she kept it a secret from all of us," remarked Joe as he started for town. "I guess she knew we'd try to stop her from throwing good money after bad, as they say. Well, now to see what luck I'll have."
The Globe Hotel was the best and largest in town. Joe had no difficulty in finding it, and on inquiring at the desk was told that Mr. Sanford was a guest at the place.
"He has two rooms," the clerk told Joe. "One he uses as an office, where he does business."