"I wonder if I could get another," mused Joe. "Guess I'd better try."
He walked over to where the Lascalla Brothers stood near their apparatus.
"What's the matter?" asked Sid, seeing Joe trailing the broken trapeze after him.
"This bar is cracked. It's my short trapeze that I fasten to the big one. I used it just now to hold the door so the lioness wouldn't get out, and the wood is cracked. I was wondering if you had a spare one like this."
"We have!" exclaimed Tonzo quickly. "Get the little short one—the one with the silk coverings on the ropes," he said to Sid. "Joe can use that."
"I'll be back with it in a second," Sid stated, as he hurried off to the dressing tent, for it was nearly time for the performance to begin. Sid returned presently with another trapeze.
At this moment Helen came in with her horse, Rosebud, for she was about to do her act.
"What's the matter, Joe?" asked Helen, for she knew that at this point in the performance he ought to be on the other side of the tent doing his act.
"Oh, I cracked a trapeze bar," Joe replied, as he stepped up beside the girl and patted Rosebud. "Sid is going to get me another. Here he comes now with it."
At the sight of the trapeze the circus man was bringing up, Helen was conscious of a strange feeling. She saw the silk-covered ropes, and the recollection of that scene in the tent came vividly to her.