"I know it, Mr. Tracy. But I've got to make a change at the last minute. I can't use this extra trapeze."
"All right; do anything you like, but do it quick!"
Joe signaled to his helper, who began hoisting him to the top of the tent by means of rope and pulley. Once on his own regular trapeze, which he had tested but a short while before, Joe went through his act.
He had to improvise some acts to take the place of those he did on the short trapeze. But he did these extra exploits so well and so easily that no one in the audience suspected that it was anything but the regular procedure.
Then Joe, amid applause, descended and went over to work with the two Spaniards. He carried the doctored trapeze with him.
"I didn't use this," he said, looking closely at Tonzo. "It seems to have been left out in the rain and one of the ropes has rotted."
"Rotted?" asked Sid, his voice trembling.
"Something like that, yes," answered Joe.
"Ah, that is too bad!" exclaimed Tonzo, and neither by a false note nor by a change in his face did he betray anything. "I am glad you discovered the defect in time."
"So am I," said Joe significantly. "Come on, now.