"You won't be in any danger," the young magician went on. "I'm beginning to understand fire better the more I study it. I'm not getting too familiar, either, let me tell you. Even a little scorch is very painful."
"I glanced through one of your books the other day," remarked Helen. "Do you really suppose some of those old magicians actually handled fire in the way it is stated?"
"Well, at least they pretended to," said her friend. "There are tricks in all trades, you know."
As the circus went on its way business kept up well, and it was seen that the season was going to be an excellent one from a financial standpoint.
"Any more bogus tickets coming in?" asked Joe one day of the treasurer.
"Not since we adopted the new style," was the answer.
"Have the detectives gotten on the trail of the man, or the men, who cheated us?" asked Helen.
"Not yet," reported Mr. Moyne. "The last report I had from them was that they were getting nearer and nearer to a certain person whom they suspected. They promise an arrest soon."
"That's the usual story," remarked Joe. "However, we don't so much care about an arrest now if we have stopped the counterfeit tickets from being worked off on us."
"Well, there's always a chance that the same thing will happen again," returned Mr. Moyne. "It's too easy money for the criminals to give up, I'm afraid. I'm on the lookout every day for more counterfeits."