"As to that, I can't say," was the answer. "But I like the game, and I want to see the circus a success."
"It's a big one now, thanks in a large part to you," observed the ringmaster. "But you'd better take a rest now, Joe, my boy. Don't try to pull off any more spectacular stunts."
"Oh, I haven't pulled off my big one yet," replied the young magician. "I mean the one with the fire. I'm working on that. If it comes out the way I think it will we'll have to give three performances a day instead of two."
"Oh, we can't do that!" protested Mr. Moyne, the treasurer. "It's hard enough keeping account of the money and tickets now, with two shows a day. If we have three—"
He paused, for it was very evident Joe was only joking, and there were smiles on the faces of the other circus folk.
"Don't worry!" said Joe to the treasurer. "I don't want to act three times a day any more than you want to count the tickets and cash. And, I suppose, if we could, by some means, give three performances, it would only give our swindling ticket friends more chance to work their scheme. By the way, there are no further signs of their putting bogus tickets on sale, are there?"
"Not since we started the detectives at work," the treasurer answered. "But I'm always on the watch, and so are the men at the entrances."
"It's about time those detectives got results, I think," declared Jim Tracy. "I wonder what they think we're paying them for?"
"It takes time for a thing like that to be cleaned up," said Joe.
"Well, I know what I'd do if I were detecting," half-growled the ringmaster.