Still he kept the audience amused, and that was the main point. Professor Rosello even saw Deacon Blackford laughing at some of the tricks and the “patter” which accompanied them. But immediately after he smiled, the stern man became more stern, as though ashamed of himself for having given way to mirth.
“I guess he’ll find out, if he lives long enough,” thought the performer, “that circus people and magicians aren’t as black as they are painted.”
The professor was thoroughly impressed with the belief in Joe’s innocence, and he did not want to see him subjected to the humiliation of an arrest.
“Innocent as he is, and as I believe him to be,” thought the professor, “it would take time to prove it, and it would delay my show. It may make him look guilty to run away in this fashion, but I believe it the best way. Later on, if necessary, Joe can give himself up and explain.”
Meanwhile Joe, having the same idea, was making his way out of the stage door of the theatre. He hurried to the hotel, packed up his belongings and took a train to the next town. The professor and the baggage would come by a later train.
“That was a narrow escape,” mused Joe, as he hurried away. “I wonder how he found me?”
The answer to that question was not difficult.
Professor Rosello went on with the performance. Among other tricks was the one of making the arithmetic sum appear on the slate—the trick Joe had explained to his chums the day the fireworks factory burned.
Another was the producing of hundreds of feet of colored paper, in the shape of a ribbon, and scores of paper flowers from a hat borrowed from some one in the audience. The hat was shown empty, and immediately thereafter the performer, putting in the end of his wand, proceeded to wind out on it yard after yard of paper ribbon. Next he shook out paper flowers, so that with the ribbon, they made quite a pile on the table—a pile much larger than the hat itself.
“I didn’t know you carried all that stuff with you, sir,” said the professor to the man whose hat he had borrowed. “You must find it quite a burden.