“I wonder who they are,” mused Joe.
CHAPTER XXIII
“I’VE GOT YOU!”
Joe had been reading a letter when Professor Rosello came in with the strange news about the two men. The letter was from Benny Turton, the “human fish,” of Sampson Brothers’ Circus, and was in response to a souvenir postcard Joe had sent the lad, hardly expecting a reply. Joe had just done it as a kind remembrance to the lad to whom he had given a little help.
But Benny wrote rather a long letter in reply, Joe having given his future address. In the letter Benny said that he was not feeling well, but that he still had to go on with his tank act.
“I rather wish, some days, that I had your work,” he wrote. “I gave your regards, as you requested, to Jim Tracy and Miss Morton. They wish to be remembered to you. Miss Morton wants to know if you are ever going to join a circus.”
Joe smiled in reflective fashion as he folded the letter and put it in his pocket. So Helen Morton, “Mademoiselle Mortonti,” had not forgotten him, nor had the ring-master, though their acquaintanceship was of the briefest. Joe was glad they had remembered him—particularly glad in the case of Helen.
But, for the time being, the letter was put aside. Joe’s mind was busy trying to conjecture who the two men at the hotel could be.
“I wonder if I’d better go down and see if I can’t get a look at them without their seeing me?” he asked Professor Rosello.
“I wouldn’t, Joe,” was the advice. “If I’m any judge they’ll be at the show to-night, and you can see them then.”
“What makes you think they’ll be here?”