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Show By Courtney Ityley Cooper (WNU Hi-.rvtre ) Cooyrljfht by Courtney Ryley CooDer CHAPTER VHI-Continued 20 "Out that tiling arranged for this afternoon," he shouted over a shoulder. shoul-der. "See me right afier performance. perform-ance. They're out here now Id an automobile." "What tiling?" Joe called after hlrn. 15 ut Just then the chariots cume rumbling rum-bling Into the arena and the answer wbh lost. Joe cut through the ring and across the Intervening stage to the pad room. Half the circus seemed gathered there ahout an automobile from which men were lugging electrical elec-trical devices. A six-horse team swung Into view, and behind It a mixed cage of lions and tigers, with Outhouse Green, the menagerie boss. "Where you want these cats to do their meowing?" he shouted to a man In the automobile. "Right there! We can move the microphone over beside the cage." Microphone I He understood now without Uncle Dan's explanation: that radio Idea, dismissed one day, weeks ago and then apparently forgotten. for-gotten. "Hotter go get your accordion. Joe," Uncle Dan shouted from the crowd about the automobile. "Everything's about ready. Tell Sue to hurry up. She's got to talk to her radio audience audi-ence and tell 'em how glad she Is everybody likes her act." lie looked at his walch. "We've only got three minutes more. Get a move on yourself!" your-self!" Joe Harry thought desperately. The radio, sending his music to thousands upon thousands of listeners, music which might be recognized! "Didn't 1 tell you to hurry?" shouted Uncle Dan. "What's the matter? Scared of the microphone? It won't bite you." A broadcaster hurried forward and caught Joe lightly by the upper arm to give him bis distance, according to the pantomimic commands of the man at the control. Joe Barry moved forward, for-ward, amid a blur of faces. His tongue went swiftly over lips that had become suddenly jnrd and dry. Then slowly, to the guidance of the man beside him, he stepped to the microphone. micro-phone. ISut again, nothing happened, except that the night crowd was a turnaway as a result of the broadcast. After the matinee, Joe waited In Clown alley, for the visit of men he felt sure must soon arrive. A whole twenty-four twenty-four hours had elapsed. Now he saw how ior had been his selection of a pseudonym ; a child could tell, he upbraided up-braided himself, that it had been changed from Barry to Bradley. But still nothing happened. The show went on, rounding out of Virginia now and cutting back north, through the smaller Industrial cities. Joe realized that he was not the only man In the world who could play an accordion and that beyond this, police were not looking for gangster-murderers as singers of circus love songs. Once more the world was becoming roseate, the glow of sun flooding the clouds before a storm. It was at the end of a matinee, and the flying act was done. The liberty horse race number waited at the flags. Joe stepped to the gong only to find himself staring for an Instant Instead of signaling for the race. Some one who sat in the second row of the grandstand seemed strangely familiar. Scattered emotions struck Joe'Barry. Some one was there whom he knew.' and he could know only those who must Injure him. Ue clanged the bell for the start of the race. Then. Impulsively, Im-pulsively, as the horses passed him. moved down the track, as If to talk to a property man there, swerved sud denly and walked ba-k. In the center of the hippodrome. He could see clearly now ; the man In the grand stand had half turned, as if to watch the race. Joe Barry knew that this was pretense. And Joe Barry knew those features, the flaccid, loose-jowled loose-jowled face of Fullhouse Kendall! A gasp ran over the audience like a gigantic shudder. The riders shouted, shout-ed, and jerked madly at the reins. Ill rses, their heads twisted, eyes rolling roll-ing and white, plunged wildly in au effort to alter their course. A woman screamed ; there was the crash of impact. im-pact. Then four men ran into the tent with a loose bit of canvas fluttering flut-tering between them. At the ring curb, they swiftly raised the unconscious uncon-scious form of Joe Barry, and. placing plac-ing him in the tattered canvas, rushed with him to the near-by seclusion of the menagerie tent. CHAPTER IX Gradually, like a drifting thing In dying night, Joe Barry felt himself moving toward consciousness. Bellowing Bellow-ing and roaring contiuued from some vague place, like thunder In the distance. dis-tance. The sounds, however, were in the abstract; It was something closer which called him back to life, the soft touch of hands against his temples, smoothing, caressing them. Then, from far away, a voice came, growing nearer, resolving Itself out of faint-ness faint-ness Into words : "Yes, Joe. 1 love you. 1 love you better than anything in the world!" The man stirred, but dullness held him. Then came a man's tones, as if through the thickness of a cloud ! "I guess I'll be going. Sue. You're the best medicine he can have now, that and quiet. There's no fracture; s, Just that cut at the back of the head and a slight concussion. His head will 'ache pretty badly for a few days." Joe stirred again. "I think he'll be all right now, Doctor." Joe knew now that the voice was Sue Dayton's. "If Cathouse could only shut up that new Hon over there!" 'Ought not to've caged him anyway any-way at this time of day," growled Uncle Dan. "Caged " the man on the straw pallet muttered the word. Sue Dayton Day-ton bent closer. "Please. Joe," she begged. "Be quiet, dearest." "(,'uged !" the man repeated, without realizing that he said It. Then the clouds swept In upon him, swirling about In his brain. Suddenly, Sudden-ly, they lifted, to clarity. Joe Barry looked up Into the eyes of Sue, kneeling kneel-ing beside him on a pile of straw behind be-hind a menagerie den. "Joe! Joe!" The girl was laughing, with tears In her eyes. Her hands touched bis face, his eyes, his bandaged ban-daged head. "Joe, you're all right." She bent quickly. The warmth of her lips met his. "You should have known I loved you, Joe; why did you upbraid up-braid me?" There was a hysterical break in he- voice. "Here, here!" Uncle Dan had bent forward with brusk concern. "That's no way to carry on. Joe wouldn't bnve said those things If he'd known what he was doing?" The man stared. "What have I done?" he asked. Uncle Dan chuckled. "There now, Joe, don't get excited. You just kept telling Sue here how she must hate you, that you must go away and never see her again, and begging her to tell you she loved you. So " he spread his hands "she did It I" l'ain and ecstasy shot through Joe Barry'3 heart. "I'm sorry," he groaned. Sue laughed, and stroked his temples. tem-ples. "It wasn't half as bad as Uncle Dan makes out." Then suddenly: fell Then She was Limp in His Tight Embrace, Her Hands Upraised Weakly Against Him. "Joe, You'll Smother Me," She Begged. "You're not sorry that I told you, Joe?" Swiftly he caught her hand and brought it to his lips. The kisses that he had longed to implant there were his now; he muttered insane ejaculations ejacula-tions of joy, and strove to rise, that he might take her In his arms, but dizziness halted him. Sue caught him only in time to prevent his falling. Uncle Dan knelt swiftly. They assisted him to his feet; he reeled iD their grasp, but he forced himself onward, step by step, In desperate des-perate efforts to make his escape from that constant reminder. Caged! Like an evil discord the wor jangled in his brain. "Caged !" he muttered deliriously. "Yeh. they've got him caged." said Uncle Dan. "But he'll break out if there's a way. That cat's a bad one." Joe Barry was silent. His prison had no exits. Then Sue spoke: "Well. If I can make a suggestion, I think the best thing we can do is to put Joe in the flivver and take him down to the cars and put him to bed." "Yeh. I'll run him down." lie looked at Joe: "I'll let you two have one clinch. Then you for bed and quiet !" Joe Barry straightened. Denied everything, he could at least have ibis. The future faded for an instant, the dizziness, the racking pain at the back of his head He only knew that for a moment there could be a fulfillment of anguished longings, that the hands which he so often had clasped behind his back could now reach outward to enfold her, that she was his. in body and soul. Closer he held her. his kisses suddenly straying, to the sun-glinted sun-glinted hair, to her deep blue eyes, closed now, to her cheeks md to her lips again. Then she was limp In his tight embrace, her hands upraised weakly against him. "Joe you'll smother me," she begged. "That's enough!" broke In Uncle Dan. "The doctor didn't say anything any-thing about a wrestling contest. Now, Sue, you run along. You can come down after a while and see him." Ten minutes later the car bounced along r he rutty road on the way to the train. TO BB CONTIN'UED.) |
