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Show I C AGE Djl By Courtney Ryley Cooper Copyright by Courtney Ryley Cooper (WNTJ Service.) j M I I WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED Joe Barry, country youth In New York, ekea out a living as caretaker In a poor room I ng ! house and accordion player in 1 Louie Bertolini's restaurant, j Lured by the open country, he spends a niht in the fields, near I Newburph. Bertolinl discharges him. Friendless and "'broke," he I la offered $ 10,000 by a man he J knows only as "Martin" to Impersonate Im-personate a liquor runner facins arrest. It means the penitentiary, peniten-tiary, but Joe is desperate. He defers decision until the next night, and is given $1,000 on ac- j count." Next day Joe deposits I $800 in country banks, giving his name as Joseph Bradley. Out&ide 1 a circus tent he sees an accordion accor-dion and Is tempt ed to play it. A girl, Sue Dayton, niece of the owner, who admires the music, urges him to join the circus, but Joe says he must first return to New York "on business." He has decided to refuse "Martin's" offer. of-fer. In his room four men accost him. Bewildered, Joe sees the men, who are detectives, find large amounts of money, a machine ma-chine gun, and two revolvers. Next day, under arrest, Joe is identified by men who had seen him the night before near New-burgh, New-burgh, when two prohibition agents were killer and robbed Joe finds he is charged with their murder and robbery. He realizes "Martin's" object to have him found guilty or the murders, executed, ex-ecuted, and the case closed. A man known as "Full house," waiter at Bertolini's, hurts Joe's case by his evidence. Joe keeps silent as to his previous day's doings, fearing to embarrass Sue Dayton. His cellmate, Hymie Fradke, gives Joe $2 0 Next day Fradke, having secured a revolver, revol-ver, "snoots it out" with prison guards, and is killed. n the confusion Joe escapes. Using the 520 Fradke had given him, he flees New York, draws some of the money he had deposited and finds the Dayton circus, looking upon it as a refuge. CHAPTER V Continued 16 It meant more hours of weakness and strength, at last it meant capitulation. capitula-tion. There could he no harm in that; the damage had already been done. To talk to her again, to look upon her ; in the graceful beauty of silk and j tulle, to stand with her by the little ! dressing tent where first he had met her; there must be no more than that. The throngs of the menagerie found Joe Barry before the cages. The instant in-stant Sue Dayton's act was -over, he was out of his seat and hurrying for the marquee that he might round the tangled guy ropes of the big top, to , tier dressing tent. As he approached her, she waved : excitedly to him and then turned for ' a moment within the tent, to make her ! exit as hurriedly, a professional copy j of sheet music in her hands. "I wonder if you've heard It?" she : asked, giving him the music. "It's j just out; you'd think it was written j especially for us, wouldn't you?" "Gee!" Joe had looked at the title. ! "That's great, isn't it? 'Queen of the ' Sawdust Ring.' " He laughed. "That's ! you, all right," he said, j "Well, we'll play that It Is," Sue agreed. "The music's real pretty. And 1 you ought to hear the band play it I Queer; the orchestration and song i came through the mail the day after we saw you. Uncle Dan and I said j right away It would he just the thing. Bert Wilson, the band leader, you know, tried it out, and we started I using it for the act yesterday. But of course, the real touch will he the solo when you play and sing it. Don't t you like the words?" j Joe nodded as he read the chorus; You're my shimmering dream or the I sawdust ring, You're the hit of life's show for me, i I wonder if you know the ioy you'd I bring I tf the queen of my heart you'd be. i Tinsel and spangle and fluttering tulle, : Queen of the sawdust ring. I You'll make me a king, the world to I rule, j When you're queen of my diamond ring. ' Joe pulled in his breath, deeply. "That sure was written for you." he , said at last. "I'll bet somebody saw ! you in the ring and wrote that." "Foolish!" the girl bantered. "But '. it does tit into ihe act, wonderfully, i That's the line I like," she added, i pointing. She was beside him now. ' the soft touch of her breast against j his shoulder sending through him a j strange, almost delirious sort of thrill, j "That fifth line: 'Tinsel and spangle j and fluttering tulle.' Isn't that j pretty?" i "The music's nice there, too." Hast-! Hast-! Ily he crossed to the chair and. rais-i rais-i ing the gleaming Iorio, swung his head under the strati, i "I'lay the whole thing over," she said. Joe obeyed greedily. Everything Every-thing else In life had momentarily faded except this, except the fact that he was with her, translating 'a Tin Ban Alley creation Into a serenade that, in his mind at least, had been written just to describe r lie only circus cir-cus girl wlm ever exisied. Tinsel and spangle nnd fluttering tulle. Queen of the sawdust ring, You II make me a king, the world to rule, Wln-n you're queen of my diamond ring "That's a cracking good song.' said a voice I'rnm the rear, and .!e turned ti grin a greeting to t'ucle I 'an Day ton, "Well. boy. you were a day or two late, bill il's all right. I low do you l'l;e the conr?" "Uh gee!" Joe's smile finished the I sentence. Uncle Dan stuffed his hands Into the diagonal pockets of his riding breeches. "Seem to be getting along pretty well with it. How about making the break tonight?" "You mean ?" "3ure. You can memorize it In that time, can't you? f it's rotten, we'll be gone tomorrow, anyway, and you've had a rehearsal." "I I don't know." A certnln agly tinge of grnyness had made Its appearance ap-pearance about Joe's lips. Realization had returned. Suddenly he wondered what these people would do If he should suddenly blurt forth the fact that he was a fugitive from a charge of murder. "I don't know about doing do-ing the act tonight," he said. "I'd planned to write a lot of letters and get sort of cleaned up on various things." ' Uncle Dan laughed, and waved the objection aside. "Just got stage fright, that's all," and at a call from a lot boss, moved away. "Be back in a minute." Sue Dayton waited until her uncle had reached the big top. "If those other things can wait," she said seriously, "it'd do us all a lot of good." "We'd really just be putting on a rehearsal, wouldn't we?" asked Joe. "Yes that's it. Come on !" She caught his arm. "Y'ou can learn that song In no time. Why, you almost know it now !" There was considerable activity about Slats Beeton's trunk In Clown alley that night. Uncle Dan, as equestrian director, wandered in and out, carrying over his arm a Pierrot suit which he fitted to Joe Barry, yanked away from him, and grumbling, grum-bling, returned to the wardrobe woman wom-an for more alterations. Sue Dayton came to the outer edge of the side wall and called through, wanting to know if Joe needed the song to run over. Cathouse Green, menagerie superintendent su-perintendent and animal trainer, sat on a trunk, heavily absorbed with a cud of tobacco and thoughts of the value of a new act to the circus. Joe Joe Bradley, as they knew him was being made ready for his entrance to the ring. CHAPTER VI It was best, Joe had figured. Somehow, Some-how, lies had refused to come to his lips. It could not go on, he had told himself, it must not go on tonight after the show, he must fade out of this longed-for life forevei. A tortured tor-tured brain had seized upon that, arguing, ar-guing, showing reasons, prompting him to believe that he was doing a service by remaining, just for tonight. This was just a try-out, as Sue had said, just a demonstration, to see how an idea would work. After that. It wouldn't make any difference who played and sang to her, so far as the circus was concerned. And if he could only make it successful, and point the way, to what Sue and Uncle Dan wanted, that would be something to carry away with him when, after the show was loaded, he faded into the night. A half-hour passed. A groom stuck his head under the side wall. "The perch act's on. That new clown ready? Got the horses at the back door." Uncl! Dan moved forward to help Joe button the neck of his Pierrot suit. Some one handed him the gleaming gleam-ing Iorio with its silverstone brilliance and facile keys. Over his shoulder went the strap he swung his head and sang a bar or so of the tune that occupied his brain. Then he ran to the pad room entrance and the sight of her, perched atop the back of a ring horse. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |