OCR Text |
Show I C A GEO j By Courtney Ryley Cooper OopttIk ht b Courtno Rylif Coopr CWNXJ larrleO pages were turned, slowly, deliberately; deliber-ately; then of a sudden, Joe gave a mental jerk at the muscles of his hands to free them from their white tenseness. As be did so, he felt warm flesh against his cold flesh ; the chief bad reached to the packet and flipped back the pages to the beginning. "No nse looking at those last three or four," he said. "They're all New York gangsters; wouldn't catch one of them out of the Big City In a hundred years." He took the circulars from Joe's weak grasp. "Well." he asked, "see anybody In there yon recognized f Joe Barry reached for a cigarette, cigar-ette, and with his fingers upou the package, changed his mind. His hands might tremble. "1 guess 1 can't help you split any rewards, ollieer," he said and forced a smile. The chief grunted. "Well, you never can tell. I always al-ways just take a look around when a circus comes to town." He replaced re-placed the sheaf of circulars In his hip pocket After a time, which seemed eternity, eter-nity, Joe Barry walked away from the marquee, alone. Yet he was not alone, for there was a memory with him, of a thln-llpped man he bad seen pictured In that last group of circulars, a grim, prematurely old man, with hollows In his cheeks and the hatred of a cornered animal ani-mal In his eyes. It had not, In fact, been the resemblance which had startled him, but the dissimilarity; dissimi-larity; sun had tanned bis skin now to healthy darkness, food and sleep had filled the sunken, cheeks, work had hardened the flesh. But It was he, nevertheless, who had faced him from the shiny piece of paper. Hymle Frsdke came back to life, holding his manicured bands close to the bars to catch the light from grated windows upon the brilliance of buffed nails. Then there was Martin and Louie and Fullhouse and this fellow whom Hymle called looked away. ?The girl sensed his reluctance. , "I thought you'd be glad," came disappointedly. Joe Barry whirled and caught her hands. t. . "Sue," came swiftly, "If I can only da what you say work here and be the assistant equestrian-, director next year, or the worst paid canvas man on the lot, I'll be the happUsf person In the world. It Isn't the job It's Just to be here, with you, with you and Uncle Dan and everybody," ev-erybody," he finished lamely. A, bugle Interrupted. the call to the' dressing tents. Sup. looked with surprise at her wrist watch and was gone. Joe Barry, could And no Joy Id the news which she had brought hltn. .' To dress In riding clothes and to appear In "straight-face" before the audience ach day; this was tantar mount to putting himself on exhibition, exhibi-tion, where .'every "clown cop" In the audience might unconsciously watch and study him. - Suppose a picture had been fixed In their minds, from long poring over reward re-ward circulars? A certain hopelessness hopeless-ness came over him. But nothing happened, when, the next day, Joe Barry took his new job at the races. - It was not work In which he could move about, he must stay at the bell In the guise of a starter, clanging the gong for the start and. for the halfway and the wild ringing of the finish. But nothing happened. One day Uncle Dan came blustering bluster-ing down the hippodrome track and called to Joe as he passed. "Got that thing arranged for this afternoon." he shouted, over a shoulder. shoul-der. "See me right after performance. perform-ance. They're out here now In an automobile." "What thing!" Joe called' after him. But Just then the chariots came rumblipg Into the arena and the answer was lost ;Joe cut through the ring and across the Intervening In-tervening stage to-the pnd room. Half the circus seemed gathered there, about an automobile from which men were lugging electrical devices. A , six-horse team swung Into view, and behind It n mixed cage of lions and tigers, with Cat-house Cat-house 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; discussed one day, wwks ago and then apparently forgotten. for-gotten. : "Better go Jet your nccord!on, Joe," Unrte Ditn shouted from the crowd about the automobile! "Ev-erythlng;g "Ev-erythlng;g about ready. Tell Sue to hurry up. She's got to talk to her rndlo audlencannd tell 'em how glnd she Is everybody likes her act" He looked at his wntch. "We've only got three minutes more. Get a move on yourself!" ' .Toe Barry .(nought desperately. The radio; sending his music to thousands upon thousands of listeners, listen-ers, music which might be recognized! recog-nized! "Didn't I. tell 'you t" hiirry?" shouted Uncle' Dan,,k nvhrsr the matter? Scared-of the microphone? WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED Joe Barry, country youth In New York, ekca out a living ai caretaker care-taker In a poor rooming house and accordion player In Louie Bertollnl's restaurant Lured by the open country, be spends a night In the fields, near New-- New-- burgh. Bertollnl discharges him. Frlendlese and "broke, be Is ottered ot-tered 110,000 by a man be knows only ae "Martin" to Impersonate a liquor runner facing arrest. It means the penitentiary, but Joa la desperate. He defers decision until the next night, and It given 11,000 'on account." Next day Joe deposits 800 in country banks, giving bis name as Joseph Bradley. Brad-ley. Outside a circus tent be sees an accordion and la tempted to play It. A girl, Sue Dayton, niece of the owner, who admires the music, urges him to Join the circus, cir-cus, but Joe says he must first return to New York "on business." He haa decided to refuse "Martin's" "Mar-tin's" offer. In bis 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 killed and robbed. Joe la accused of their murder and robbery. He realizes "Martin's" object to have him found guilty of the murders, executed, and the case closed A man known as "Fullhouse," waiter at Bertollnl's, hurts Joe's case by his evidence. "Martin" cannot be found, Joe keeps silent as to his previous day's doings, fearing to embarrass Sue Dayton. His cellmate, Hymle Fradke, gives Joe f20. Next day Fradke. having secured a revolver, "shoots It out" with prison guards, and Is killed. In the confusion Joe escapes. Using the t-0 Fradke had given him, tie flees New York, draws some of the money he had deposited and finds the Dayton circus, looking upon It as a refuge. ref-uge. He is ensaged as a performer, perform-er, playing the accordion, with Sue his partner In the act CHAPTER V'lContinued At last It hud m-rome second nn-ture nn-ture to him. Now and . then he thought of his true cognomen and It sounded strange to hlin. Slowly he had become Joe Bradley In reality, real-ity, and with that translilon. II had "seemed that some of thp venom of his memories had departed. Likewise, Like-wise, the watchfulness. Gradually he was becoming accustomed to the sight of a policeman. Slowly, ever so slowly, It became possible for him to walk through the crowds when they gathered on the midway before performance, or milled across the circus lot after the show wns over, without the feeling that cov- ' ertness was the constant price of bis liberty. A 11 nA.KiiilInn tntntiAaf tn title nAivt edly, "11 would be Ueuuilful I" Then hurriedly: "Let's go back to the lot and find Uncle Dan, I can't wait until tomorrow." . So It was that the performance of the Dayton Brotl.ers circus took on an entirely new aspect within the next few duys. The act went on, with Its new lights, Its festoons and garlands of flowers. Its weaving, weav-ing, swaying,' pretty forms moving about while Pierrot sang to his Pierrette, and while the apple blossoms blos-soms sifted gently down upon them. Excited, somewhat dazed by the success f It, Sue Dayton and Joe Barry saw the circus performance halted that they might return for an encore, rare indeed under the big tops. The crowds grew steadily stead-ily heavier. "If you keep on this way," said Uncle Dan Dayton one morning as he halted Joe under the marquee, "John tingling will be sending for you. Been to the wagon yet?" "No, sir." "You'll notice a little Increase in your pay envelope. Glad to give it to you, Joe." v"You mean a raise? A raise?" Joe asked. Suddenly he baited and gulped. and when he tried to talk again, his voice sounded strange and husky. "I was getting along all right Uncle Dan." "Sure you were." Then, as If to change the subject "By the way, Joe, know anything about radio? Think we could put on a radio performance?" per-formance?" "I guess we could. How do you mean?" he asked at last "Well, I'm not sure myself. That's why I asked you. The Idea's Just heen running In my head. I've heard that some of these radio stations sta-tions will hook up for a fellow pretty pret-ty cheap, ft struck me that might not to be a bad Idea, to broadcast something or other between -the afternoon show and the night performance. per-formance. It'd remind people that the show was In town, and then It'd spread a good deal every place that we were hilled would get just a little more advertising. You could do your song, the one you do with Sue. Seems to me we could work out a pretty good program. Think It over." "Yes, sir." Joe Parry walked on, his brain astir with the new Idea. That could be worked Into something' some-thing' worth while soloists out of the hand, a brief Interlude with the side show lecturer, describing all the strange and cur-r-rlous people, the sounds of the midway "Oh. Joel" It was Uncle Dan, calling to him again from the marquee. Barry turned to notice that a stranger was with the showman, show-man, a slouched being, with a low-brimmed low-brimmed fedora hat and baggy clothing. When Jne had returned. Uncle Dan turned to the slouchy man. "Joe Bradley here really I rH-HTI vnuilift iiurirni in igia n7 . life had made these thlnps possible. It was as though he had heen seeking seek-ing this existence all his life. He went about the task of adapting himself to It almost feverishly, like a man striving to make up for lost time. Not the least pleasurable of his duties were those In the ring, when the gleaming lorlo was In his grasp, to he transformed from a mere thing of pearl and sllverstone and piano keys to the guardian spot of all the music that was In his soul. It made little difference to him that the song was a fern-, poral one; it was a tribute to Sue! Dayton, and he played It as though It were a classic. Perhaps that Is what made the throngs applaud, j Perhaps, too. It wns the earnestness of these two, with all the rest of the circus In darkness while the , multi-colored flood lights played on Ihem alone, upon them and the horse and the sparkling accordion And then one night, as Joe Barry and Sue Dayton walked to the'rars. the man suddenly whirled, looking toward the light-splotched big top. and 'VnnppinR his fingers as If In abstraction. "That's HI That's It I" he exclaimed. ex-claimed. "What are you thinking about now?" Sue said It hnlf laughingly. Joe stood, head raised, lips moving mov-ing silently, a clenched hand pounding pound-ing Into a palm. At last he turned. "The act I" he exclaimed. "I've got It worked but. All the time t've known 'there was something missing. Something that would really real-ly make you queen of the sawdust ring. That's the idea of the whole thing, tp -have you the queen. Then nT'niight to have some subjects, shouldn't you? Vou see." he continued, con-tinued, "You've got those girls who work In the grand entree and then don't do anything else but go Into the statue act. Then, yesterday, I noticed In one of the property wagons wag-ons a lot of stringers of artificial flowers. Don't you see. Sue? We could hang these stringers of flowers flow-ers from above the ring and then dress the girls In those new showgirl show-girl costumes thnt I'ncle Dan bought last week he wild he Just got them because tln were a bargain." bar-gain." "Joe. that would be pretty l You mean to use the girls In a sort of a Maypole number while I do my act?"' ' "That's It. While you were getting get-ting ready for the ring, they'd weave around In the Maypole, and then stop and lust hold the garlands gar-lands while you went through your act Then, when I made my en trance, they would start to move again, one crossing the other. Just twining In and out. And then the thing I hftd thought of was what the property man calls a snow box filled with, bits of. pink paper thnt would sift down over us like apple blossoms falling. Wouldn't It be pretty, with the colored lights and everything?" , r Joe I" she had caught hi exclt- knows more about the personnel than 1 do," he said. "He'll show you around. Joe, this Is Chief Brace of the municipal police. He wants to look around the show lot. In case we've got any desperate characters." char-acters." "Yes, sir," said Joe Bradley. Suddenly Sud-denly he bit his lips, to restore the blond which had fled from them. "I'll be glad to. Uncle Dan.". CHAPTER VIII. THE two had progressed well within the menagerie tent before any word was spoken between them. For Joe, there was nothing to say; he could only wait, while his heart beat with slow, ponderous throbs, so heavily thnt It seemed he could hear it. The man beside him was hnlf-turned hnlf-turned and dragging at something which he carried In a hip pocket. At last it came forth, a sheaf of papers, pa-pers, bound at the top with heavy clips. Joe knew the Import of that packet immediately. It was the chief's file of his reward circulars. In dark, horrible, nightmare days. Joe had noticed such pieces of printing upon a table In the photographer's pho-tographer's room at 240 Center street; he had hardly realized then that he had seen them. But now they stood forth as If he had been familiar with them always, the name, the alias, the descriptions of weight, height, scars, clothing, peculiarities, pe-culiarities, occupation and hangouts. The menagerie tent had suddenly become deserted. Cage tenders, bull-men, bull-men, helpers, even the menagerie punks had moved away without ostentation, but with efficacy ; a true circus man can spot a "clown cop" almost as far as he can see him, and avoids him from Instinct. Evidently Evi-dently the chief knew this, for once he had straightened the pad of reward re-ward sheets In bis own hands, he held them before him, and pausing, rocked on heel and toe. "Now, Mr Dayton says you're familiar fa-miliar with everybody around the show. You could recognize a fellow's fel-low's face If you saw it on paper, now couldn't you? Suppose people could look at a picture and then at the man and not be quite sure. Don't mind admitting I'm sort of that way myself. Point I'm getting at : could you look these here over and tell If any of 'era's with your show?" .. Joe Barry pulled bard at his breath. "I think so." A faint smile came to the dry lips of the chief. "There's a reward on everybody in there," he said. "I ain't the kind of a man thafd forget a favor." "1 see." Joe felt the. touch of the papers against his half-outstretched hand. Then vaguely he realized thnt he was turning the pages, staring down. Into the front and side views of men, men wh were wanted for perjury, for rol-bery. rol-bery. for lustful crimes and for murder. One after another the Sue Dayton and Joe Barry Saw the Performance Halted That They Might Return for an Encore. Big Friday; of a sudden the five names seemed to take on a relationship, rela-tionship, Martin and Louie, Full-house Full-house and Big Friday, while Hymle seemed to stand off at one side, dispensed with. After that day, Joe Barry avoided avoid-ed the crowded midway. He worked harder than ever. One afternoon aft-ernoon Sue halted him as he moved to the dressing tent from its rear. - "I've been waiting for you for more than an hour." Joe brightened bright-ened with the knowledge that Sue was pouting playfully. "I wanted to tell you something." "Yes?" he came closer. "Uncle Dan said .he'd let me." There was a hint of ' excitement In her air. "You've got to promise me something first, though." .Joe Barry clasped his hands behind be-hind his back; he often did tills when Sue Dayton stood before him, unconsciously tempting him. There' were times when crazed thoughts danced across the brain of the man, urging him on and forbidding In the same spasmodic command, hint-, tng thnt he might have her If he worked for her, and jeering that he could never have her, that he must always stand as he stood now, dumb, wordless, because his tongue could not and must not say the things which they so longed lo utter. ut-ter. "Well, do you promise?" she asked. "Of course. It. was toneless. "What?" . "Joe," she said earnestly, "you've got to quit working so hard. , At It the first thing In the morning and the last at night Uncle Dan wants you to concentrate on the show Itself. It-self. That's what I was going to tell you. He's giving you a raise next week." "But be gave me one only a short time ago." "I know. This isn't as much; only five dollars a week," . "What's my new Job I won't have to give up your act?" "Of course not!" She laughed. "No, It's something In addition. After our act's over, you're to get Into riding clothes as soon as possibleand pos-sibleand come In and run ts races." "But " The white had come suddenly about his mouth. The girl touched his arm. "1 don't think you understand, Joe," she said. "It's really a terrible ter-rible advance. Uncle Dan says that you're Just a natural showman, that you act like a person who's been pent op all your life and Is just blossoming out Into your real self." She perked her pretty head and smiled. "That's a lot for Uncle Dan to say. Don't you see, Joe? It means, next season, Joe you'll be assistant equestrian director." The man mumbled his thanks and It won't bite you." A broadcaster hurried forward ana caught Joe lightly by. the upper up-per arm to give' him his distance, according to the pantomimic commands com-mands of the man at the control. .Toe Barry moved forward, amid a blur of fares. His tongue went swiftly over lips- that hnd become suddenly hard and dry. Then slowly, slow-ly, to the guidance of the man he-side he-side him. he stepped, to the microphone. micro-phone. ' But again, nothing happened, except ex-cept that the night crowd was a turnawny ns a result of the broadcast. broad-cast. After the -matinee, '.Toe waited wait-ed In Clown alley, for the visit of men he-. felt. sure, must soon arrive. A whole twenty-four hours hnd elapsed. Now he saw how poor had been his selection of a "pseudonym ; a child could tell, he upbraided himself, him-self, that It hadJieen changed from Barry to Bradley. ftut still: nothing noth-ing happened. The show went on. rounding out of Virginia now and cutting back, north, through the smaller industrial industri-al cities. Joe realized, that he was not the only man In the world who could play an accordion and thnt beyond this, police were not looking look-ing for gangstef-murderers as singers sing-ers of circus love songs. Once more the world was Jyecomlng roseate, the glow of sun flooding 'the clouds before be-fore a storm. ., . ., ,r - It was at the end of-a matinee, and the flying act was done. The liberty horse race number welted at. the flags. Joe stepped to the gong only to-find himself staring for an Instant instead of signaling for the race. Some one wbo sat In the second' row of the grandstand seemed Strangely familiar. . Scattered- emotions struck. Joe Barry.1 Some one was there whom he knew,-and he cojild know only those whb must Injure; him'. He clanged the be.Il for the start of the rae t Then, Impulsively, as the -Worses passed him, moveddown the track, Vsi" If to tnlk to' a property man tjer. swerved .sudflfinly acd; walked bjack, In thefceQteaJof -the hippodrome. Be coriltf' setf tiearly ' now; the man in the grandstand had half turned, as.tf rto watt-l tlje-race. tlje-race. Joe Barry knev mat tfiiS was' pretense. And Joe Barry knew those features, the flaccid, loose-jowled loose-jowled face of Fullhouse Kendall t A gasp ran over the audience like a gigantic shudder. The riders shouted, and Jerked madly at the reins. Horses, their heads twisted, eyes rolling and white,- plunged wildly in aa effort to alter their course. A woman screamed; there was the crash of Impact Then four men ran into the tent with a loose ; bit of " canvas ' fluttering between i them. At the ring curb, they swlft-( swlft-( ly raised the unconscious form of 1 Joe Barry, and, placing him in the ) tattered canvas, rushed with him to the near-by seclusion of the menag-i menag-i erle tent TO BB CONTINUED., - |