登陆注册
5161800000037

第37章

THE CIRCUS BOYS WIN NEW LAURELS

"Bareback riders out!" shouted the callboy, poking his head into the dressing tent.

"Get out!" roared a clown, hurling a fellow performer's bath brush at the boy, which the youngster promptly shied back at the clown's head, then prudently made his escape to call Little Dimples in the women's dressing tent.

Phil Forrest, proud and happy, bounded out into the paddock, resplendent in pink tights, a black girdle about his loins, sparkling with silver spangles.

Little Dimples ran out at about the same time.

"How do I look?" he questioned, his face wreathed in smiles.

"If you ride half as well as you look today, you will make the hit of your life," twinkled Dimples merrily."There, don't blush.Run along.The band is playing our entrance tune.Mr.Ducro will be in a fine temper if we are a second behind time."For that day, and until Phil could break in on another animal, Little Dimples had loaned her gray to him, for Phil did not dare to try the experiment of riding a new horse at his first appearance.Altogether too much depended upon his first public exhibition as a bareback rider to permit his taking any such chances.

Dimples owned two horses, so she rode the second one this day.

As Phil walked lightly the length of the big top, which he was obliged to do to reach ring No.1 in which he was to ride, his figure, graceful as it was, appeared almost fragile.He attracted attention because of this fact alone, for the people did not recognize in him the lad who had that morning stayed the stampede of the herd of huge elephants.

"Now keep cool.Don't get excited," warned Dimples as she left him to enter the ring where she was to perform."Forget all about those people out there, and they will do the rest."Phil nodded and passed on smiling.Reaching his ring he quicklykicked off his pumps and leaped lightly to the back of his mount, where he sat easily while the gray slowly walked about the sawdust arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen," announced the equestrian director."You see before you the hero of the day, the young man who, unaided, stopped the charge of a herd of great elephants, saving, perhaps many lives besides doing a great service for the Sparling Combined Shows.""What did you do that for?" demanded Phil, squirming uneasily on the slippery seat where he was perched.

"Unfortunately," continued the Director, "our principal male bareback rider was slightly injured in that same stampede.The management would not permit him to appear this evening on that account, for the Sparling Combined Shows believe in treating its people right.Our young friend here has consented to ride in the regular rider's place.It is his first appearance in any ring as a bareback rider.I might add that he has been practicing something less than three weeks for this act; therefore any slips that he may make you will understand.Ladies and gentlemen, I take pleasure in introducing to you Master Phillip Forrest, the hero of the day-- a young man who is winning new laurels on the tanbark six days in every week!"The audience, now worked up to the proper pitch of enthusiasm by the words of the director, howled its approval, the spectators drumming on the seats with their feet and shouting lustily.Phil had not had such an ovation since the day he first rode Emperor into the ring when he joined the circus in Edmeston.

The lad's face was a few shades deeper pink than his tights, and nervous excitement seemed to suddenly take possession of him.

"I wish you hadn't done that," he laughed."I'll bet I fall off now, for that.""Tweetle!Tweetle!" sang the whistle.Crash!

At a wave of the bandmaster's baton, the band suddenly launched into a smashing air.

The ringmaster's whip cracked with an explosive sound, at which the gray mare, unaffected by the noise and the excitement, started away at ameasured gallop, her head rising and falling like the prow of a ship buffeting a heavy sea.

Phil was plainly nervous.He knew it.He felt that he was going to make an unpleasant exhibition of himself.

"Get up! Get going! Going to sit there all day?" questioned the ringmaster.

Phil threw himself to his feet.Somehow he missed his footing in his nervousness, and the next instant he felt himself falling.

"There, I've done it!" groaned the lad, as he dropped lightly on all fours well outside the wooden ring curbing, which he took care to clear in his descent.

同类推荐
  • 高上神霄宗师受经式

    高上神霄宗师受经式

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 赠米都知

    赠米都知

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

    MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 明珠缘

    明珠缘

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Letters from England

    Letters from England

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 那年那人那山

    那年那人那山

    一个少年离奇的被人抬上长途大巴,进入了大山深处…历尽种种令人爆笑的磨难,在令人啼笑皆非的多次衰神附体返乡途中,邂逅精神失常女主,卷入一场看似平淡却曲折惊人的命案无法脱身,亲身经历了一场生生死死的旷世虐恋,陷入女主令人扼腕的伟大亲情爱情之中…真相大白…惨相丛生…多年后少年重返旧地,不见那年那人,甚至…连当年那愚公也移不走的大山都不见了踪影……作者用朴素的文笔深层次揭露了人性丑陋,以诙谐深沉两种笔风无缝转换剖析世间暖冷……
  • 超新星纪元

    超新星纪元

    在一个看似平常的夏夜,酝酿了上亿年的灾难从宇宙深处到达地球,世界上将只剩下孩子。怪异而血腥的游戏在都市近郊的山谷中展开,孩子国家领袖在游戏中诞生……
  • 微信改变世界

    微信改变世界

    由中国财富出版社出版、网络新经济研究者、中国电子商务协会专家邱道勇先生撰写的国内第一本微信相关书籍《微信改变世界》在京上市发售。该书从微信应用入手,详细介绍了微信的发展,也收录了微信营销的经典案例并对案例进行了深入剖析。
  • 最强灵植系统

    最强灵植系统

    浩灵大陆,妖佛神魔并存,玄门道宗林立。有建木历经帝落圣陨时代而不朽,有红莲濯阿鼻黄泉而不灭。叶丰带着款灵植系统穿越而来,踩天骄,拥圣女,吞建木,掌红莲,登顶人神极限!诸天万界,唯我独尊!一切不服者,通通打爆!
  • 公关办事有心计

    公关办事有心计

    为了适应社会的发展变化和满足广大读者的需求,我们参考了众多有关公关办事的专业书籍,力求做到“取其精华,去其糟粕”,然后通过简单、客观的表现方式将各种抽象的内容具 体化,真心希望给读者提供尽可能多的实用性内容,为读者留下更为深刻的印象。本书全方位地介绍了公关办事的方法与技巧,比如:注重形象,别让仪表丢分;好事多磨,心急难成大事;因势利导,找准方法者赢;因人而异,根据性格沟通;打造关系,发挥人脉作用;交际应酬,恰到好处最佳;选择环境,把握办事时机;远离禁忌,坚守办事原则。读者心中的疑惑,几乎都能够在本书中找到答案。
  • 空山2

    空山2

    作家在“表现一个村庄秘史”的现实态度极为明确,它不是单一民族的,也不是牧歌式的,传奇的、作家对藏族村庄有着极为深厚的文化、宗教,自然和社会的体验,说它是“秘史”,并非披露其神秘,而是用特别的手法将被人漠视麻木的伤痛揭示出来。唯其如此,才形成了小说宏大的格局。重大而庄严的主题,厚重而深刻的内容,随心而掌控的结构,对于人与自然,政治与文化、宗教社会和谐与进步,有着更为深刻的思考。这是一部充满阳刚之美的现实力作,一扫当下文坛萎靡,琐细,颓废之风。
  • 翼庵禅师语录

    翼庵禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 麦肯锡谈判:扭转危机的55个方法

    麦肯锡谈判:扭转危机的55个方法

    由企业遇到哪些常见危机、如何应对危机,引出通过谈判来解决危机的方法。麦肯锡重视以事实为依据、重视数据收集分析和知识管理,谈判策略方法系统多样,不局限于流派和格局,以实战为着眼点。在方法之外,又说明氛围的重要性,别具一格。
  • 向着未来的歌唱

    向着未来的歌唱

    又是一个金秋时节,苍翠的山林中,那金光烁烁的橘子,硕动着微醺的橘,向着未来的歌唱!
  • 金口才成就一生

    金口才成就一生

    自古至今,语言充满着独特的魅力和无穷的力量,它如一朵盛开的奇葩傲立在人类历史的长河中,经久不衰,永不凋零。在古战场上,口才好的人能够平息两国之间的纷争,化干戈为玉帛。充分印证了“一人之辩,重于九鼎之宝;三寸之舌,强于百万之师”这句话。其实,语言的作用远远不只于此,正如汉代刘向在《说苑·善说》中所写:“昔子产修其辞而赵武致其敬,王孙满明其言而楚庄以渐,苏秦行其说而六国以安,蒯通陈其说而身得以全。夫辞者,乃所以尊君、全身、安国、全性者也。”