All at once, Teddy tripped his antagonist and the two went down into a heap, rolling under the main table on which the lunch had been spread.
"Look out for the table!" warned a voice.
"Sit on it, some of you fellows, and hold it down!"The suggestion came too late.The table suddenly rose into the air, landing upside down with a crash, at one side of the cabin.A moment more and the two combatants were wrestling on roast beef and ham sandwiches, potato salad and various other foods.
"I guess this has gone about far enough," decided Mr.Miaco, the head clown."We'll have a fight on our hands, first thing we know.If Teddy really gets angry you'll think the 'Sweet Marie' is in the midst of a cyclone.""The 'Fat Marie,' you mean," corrected a voice.
With the assistance of two others Miaco succeeded in separating the combatants, after which he untied the rope, releasing the pilot.
Teddy was grinning broadly, but Cummings was not.The latter was glowering angrily at his little antagonist.
"Shake?" asked Teddy, extending a hand.
"No, I'm blest if I will! I'll not shake hands with anybody who has insulted me by buttering my face," growled the pilot.
"You'll be better bred if you are well buttered," suggested Teddy."Oh, help!" moaned The Fattest Woman on Earth.
"Put him out!Put him out!" howled several voices in chorus.
"Yes, that's the thing! We can stand for some things some of the time, but we won't stand for everything all of the time," added a clown wisely.
Half a dozen performers picked Teddy up bodily, bore him to one of the open windows and dumped him out on the deck.
"Here, what's all this commotion about?" commanded Phil, who, at that moment, came from his cabin to the deck.
"They threw me out," wailed Teddy."What for?""I made a pun." "Tell it to me."
Teddy in short, jerky sentences, related what had been done and said.Phil leaned against the rail and shouted.
"I--I don't blame them," he gasped between laughs."It is a wonder they did not throw you overboard.""They had better not try it."
"But what about the pilot--what happened to him?" "May--maybe they have put him out, too.""You have a way of getting into trouble, Teddy.Mr.Cummings will love you for what you have done to him, I can well imagine.""About as much as I love him, I guess.He got too bold, Phil.He had to have a lesson and Teddy Tucker was the boy who had to teach it to him.Say, go in and gather me a sandwich out of the wreck, will you?""Not I.Go and get your own sandwich.I'm going to see Mr.Sparling in his cabin.He has sent for me."Teddy sat out on deck while the others were picking up the table, the dishes and the ruined food.It would not do for Mr.Sparling to come in and see how they had wasted the food he had had prepared for them.The probabilities were that they would get no more, were he to do so.Teddy watched the proceedings narrowly from the safe vantage point of the deck.
In the meantime Phil had gone to Mr.Sparling's cabin, where the showman was checking up the day's receipts.
"A pretty good day, Phil," smiled Mr.Sparling."I am glad to hear that, sir.""Two thousand dollars in the clear, as the result of our two performances today.Do you know of any other business that would pay as much for the amount invested, eh, Phil?""I do not, sir."
"You see, it is a pretty good business to be in after all, provided it is run on business principles, at the same time treating one's employees like human beings.""Yes, sir."
"How would you like to have an interest in a show?""I am going to, someday.It may be a long time yet before I have earned money enough, but I shall if I live," said the Circus Boy quietly but with determination.
"So you shall.I intend to have a talk with you on this subject, one of these days.What I wanted to talk with you about is Jim's loss.I am glad it wasn't your ring horse, Phil.Have you anything to say about theanimal breaking his leg?" "I have."
"Out with it."
"Somebody is to blame for that accident." "How?""Someone planned that accident." "Explain!""Teddy and myself examined the ring, that is, Teddy already had done so before I returned, and he discovered something--we both decided what must have happened.""Yes," urged the showman as Phil paused.
"A round hole about a foot deep had been dug in the ring.This had been covered with a shingle and the sawdust sprinkled over to hide the shingle.It was a deliberate attempt to do someone an injury."Mr.Sparling eyed him questioningly."Are you sure?""As sure as I can be.Jim didn't happen to step on the shingle until we were doing the pyramid, then of course something happened.It is a wonder that neither Little Dimples nor myself was injured.""Phil, we simply must find out who is responsible for this dastardly work.""Yes, sir."
"And when we do--when we do--" "What then, Mr.Sparling!"The showman was opening and closing his fingers nervously.
"Don't ask me," he replied in a low, tense voice."I don't want to see the man.I should do something I would be sorry for all the rest of my life.Good night, Phil."Phil Forrest left the cabin and strode thoughtfully away to his own room, where he was soon in bed.Phil, however, did not sleep very well that night.
