CONCLUSION
It seemed a foolhardy thing to do, but Phil understood exactly how to go about it.If he were able to turn the team, he would undoubtedly save them from plunging into the seats where hundreds of people were sitting.A trained circus horse always will avoid the spectators, but there is no accounting for what a green animal will do.
Grasping the bit of the animal nearest to him, Phil threw his whole weight into the effort.To his intense satisfaction the team swerved, half turned and dashed across the arena again.This time, however, they did not go far.The outfit smashed into the main center pole, and Phil went on, sitting down violently in the middle of the concourse, unhurt, but more or less shaken up.
By that time ring attendants had caught the frightened horses.All danger was over.
Phil Forrest was loudly cheered by the spectators, but his borrowed officer's uniform was a hopeless wreck.It was torn beyond any possibility of repair.
Upon investigation, which Phil made at once, he found that the cap that held the chariot wheel in place, had been removed.No trace of it ever was found, and Phil well knew that the mysterious enemy was once more at work.The news was conveyed to Mr.Sparling, with the information that Phil had gleaned.
He also bore the unwelcome tidings to his employer that their leading woman chariot driver had broken both arms and that she would not perform again that season, if ever again.
Mr.Sparling was so angered over this latest outrage that he was scarcely able to control himself.Yet he knew that it would be best to maintain silence until the detective had had an opportunity to make an investigation.Some of the circus people, however, had voiced a suspicion that the accident was a deliberate attempt to do the show an injury, and this was quickly passed from lip to lip, until almost everyonehad heard it.The show people accepted the situation quietly, as was their wont, nevertheless they were very much excited.There was no telling when they themselves might fall victims to the mysterious enemy, and each one vowed to run down the scoundrel who they knew must be a member of the circus family.
Phil made some guarded inquiries, but was unable to learn whether or not anyone had been observed about the chariots that day.The hub cap, of course, might have been removed while the chariots were still on the boat, but in that event its loss would no doubt have been noticed, for the caps were of brass, large and prominent.
Phil decided that the act must have been committed just before the chariots were driven into the arena for the Roman races.
In this, Phil Forrest was right.
The solution of the mystery was at hand, however, and was to come in a most unexpected manner.
Supper had been eaten, and most of the performers were out on the lot, enjoying the balmy air of the early evening for the few moments left to them before they would be obliged to repair to the dressing tent to make ready for the evening performance.
Phil decided to go in, after finishing a talk with Mr.Sparling in the latter's private tent.As the lad passed through the menagerie tent the attendants were lighting the gasoline lamps there and hauling them up the center poles.
Under the big top, however, one could not see half its length.The lights there would not be turned on for fifteen or twenty minutes yet.Not a person was in sight as Phil entered the tent, making his way slowly down the concourse.He paused half-way down, seating himself on a grandstand chair in one of the arena boxes, where he thought over the latest exploit of the show's enemy.
"This time they were not after me, but after the outfit itself," he muttered."That is the time the fellow showed his hand, and it gives me an idea.I--hello, there is someone who acts as if he did not wish to be seen."Phil sat still and watched.Someone had slipped in under the tentdown at the other end, directly across the arena from where the bandstand was located.It had now become so dark in the tent that Phil could not make out the fellow's features.In fact, the man was a mere shadow.
"I wonder what he is doing there?"
Then a thought struck Phil Forrest like a blow.
"That's where they put the big net between performances."Phil crept down into the arena and made his way back to the entrance to the menagerie tent, where he quickly slipped out into the open and ran down along the outside of the big top at his best speed.As he drew near the spot where he had seen the man, he moved cautiously.
Finally Phil dropped down and peered under the tent.He was less than ten feet from where the fellow was at work.The Circus Boy could catch a "rip, rip" now and then.
