CHAPTER II
TANGLES
For a moment Bill and Ben hesitated, and each, in his own mind, pondered whether it would be better or not to leave Joe alone for a while, and allow him to settle his own affairs. And then the fellowship that seems to exist among persons who perform together for the amusement of the public asserted itself, and Bill asked sympathetically:
“Is there anything we can do, Joe? Is it bad news about your new machine? Can’t they make it for you—I mean finish it?”
“Oh, it isn’t that,” Joe said. “This letter is from a lawyer in England who was looking after my affairs. He says my mother’s estate is badly tangled up, and it is doubtful if I ever get any more money out of it, and I may be sued for taking what I have already had.”
Benny Turton whistled.
“That’s hard luck!” he exclaimed. “Why, I thought everything was going smoothly. I don’t see how they can take back what you have already had.”
“They’ll have their own troubles getting it,” said Joe, “as most of it has been spent on my wings of steel. But of course if the courts decide that I had no right to it, I will have spent it wrongfully, and I’ll be liable to punishment.”
“Why, I thought the lawyer for the mining syndicate that Mr. Craige represented handled your affairs,” said Bill Watson.
“He did at first,” Joe answered, “but he had to turn my legal matters over to some one who was not so busy as he. A Mr. Kent Bolling now has charge, and this letter is from him. The whole affair is all mixed up. I’ll have to write him a letter at once and ask what can be done.”
“Then we’ll leave you,” said Ben. “Come to the circus when you can, Joe. We’re playing a straight week in Wharton, and you may find time to run over. Wharton is only ten miles. We came on the train to-day, but you can make it on your motor-cycle.”
“Yes, I’ll try to get over,” promised Joe. And then, bidding his friends good-bye, he went to his boarding place to pen a letter to the English solicitor.
And while Joe is doing that just a moment will be taken to acquaint new readers with something of the history of Joe Strong, as it has been given in the previous books of this series.
In the first volume, entitled “Joe Strong, the Boy Wizard; Or, the Mysteries of Magic Exposed,” it is related that Joe, having run away from home, fell in with a stage magician, Professor Rosello, and went on the road with him, doing tricks. Joe was particularly fitted for this, as his father, Alexander Strong, known as Professor Morretti, had been a magician himself.
The boy’s mother, whose maiden name was Janet Willoughby, had learned to ride spirited horses in England, where she was born. She afterward came to America and joined a circus, she and her husband sometimes traveling together and again in separate shows.
So Joe inherited dexterity and daring. He became an expert sleight-of-hand worker, and learned to do many circus tricks. He was fearless and nerveless, and he could as easily balance himself on his head on top of the church spire as he could down on the ground.
Joe’s father and mother had died when he was small, and he was brought up by a rather strict man, Deacon Amos Blackford, from whom he later ran away.
After various adventures on the road with Professor Rosello, Joe Strong joined Sampson Brothers’ Circus and became one of the performers. In the second volume, named “Joe Strong on the Trapeze; Or, the Daring Feats of a Young Circus Performer,” the story of Joe’s life in the circus is given. It was an exciting one. He made friends and enemies, and among the former were Bill Watson, the veteran clown, who had known Joe’s mother; Benny Turton, who performed in a big glass tank of water, and was known as the human fish; and Helen Morton, a pretty bareback rider.
Joe became an expert on the trapeze and flying rings, and it was while with the show that he once showed how long he could stay under water in Benny’s glass tank.
In the third volume, “Joe Strong, the Boy Fish; Or, Marvelous Doings in a Big Tank,” we find Joe taking the place of Benny Turton, who became incapacitated through illness.
Joe had many adventures while acting as the “boy fish.” He improved Ben’s act greatly, and learned to stay under water for nearly five minutes at a stretch. This served him in good stead once when a diver was caught in an outlet pipe at the bottom of a big reservoir.
From a stranded circus juggler Joe bought a motor-cycle. He became an expert rider, then had an idea that he could do some thrilling tricks with the gasoline-bicycle. In the fourth book, called “Joe Strong on the High Wire; Or, Motor-Cycle Perils of the Air,” we find Joe perfecting the feat of riding his machine across an open space on a suspended wire.
But this was not the only feat the lad did, for he climbed up the outside of the Flatiron Building in New York, for a moving picture concern, and rode across a street on a wire stretched from one high building to another.
Joe left the circus for a time, but came back to it to give exhibitions of his motor-cycle riding, and it was while on the road that he received information which enabled him to claim some money from England. His mother, it appeared, was heir to part of a large estate. She had been disowned by her family when she married Mr. Strong, but at the last her father forgave her, and expressed a wish to have her share in his money.
While on his motor-cycle one day Joe was able to save from severe injury, if not from death, two Englishmen, Mr. Forrest Craige and Mr. Floyd Strailey, and it was Mr. Craige who helped our hero to obtain his inheritance.
With the money he received Joe was able to carry out a long-cherished scheme—that of building for himself wings of steel, a partial account of which has already been given in the present volume.
The youth had left the circus at the close of the previous season, when the show wintered in one of the Southern states, in order to devote his time to building his queer flying machine. Now it was nearing completion.
The circus was again on the road, but Joe was not with it, though he thought he might rejoin it at some future time. Among the reasons for this, aside from earning his living, was the fact that Joe was very fond of Helen Morton, and he had a faint idea that some day he might be able to manage matters so she would not have to perform in public, as a circus environment is not always best for a girl, though there are many noble men and women in the profession.
At any rate, Joe’s wings of steel were now nearly finished, and he had great hopes of what he could do with them by giving exhibitions in public, as he had done when he rode his motor-cycle on the high wire.
“But if what this lawyer says is true, and I am to get no more money from mother’s estate, and, not only that, but have to pay back what I have already used, then good-bye wings of steel!” said Joe gloomily, as he again read the epistle from England. “Let’s see what it is he says,” he mused.
In brief the letter, which was from another attorney than the one who originally had the case, stated that one of the heirs under the will of Mr. Willoughby, who was the father of Joe’s mother, had objected to our hero sharing in the estate, and announced his intention of making Joe pay back the money received.
“I wonder what’s the matter with him, anyhow,” mused Joe as he glanced over the letter. “This objecting heir got a bigger share than any one else, and yet he isn’t satisfied. He wants mine, too. There is bound to be a lot of litigation over the matter, so this lawyer says,” went on Joe gloomily; “and lawsuits cost money. I wish I were rich enough to go over there and find out things for myself. It isn’t any fun to have to be writing letters back and forth. But it’s the only way. I’ve spent nearly all my spare cash on that machine. If that is a failure, I’m ‘up the spout,’ as the Dutchman said.
“Well, the only thing to do is to keep on and see where I come out. I ought to get the motors in a few days, and then we’ll see what can be done.”
When he had first had his idea for the wings of steel, which he thought would enable him to give even a more spectacular performance than he had given with his motor-cycle on the high wire, Joe had gone to Mr. Brader, the manufacturer who had made his first apparatus, to have him build the flying machine.
At first Mr. Brader, who manufactured much special apparatus for circus performers, had said Joe’s plan was not feasible. But the young performer had insisted on having what he wanted, and as he had made a working plan for the machine, the manufacturer set his men to work on it in his factory.
“And now it’s all but done,” said Joe, as he sat down to write to the English solicitor. “Only Ben and Bill seem to think I’m going to break my neck with it. Well, I’ll show them that it’s perfectly safe. I’ll soon be flying up near the clouds. It will be great!” And, for the moment, his exultation drove away his gloomy feeling concerning the possible loss of his money.
Joe wrote to the solicitor, urging him to do his best to secure the rest of our hero’s inheritance for him. He explained why he wanted it, and said it did not seem fair to make him pay back what he had already been given, even if no more were forthcoming.
“There! We’ll see what comes of that!” the lad exclaimed, as he went out to post the letter. “I wish Mr. Craige’s lawyer had charge of the case, instead of this Mr. Bolling. I wonder if I can trust him? I must make some inquiries.”
And then, there being nothing further Joe could do, he decided to ride over on his motor-cycle that afternoon to visit some of his circus friends.