CHAPTER VII
FAILURE
Outside the circus-apparatus factory a big field had been made ready for Joe's motor-cycle experiment. The place belonged to Mr. Brader, and there was a high wooden fence all about it, which insured a certain amount of privacy. The lad did not want a crowd to witness his first attempt, for it might be a failure. Then, too, there was a certain element of risk, and Joe did not wish to risk injury to any one but himself.
"It's just as well to keep the crowd out," he told Mr. Brader, "and I suppose there would be a crowd if word got out of what was going on."
"Oh, yes. The boys are always ready for a free show. But there'll be no one on hand but my own men, and not many of them, as we're pretty busy. Are you going to take any precautions?"
"Precautions? What do you mean?"
"I mean, are you going to wear a padded suit or a helmet or anything like that? You might tumble, you know, and though I haven't put the wire up very high for this first ride, if you fall, going at any speed, you may be badly hurt."
"I hadn't thought of a padded suit, though I am going to wear a football helmet," said Joe, and he produced a heavy leather head-guard, such as warriors of the gridiron use in the pigskin battles. "I suppose I could pad the suit I wear."
"I would, if I were you," said Mr. Brader. "And I've done something else, too."
"What is it?" asked Joe, curious to hear.
"Come on out to the field and you'll see."
The apparatus had been ordered set up by Joe, but he had not yet seen it completely assembled. He intended to go over it thoroughly before trusting himself to it, however.
Out in the field he saw two steel uprights, much lower than the ones he contemplated using eventually if his act should prove successful. Both he and Mr. Brader had agreed that it would be best to start the first ride on a wire about five feet from the ground.
"And if I can keep on the wire at all, I can ride on it fifty feet in the air as well as five," Joe reasoned.
Between the two short uprights stretched the taut wire cable, ropes and pulleys at either end enabling Joe to make it tighter or looser as he desired.
The wire was four hundred feet long, but the open space over which Joe would ride was about three hundred feet. Fifty feet at each end was taken up by two platforms. On one of these Joe expected to get his start, and on the other he would finish, bringing his speedy machine to a halt by a quick application of the brakes.
Carefully now, the young acrobat went over every part of the apparatus. His first test was to go out to the middle of the span of wire and hang by it, vibrating himself up and down.
"She sags hardly any," he called to Mr. Brader.
"No. We used a pretty strong wire, and it's under very heavy tension. Of course it will go down more when the weight of your machine, as well as yourself, is brought to bear. But it will stand up pretty well at that."
"I'm sure it will. But you spoke of some precautions you had taken. I don't see anything special."
"The men haven't set them up yet. Here they come with them now." As he spoke some men came out of a door of the factory which opened into the lot. They carried two big nets, and Joe recognized them as life-nets, such as are spread under the trapeze performers in a circus.
"Oh, those!" Joe exclaimed. "Yes, I'm glad you thought of them. It's like old times to see them."
"I thought you'd appreciate them," said Mr. Brader. "This is a new style we're making. They're very light but strong, and can easily be set up. It wouldn't burden you much to carry a set with you, Joe, and if you're going into this thing, traveling about the country giving this daring exhibition, I wish you'd take some of these nets with you. I'll make you a special price on them—just what it costs us to manufacture them."
"Of course I'll take them!" agreed Joe. "I didn't see how I could use them or I'd have mentioned nets before."
"These come in two parts," explained Mr. Brader, "and can be separated to go on either side of your platform. I realize that there is where the greatest danger will be. Once you get started on the wire, you are almost certain to ride over the clear space—that is, if what you tell me you did on the rail can be duplicated on the wire.
"But in making a start, and again in stopping on the platform, you are likely to topple off. So I'll have the nets set up, one at each end of the wire under the platforms."
"Thank you," said Joe. "Well, I suppose I may as well start in and have it over with," and he laughed, for he was not half as nervous over the coming trial as Mr. Brader and some of his men were.
The platforms were long and narrow, made of skeleton steel frames which came apart in sections, and could be quickly fitted together again. They were supported by guy wires from the two end supports, in a simple but ingenious fashion.
Joe went carefully over the anchorages of his wire, he inspected the tackle by which the cable was tightened, and then looked carefully over every inch of the wire itself.
"I don't want any loose strands sticking up to catch in the spokes of my wheels," he said.
"We don't make wire that has strands coming loose, Joe, you rascal!" exclaimed Mr. Brader with a laugh. "Our wire has a reputation for dependability."
"I'm sure of that," Joe replied. "But it may fray after I use it, and I want to get in the habit of inspecting it."
"Oh, that's right," conceded the manufacturer. "Well, are you about ready?"
"Pretty nearly. I want to run the machine a bit. It wouldn't be any fun to get up there on the wire and have my power give out in the middle of the stretch."
"I should say not!"
After Joe had gone carefully over every part of the apparatus, and had put just a little more tension on the wire, he looked over the motor-cycle. In addition to putting on the new wheels, Mr. Brader's men had made some slight repairs in the mechanism and given the cycle a thorough cleaning, so that it looked almost like a new wheel. Joe let down the rear support and, getting into the saddle, he pushed the starting lever. This was a new model machine, and it was unnecessary to spin the rear wheel with pedals to set the motor going. A single thrust with the foot was all that was needed, and then, when the motor was thrown into clutch, all the rider had to do was to rest his feet on the supports provided and steer.
With a hum, a throb and a roar the motor-cycle engine showed what power it possessed. The machine vibrated as Joe turned on more gasoline, but, of course, it did not move, as the rear wheel was raised from the ground by means of the support.
"Now this is my plan," said the youth to Mr. Brader and some of the men who had gathered about after fixing the life-nets in place: "I'll go up on the platform and haul the machine up by a rope."
"I'll have some of the men help you," offered the manufacturer. "You don't want to strain your arms. And if I were you, Joe, I'd arrange to have a little block and fall attached to one of the platforms, so you can haul your machine up from the ground without the use of so much muscle. A motor-cycle, such as you're using, isn't the lightest weight in the world."
"I know, and I'll do as you say. I hadn't thought of that."
Joe ascended to the west platform, to ride toward the east, as it was afternoon and he wanted the sun at his back. It was easy enough to raise the motor-cycle to the low platform; but it would be more difficult when the platforms fifty feet high were used. Joe had an idea of getting a rope ladder for his own use, and the tackle for the machine.
Everything was now in readiness for the first trial. Joe got on his machine as it stood upright on the platform, held by the rear support. He looked over to the other platform, where he hoped to land after riding across the intervening three hundred feet on the wire. Each platform was so arranged that the wire gradually merged into and became a part of it. This was to enable Joe to steer easily the grooved wheels of his machine on or off, just as he had used the boards the day he had ridden the railroad rail.
"Well, here goes!" said Joe, mentally. Again he started the motor. It responded instantly to the thrust of the foot lever, and the explosions in the two cylinders came fast and true.
"No misses there," thought Joe, satisfied.
Once more he looked to the other platform. It was a tense moment, and Mr. Brader and his men, watching, felt it perhaps more than Joe did. For the young fellow's nerves were as steady as steel.
Joe set the engine to run at a moderate rate and then, with his hand on the lever that threw in the gear, he reached back with one foot and kicked up into the holding catch the rear support. Slowly, but with gathering speed, the machine started off along the platform.
"Well, he's off!" cried Mr. Brader.
Faster and faster rode Joe. He held his front wheel as near to the middle of the platform as he could, aiming to get it on the wire as soon as the cable offered itself, rising from the surface of the platform.
But something seemed to be wrong. Try as he would Joe could not get the grooved wheel to take the wire. He saw failure ahead of him, but he would not give up. Desperately he tried to get on the wire but it was harder than he had supposed. Though in trials, when a wire was laid straight out on the ground Joe had ridden from end to end without swerving a fraction of an inch either way.
"Look out!" shouted Mr. Brader. "You'll be off the platform in a second, Joe!"
"I know it!" Joe shouted back. "I can't make the wheels take the wire. I've got to——"
He did not finish, for just then he reached the edge of the platform and plunged off, motor-cycle and all.