CHAPTER X
A CHANCE REMARK
Joe Strong had succeeded. He had demonstrated that he could ride his motor-cycle across a high wire, and that was what he had set out to do. And it had proved to be a thrilling exploit. Joe could tell that by the wave of excitement which swept over the big crowd outside. Mr. Brader and his men were excited too, but in a milder manner, for they had seen the preliminaries of Joe's performance, and knew what to expect.
But the crowd outside fairly went wild, shouting, cheering and applauding. Some of the crowd even pushed past the watchman at the gate and swarmed into the lot.
"They're going to make a hero of you, Joe," said Mr. Brader as he looked at the onrushing throng.
"Not if I know it!" Joe exclaimed, and he started for the side door of the factory. But he was too late. The crowd pressed around him, men and boys trying to shake him by the hand, that they might be able to say they had met the daring motor-cycle rider of the high wire.
Some boys were examining Joe's machine so closely that they were in danger of wrecking it, and he had to beg them good-naturedly to let it alone.
Others swarmed about the wire, looking at the supporting shears and trying their weight on the inclined approaches. As they were likely to displace the arrangement, the men from the factory had to make them move away.
Altogether it was a great ovation for Joe, and he appreciated it very much, even as modest as he was.
"If the crowds at the county fairs or other exhibitions where I show will only make as much fuss as this, the management will think I am at least earning my money," said Joe to Mr. Brader, when the excitement had quieted down and the crowd had been driven out of the factory lot.
"So you are fully determined that that's what you're going to do—go about giving exhibitions?"
"For a while, yes, if I can get some engagements."
"Oh, I guess you can do that easily enough. The act is sure to be a thriller. I think it will draw better than an aeroplane exhibition. And if I were you I'd have some photographs made, so as to give folks an idea what it is like."
"I could do that," agreed Joe. "And if I could induce some moving picture concern to put me on a film, I'd get pretty well known over the country."
"A fine idea, Joe! I know some moving picture people and I'll speak to them about it. I think it would make a good scene for them. It could be released for one of the weeklies or features."
Mr. Brader was as good as his word, and a few days later Joe received word that a camera man would visit him on a certain day to "film" him.
"Maybe, for all you know, you'll be acting for the movies yet," said Mr. Brader, with a smile. "You surely could give them some thrills."
"Well, if they'll pay enough I'll do it," said Joe. He was not mercenary, but he realized that this was his way to make a living, and he decided that the time to earn money was when he was young, and while he had such good strength and nerves.
Every day, for a week or more, Joe practised riding his motor-cycle on the high wire, and each day crowds gathered outside the fence to watch him. Of course this was in the nature of a free exhibition, but Joe did not care.
He realized that it would be very difficult to do his act in a tent if he had the wire as high and as long as he had it now. But he knew both dimensions could be made less, and still the thrill would be retained.
"So if I want to go back to the circus, or join some show where I'll have to be inside, I know I can do it," the youth reflected. Just at present his idea was to offer to do the act for the management of county fairs and large expositions, and to have it take place in the open to draw a crowd. Joe would be paid, not by the people watching him, but by the fair management.
"I've got to book myself just as Professor Rosello used to book his show," Joe said.
The moving picture man came and took Joe and his motor-cycle on several hundred feet of film, showing him getting ready to ascend the slanting approach, after his spin across the level ground, his speedy flight across the straight course, and his startling descent. Pictures were also taken, showing Joe close up to the camera as he bowed and smiled to an imaginary audience, and views were made of the crowd outside the fence.
Later on the film was released to a chain of theatres throughout the country, and as Joe's name appeared on the film he received what was practically a free advertisement.
Joe also advertised in some theatrical and circus papers, announcing what sort of an act he had, and offering to bring himself and his paraphernalia to any fair or open-air exhibition, and to do his "death-defying ride," as the moving picture film described it.
He asked a large sum for each performance, and he had to do this to make up for the heavy expense he would be under. He had to take with him considerable apparatus, and he also needed men to aid him. He decided to take two of Mr. Brader's helpers as he traveled about the country, for they knew best about the apparatus, and how to set it up.
Particularly must the wire be anchored well at each end. If it should break, or pull loose when Joe was in mid-air, he would get a fall that would almost certainly kill him. On the solicitation of Mr. Brader, Joe decided to use a life-net stretched under the whole length of the wire. If he fell he would fall into this, but even then there was risk, for the heavy motor-cycle might tear through the meshes at the very point where Joe might fall with it, and let him fall to the ground.
The youth began to get letters almost at once, asking as to his terms and other details. These he answered. His correspondence he attended to in the morning, then he would practise a little on the wire and in the afternoon perhaps go off for a ride on his machine, after having changed the wheels.
Joe received a letter from Professor Rosello, his first employer. The magician said he had fully recovered now, and was going to take his show out on the road again. He inquired if Joe did not want to join him, instead of doing the dangerous wire act, which the professor had seen advertised in one of the theatrical papers.
And, for a moment, the boy was almost tempted to go back to his sleight-of-hand work, at least while waiting for an engagement to do his wire act, having as yet received no definite offers. But he had faith in himself and his attraction and he decided he would stick to it.
"They'll want me—some fair or exhibition will—sooner or later," Joe told himself, "and I want to be ready to jump right in. I'll hang on a bit longer."
Meanwhile he kept on with his practice until he could do the act at night, with powerful electric lamps placed near the spot where the wire emerged from the ground.
"I don't want to miss the wire with my front wheel or it will give me a bad upset," Joe reflected. "But as I may have to do the trick at night I must be ready for it."
So the lad practised night and day while waiting. And at last his chance came, as he had thought it would.
The management of a big county fair in Clayton, a city about two hundred miles from Hertford, wrote to him, asking for his terms and for other details. Joe's reply was quickly answered with a note to the effect that his price was satisfactory, asking him to come on and give an exhibition for two days, and sending him a contract to sign.
"There's my chance!" exulted Joe, as he showed the letter to Mr. Brader.
"I'm glad of it, Joe," the manufacturer said. "Good luck to you!"
The anchors were taken up, the wire coiled and the shears taken apart for transportation. Joe was glad he did not have the cumbersome platforms to move, as his transportation bill and the railroad fare for himself and his two helpers were heavy enough. So far he had been living and paying his expenses from the money he had saved while with the circus. And, though he still had a sum to his credit, Joe was anxious to be earning something. Now his chance had come.
"If I can't get any money from my mother's English estate I'll have to earn the cash myself," thought Joe.
He looked up the route of Sampson Brothers' Circus when he had completed the arrangements for going to the Clayton fair, and found that the show with which he had been formerly connected would be playing in a town about ten miles distant.
"I'll ride over and see the boys," decided Joe.
And, though he did not say so aloud, he included the "girls" with the "boys"—at least one girl.
Jeroleman and Ryan, Joe's two helpers, very quickly packed the apparatus for transportation. Then, one day, having bidden good-bye to Mr. Brader, Joe set forth to give his first public exhibition with his motor-cycle on the high wire.
His journey to Clayton was without incident, and he found the fair in full progress when he arrived. He learned that a certain daring aviator had disappointed the management by failing to appear, and they had engaged Joe instead.
There was ample space to set up the wire in the middle of the oval race-track, and from there a good view of Joe's daring feat could be had from all over the grounds.
There was no trouble in setting up the wire, and at last the time came when Joe was to give his exhibition. A record-breaking crowd was in attendance, for the attraction had been well advertised, and, Joe learned later, his moving pictures had been shown in town a few days before. So he had an audience all ready and waiting for him.
"Well, is everything all right?" asked the daring motor-cyclist, as he came out of his dressing tent, wearing a suit of white tights which would make him very conspicuous as he flashed along the high wire on his motor-cycle.
"Everything as tight as a drum," reported Jeroleman.
"And the life-nets are there too," said Ryan.
"Well, I hope I'll not need them," Joe said, with a smile, as he put on his head-guard. He wore this, but he had decided against the padded suit since he had the life-net to depend on in case of a fall.
He had looked over the anchors, the shears, the wire and his motor-cycle, and he was now ready to start. The ground had been carefully smoothed for him.
The aerial wire-rider, which is as good a name as can be invented for Joe, mounted his machine at the end of the stretch. There was a little wait, as Jeroleman and Ryan took their places, one at either end of the wire, to help Joe if he should meet with an accident. The crowd waited in anxious suspense.
"Is everything ready?" cried Joe dramatically. He had learned that while in the circus.
"Ready!" answered Jeroleman.
"Ready!" echoed Ryan.
"Here I come!" Joe cried.
He started the motor, kicked up the rear support and a second later was rushing across the ground toward the wire.
The grooved front wheel took the wire easily, and the rear wheel followed.
"There he goes!" shouted some one in the crowd, as Joe, conspicuous in his white tights, shot up the wire incline.
Up and up he went. Then out on the straight stretch.
"There he is! He's riding the high wire!" cried hundreds.
And Joe was. Just as he had done in private, he did now in public. On and on he rode, fifty feet up in the air, with nothing but a slender wire between him and the nets below. On and on he went, a flashing figure in the sunlight, until he reached the other support and then down to the ground he rushed, bringing up with a squeaking of brakes at the fringe of spectators, kept back a safe distance by means of a rope.
Ryan ran up and helped Joe off the motor-cycle. There was really no need of this, as the lad was not in the least exhausted. But it made the trick look more spectacular and dangerous, though it was dangerous enough, as one may easily guess.
"Great! That was great!"
"Most thrilling thing I ever witnessed!"
"I wouldn't take that ride for a million dollars!"
These were some of the excited comments Joe heard made in the crowds that watched him. But as our hero walked back to his little dressing tent, having bowed his acknowledgments to the applause, he heard a chance remark that set his blood to tingling as neither the applause nor the ride had done.
"By Jove! that was cleverly done," some man in the crowd exclaimed. "My! that boy has as much nerve as a girl I knew in England. Janet Willoughby was a daring rider!"
Joe started. Janet Willoughby was the maiden name of his mother.