CHAPTER XXII
GOOD NEWS
Joe's recognition of the man had created a little commotion in the audience near Mr. Strailey's seat. Joe realized this, and, not wishing to disturb others, he said:
"If you don't mind, and will come to my dressing room, I shall be very glad to have a talk with you. That is, unless you want to stay and see the rest of the performance."
"Oh, I'm not particular. I came to see you, anyhow."
"To see me?" asked Joe, as he walked beside Mr. Strailey toward the performer's exit.
"Well, yes. I'd heard about you, and had seen you in the moving pictures, and I wanted to see you in reality. So I came."
"Was it up to expectations?" Joe asked, with a smile.
"Much more so. I never saw anything as nervy as that."
"Glad you like it!" Joe exclaimed. "Was it as nervy as the riding my mother, Janet Willoughby, used to do in England?" he asked, with a sudden desire to put his ideas to the test.
"Janet Willoughby!" exclaimed Mr. Strailey. "Was she really your mother?"
"She was," answered Joe. "And she married Alexander Strong, who was known on the stage as Professor Morretti."
"Then it is just as Craige fancied," the other said. "He was not sure, but he will be now. I must communicate with him."
"Look here!" exclaimed Joe earnestly, "I don't know whether I am on the right road or not, but for some time I have been trying to get on the track of my mother's relatives in England. And I need not keep back the reason. It is because I think there may be an inheritance due me from her estate."
"I will answer you as to that in a little while," was Mr. Strailey's answer. "Tell me all you know."
By this time they had reached Joe's dressing room. He had one to himself now, and, giving a camp-chair to his visitor and sitting on a trunk himself, Joe began the conversation.
"There is no need of going into details about the automobile accident," he said.
"No," agreed his companion. "It was most unfortunate, in a way, but we got out of it very luckily, thanks to you."
"I may be wrong," Joe resumed, "but I have an idea that Mr. Craige showed a strange interest in me when he heard my name."
"He did," was Mr. Strailey's answer. "For he knew your mother in England, and he knew she had been disowned when she married your father.
"Still the name 'Strong' is not uncommon and Craige was not sure you were the son of Janet Willoughby. But at the time of the motor accident there was no opportunity to make sure."
"And you went away in such a hurry that I had no chance to talk to you," said Joe.
"Yes, there was an important business deal in which Mr. Craige and I were involved, and a delay meant a serious loss to us," explained Mr. Strailey. "So when we found that neither of us was seriously hurt, and that the car could be made to run, we went on."
"You did not leave any address," suggested Joe.
"No, we forgot that, and it was a source of regret to us afterward, for my friend wanted to get in communication with you for your own good. He even went to the length of coming back to the doctor's office some weeks later, but neither the physician nor the farmer could tell us anything about you."
"I suppose not," said Joe. "I don't recall, now, whether I left my address or not. Probably I did not, for I couldn't tell where I was going to be. And so we missed one another."
"Yes," assented Mr. Strailey. "You mentioned something about being with a circus, but Craige forgot the name, or possibly you did not mention it, and it was not until recently that, seeing your name on the advance posters of this circus that was to come here, Craige and I had an idea you might be the same youth that rescued us. It was a strange coincidence. As soon as you rode toward me a little while ago, I recognized you at once."
"I have seen Mr. Craige, or rather heard his voice, once since the auto accident," stated Joe.
"Is that so? Where?"
"It was when I was giving an open-air exhibition before I rejoined the circus. I had completed my ride over the high wire when I heard some one in the crowd say:
"'By Jove! that was clever! My! that boy has as much nerve as a girl I knew in England. Janet Willoughby was a daring rider!' That was what I heard," stated Joe. "And it at once set me to thinking, for that was my mother's name. I tried to get in communication with that man, who, I feel sure now, was Mr. Craige."
"It was," admitted Mr. Strailey. "He told me about it afterward, but he did not recognize you as the youth who had helped us, and I suppose he did not take note of the name that was on the posters."
"Very likely," Joe agreed. "I wore a different sort of suit from the one he had seen me in, and he did not stay after he made the remark that set me thinking. I tried to find him in the crowd, and even engaged a sort of amateur private detective. But it was useless.
"And I even advertised in the papers," went on Joe, "hoping to get some trace of Mr. Craige that way, though at the time I did not know it was he. It is only to-day that I connect him with the strange man in the crowd who spoke of my mother."
"Yes, it is a strange coincidence all around," agreed the Englishman. "Craige and I, with some friends, have been out here some time, looking after mining interests, and I guess we did not pay much attention to the papers. However, we have found you at last."
"And where is Mr. Craige?" asked Joe.
"He is in Boltville, looking after some of our interests there. But I am sure he will be glad to come on and tell you what he knows of your affairs."
"Has he anything to do with my mother's estate?" asked Joe.
"I think not," was the answer. "It is only that he knows something about it. He knows more than I do, for he came from the shire of Surrey, where your mother's people lived, while I am a Yorkshire man."
"Then you can't tell me anything definite?" asked Joe, a little less hopeful.
"Yes, I think I can tell you good news," was the smiling answer.
"Good news!" cried Joe. "Then I have an inheritance?"
"Well, now, I'll not be positive," replied Mr. Strailey, "but this is how the matter stands. What I tell you, I have from Mr. Craige, and not of my own knowledge.
"Your mother, as you probably know, came from a wealthy and aristocratic family. When she married Mr. Strong, who was, I believe, a stage magician, she—er—she was——"
He seemed to hesitate for fear of wounding Joe's feelings.
"Oh, go on!" exclaimed the young circus actor. "I know all about that. Others have told me. My mother's people cast her off because she married a public performer and became one herself. But she loved my father, I'm sure of that, and I think more of him and her—their memories—than I do of all the wealth and aristocrats of England!"
"That's right, my boy. Though I am an Englishman, I think some of our standards are wrong. It's worth that tells every time. But I suppose you know why your mother preferred to marry your father, even at the risk of being disowned by her family?"
He looked questioningly at Joe.
"I presume it was because she loved him," he said.
"Yes, and because her relatives were trying to force her into marrying a good-for-nothing nobleman, who had a title and not much else. But your mother was not that kind of girl."
"Good for her!" cried Joe softly, and there were tears in his eyes.
"Now I don't know all the ins and outs of English law," went on Mr. Strailey, "but from what Craige has told me I think your mother was entitled to a share in a large estate, and you, being her heir, would naturally get it now. But Craige can tell you more about it than can I. You must see him."
"That's just what I want to do!" cried Joe.