“What’s that?” asked Joe Strong, coming up in time to hear the last remark. “What’s going on?”

“An aviation meet,” repeated the advance agent, whose business it is to go ahead and arrange matters for the coming circus. “They’re going to run counter to us. I didn’t know, until the last minute, what it was, or I’d have wired you not to come. But now the show is here——”

“We’ll have to stay,” said Jim Tracy gloomily. “It’s a long jump to our next stop, and we need money to go on. We’ve got to play here if only to half crowds.”

“And it’s likely to be that,” observed the advance agent. “Aeroplanes are new out in this section, and the people are crazy to see them.”

“An aviation meet, eh?” mused Joe. “Well, I guess it is a mighty interesting thing, but I hope the people will patronize our circus.”

“That remains to be seen,” the advance agent said. “They’re going to have all sorts of attractions—races; the dropping of chalk bombs; a war game, in which the aviators will endeavor to locate hidden bodies of troops; and things of that sort. We sure are up against it hard!”

Joe began to think so himself. Though it was early and there was none of the “birdmen” in sight, there was a big crowd around the hangars, as the wooden buildings are called which house the biplanes and monoplanes.

“If they crowd over there now just on the chance of having a glimpse at an aviator, what will they do when the real show starts?” mused Joe. “Why, we’re almost deserted!”

This was true. The usual crowd that always came to see the circus tents put up was but poorly represented, and if this was a forecast of what would happen in the afternoon and evening, when the show would be under way, it meant something like financial disaster.

One big feature in favor of the aviation meet was that it was open and free to every one. Of course, an admission fee was charged to the grounds, which was the only place where a close view could be had of the machines and the aviators. But once the birdmen arose in the air, they were visible for a long distance the country round. And what small boy, especially, would pay fifty cents, or even a quarter, to go to a circus, when he could see the aeroplanes for nothing? Very few, thought Joe.

But there was, as the ring-master said, only one thing to do, and that was to go on with the circus and trust to luck to draw part of the crowd away from the aviation meet. The latter show was first on the ground, but the circus had been billed long in advance, and it was fair enough to both sides.

So while the tents were being put up, and the animal exhibit being put into readiness, Joe and Helen strolled over toward the aviation grounds.

“Be back in time for the parade, Joe!” called the ring-master after him. “If ever we needed you to fly from the back of Rajah, we need you to-day. We’ve got to do all we can to arouse interest in our show.”

“Oh, I’ll be on hand!” Joe promised.

He wanted very much to look at some of the aeroplanes, for he had some new ideas regarding the Bat, and he wanted to see if they were feasible. He thought he could get additional ideas by seeing the monoplanes and biplanes.

“And do men actually fly in them?” asked Helen, when she and Joe had gone in through the gate, Joe buying the tickets.

“Yes,” he answered. “They really glide through the air, but on a different principle from that on which my machine works. They get their power from wooden propellers, revolved by a gasoline engine. The propellers in the air act just as do the propellers of a boat in the water, only the air propellers must move much faster, as water is denser than air. In my machine I rise just as a bird does, by successive flappings of the wings of steel against the air. Once I am up I can glide like a bird, and drift, as the aeroplanes sometimes drift, on a downward slant. Volplaning, they call it.”

“How interesting!” exclaimed Helen.

“Do you like it?” asked Joe. “If you do, I may build an aeroplane some day and take you for a ride above the clouds.”

“Thank you, no!” exclaimed Helen quickly. “I mean it is interesting to look at and hear about, but I don’t want to go up. Seeing that balloon get loose was enough for me!”

“Oh, that was nothing!” laughed Joe.

It was too early for the regular exhibition of the aeroplane meet, but mechanics were busy over machines, and, in some cases, the aviators themselves were on hand, looking after their apparatus, getting ready for the afternoon flight. The flights would take place about the time the circus started, and would be a big counter attraction.

Joe pointed out to Helen the difference between the biplanes and monoplanes. The latter have but one expanse of surface, composed of specially prepared cloth stretched over a light framework. Biplanes, as the name indicates, have two surfaces, one above the other. The biplanes are more powerful and safer, but the monoplanes, or “one-planes,” are swifter and more easily managed, though rather dangerous.

Joe wanted a chance to talk to some of the aviators, but he did not get it, as the time of the parade was drawing near and he had to do his part, rising in his wings of steel from the back of the big elephant, Rajah. That was counted on to attract attention and draw crowds out to the tents.

If the throngs in the streets that watched the circus procession and applauded Joe’s flight were any indication, the circus might hope to do a good business. For Rockport was a large city, and all about it were thriving towns which seemed to have poured out much of their population to witness one or the other of the shows.

There was a big, cheering and apparently eager crowd in the streets to witness the parade, and the hopes of the circus folk rose somewhat on the return to the grounds. But when the afternoon came, and the ticket sellers and ticket takers were ready and waiting, they were not overwhelmed with a rush. Of course, many persons came to the circus, but more went to the aviation meet, or stood outside the enclosure, ready to watch the aviators fly.

“I was afraid of this,” said Jim Tracy, with a gesture of despair, as he looked in the half-filled tent. “We can’t pull against the aeroplanes.”

“Well, we can all do our best!” exclaimed Helen. “We’ll show the crowd we have in here what a fine show we can give!”

“That’s the way to talk!” exclaimed Bill Watson, the veteran clown. “Helen, you’ve struck the right idea. We’ll give a bang-up, smashing good show, and it will be talked about. Not that we don’t always do our best, but this time we must do our bestest!” and he smiled at his new word.

“Well, that will help some,” conceded Jim Tracy, “and I’m sure obliged to you all for the spirit you show. Do the best you can, and if we fail, we’ll go down with flying colors anyhow. Start the music!”

With a blare of trumpets the grand entry was under way, and then began a game fight against odds on the part of the circus folk. For the aviation meet was in full progress, and during the pauses in the performance in the main tent there could be heard the staccato explosions of the engines of the aircraft, for some of them flew over the circus grounds.

As Helen had proposed, they all did their best. The clowns worked hard to get laughs, and the acrobats did their most dangerous tricks to win applause.

In his flying exhibition Joe went around the tent more times than usual, to give the people their money’s worth, as he said afterward. And when the time came for him and Benny to go into the tank (Joe doing the countryman turn as before) he proposed to the human fish that they try for a record on holding their breath under water.

Benny agreed, and Jim Tracy made the announcement. This aroused much interest, and there were eager watchers as Benny and Joe deflated their lungs, to fill them to their capacity with fresh air.

They made a good record, too, better than usual, though Joe, on certain occasions, had beaten it. The crowd applauded, and then came some of Joe’s sleight-of-hand tricks under water, while Lizzie, the trained seal, added to the interest of the tank act.

“Well, they can’t say but that we gave them a good show,” said Jim Tracy, as the crowd filed out. “Now if they’ll only spread the report around town, it may bring a big crowd out to-night. There’s one consolation, moreover, the aviation meet will be closed at night.”

“Oh, no, it won’t,” said Mr. Sampson gloomily. “I’ve been making inquiries, and they’re going to give a night show too. The machines are to fly in the air, illuminated with electric lights, and there will probably be as big a crowd over there as there was this afternoon. We’ve got to get the people here on the merits of our show, or else quit the game.”

Jim Tracy shrugged his shoulders. He did not know what to say.

Joe and Helen, after the afternoon performance, had gone over to the aviation grounds again, and the lad met one of the aviators, with whom he had a long talk, learning some things he did not know before. The aviator also told Joe what the programme for the next day was going to be.

What Mr. Sampson feared happened that night. Or rather, it did not happen. There was even a smaller crowd in the circus tents than in the afternoon, but the performers did not relax their efforts to amuse and thrill the audience.

“We’ve just got to do something!” the ring-master exclaimed, when a report came in that a big crowd was over at the aviation grounds.

“What can we do?” asked Mr. Sampson.

“Who has an idea?” asked the ring-master. “Don’t all speak at once,” he added, with a grim smile.

“I have a plan,” said Joe. “It may work, and again it may not. But I’m willing to try it.”

“Good for you!” cried Jim Tracy. “Let’s hear your plan, Joe.”