CHAPTER XVII
MONKEYS IN THE AIR
As the result of that victory, the Sparling shows did a greatbusiness in Corinto. The owner, considering that his rival hadbeen severely enough punished, made no further effort to have himbrought to justice, though Phil could hardly restrain him frommaking Sully suffer for the indignities he had heaped onyoung Forrest.
Phil found his money that day when he removed his ring shirt.The string that had fastened his money bag about his neck hadparted, letting the bag drop. This money he handed toMr. Sparling as rightfully belonging to him.
Of course the showman refused it, and wanted to make Phil apresent besides, for the great service he had rendered. As itchanced, one of Mr. Sparling's own staff was attending the Sullyshow when Phil made his escape, and much of the latter'sdiscomfort might have been prevented had he only been awareof that fact.
Teddy assumed the full credit for the victory of old Emperor,and no one took the trouble to argue the question with him.
Soon after these exciting incidents the Sparling shows leftCanada behind and crossed the Niagara River. It was with along drawn sigh of relief that they set eyes on the Stars andStripes again.
After showing at the Falls, the outfit headed southwest.The season was getting late, the cotton crop in the south wasgoing to market, and it was time for all well managed shows whoseroute lay that way to get into Dixie Land. The Circus Boys, too,were anxious to tour the sunny south again. This time they weregoing to follow a route they had never been over before,something that was still a matter of great interest to the boys.
Mr. Sparling upon learning that there was a traitor in hiscamp who was supplying secret information to the Sully show asto the route of the Sparling circus, had at once set a watchfor the offender. It was not long before the traitor wascaught red-handed. He was, of course, dismissed immediately,despised by all who knew what he had been doing.
No more had been seen of the Sully Hippodrome Circus after themeeting of the two organizations in Corinto, though that crowdhad been heard of occasionally as hovering on the flanks of theSparling shows.
"I don't care where they go," said Mr. Sparling, "so long as theydon't get in the same county with me. I am liable to lose mytemper if they get that near to me again, and then something willhappen for sure."
The Sparling show got into the real southland when it madeMemphis, Tennessee, on October first, a beautiful balmy southernfall day. All season Phil had been keeping up his practice onthe trapeze bar, until he had become a really fine performer.He had never performed in public, however, and hardly thought hewould have a chance to do so that season. He hoped not, if itwere to be at some other performer's expense, as had usuallybeen the case.
"When somebody gets hurt it's Phillip who takes his place," saidthe lad to himself.
"Which means that you are always on the job," repliedMr. Sparling who had chanced to overhear the remark. No seriousaccidents had occurred in sometime, however, and it was hoped byeveryone that none would. Accidents, while they are accepted byshow people in the most matter-of-fact way, always cast a gloomover the show. Even the loss of a horse will make thesympathetic showman sad.
After a splendid business in Memphis the show ran intoMississippi where it played a one day stand at Clarksdale, andwhere the showmen experienced the liveliest time they had hadsince they met the Sully organization in Canada.
The afternoon performance had just come to an end, and the peoplewere getting ready to leave their seats under the big top, when agreat commotion was heard under the menagerie top.
Most of the performers were in the dressing tent, changing theirdress for supper, but a roar from the audience, followed byshouts of laughter, attracted their attention sharply, and assoon as they could clothe themselves sufficiently, the performersrushed out into the ring again.
Suddenly the people, upon looking toward the menagerie tent,saw a troop of diminutive animals sweeping into the big top.At first the people did not recognize them.
"They're monkeys!" shouted someone. "They're going to give us amonkey show."
"No. The beasts have gotten out of their cage,"answered another.
He was right. A careless attendant had hooked the padlock of themonkey cage in the staple, but had not locked it. An observantsimian had noticed this, but did not make use of his knowledgeuntil the keeper had gone away.
Peering out to make sure that no one was looking, the monkeyreached out its hand and deftly slipped the padlock fromits place.
The rest was easy. A bound against the cage door left the wayopen, and the hundred monkeys in the cage, big and little werenot slow to take advantage of the opportunity thus offered.
Chattering wildly, they poured from the wagon like asmall cataract. A moment later the attendants discovered themand gave chase. At about the same time the monkeys discoveredthat something was going on under the big top. Being curiouslittle beasts, they concluded to investigate. Then, too, theattendants were pressing pretty close to them, so the whole herdbolted into the circus tent with a shouting crowd of circus menin pursuit.
The yells of the audience, added to those of the attendants, sentthe nimble little fellows scurrying up ropes, center and quarterpoles, all the time keeping up their merry chatter, for freedomwas a thing they had not enjoyed since they had been captured intheir jungle homes.
Some of the ring men tried to shake the monkeys down from thepoles, just as they would shake an apple tree to get the fruit.But the little fellows were not thus easily dislodged.The attempt served only to send them higher up. They seemedto be everywhere over the heads of the people.
Finally, having thoroughly investigated the top of the tent,several of the larger simians decided to take a closer look atthe audience. At the moment the audience did not know of thisplan, or they might have taken measures to protect themselves.
The first intimation they had of the plans of the mischievousmonkeys, was when a woman uttered a piercing shriek, startlingeveryone in the tent.
"What is it?" shouted someone.
"Oh, my hat! My hat!" she cried after discovering what hadhappened to her.
The eyes of the audience wandered from her up to where a monkeywas dangling by its tail far above their heads. The animal hadin its hands a flower-covered hat, so large that when the monkeytried to put it on, it almost entirely concealed his body.So suddenly had the hat been torn from the head of the ownerthat hatpins were broken short off while the little thief"shinned" a rope with his prize.
Failing to make the hat fit, Mr. Monkey began pulling the flowersout; then picking them to pieces, he showered the particles downover the heads of the audience.
This was great sport for the monkey, but no fun at all for theowner of the hat. The woman hurried from her seat, red-facedand humiliated. Phil Forrest had chanced to be a witness tothe act. He stepped forward as she descended to the concourseand touched his hat.
"Was the hat a valuable one, madam?" he asked.
"Very."
"I am sorry. If you will come with me to the office of themanager I am quite sure he will make good your loss."
"Do you belong to the circus, sir?"
"I do."
The woman gladly accompanied him to Mr. Sparling, and there wasmade happy by having the price of her ruined hat handed over toher without a word of objection.
In the meantime trouble had been multiplying at a very rapid rateunder the big top. Everyone was shouting, attendants wereyelling orders to each other, and now Mr. Sparling, hurrying in,added his voice to the din.
Hats in all parts of the tent seemed to fly toward the roofalmost magically, to come tumbling down a few minutes laterhopeless wrecks.
Once the monkeys got a tall silk hat. This they used for anaerial football, tossing it to each other as they leaped fromrope to rope at their dizzy height.
One monkey was discovered peering down at a certain point inthe audience with an almost fascinated gaze. Something downthere attracted him.
Cautiously the little fellow let himselfdown a rope to the side wall, then, unnoticed by the people,crept down through the aisle. Slowly one black little handreached up and jerked from the head of an old gentleman a pairof gold spectacles.
The man uttered a yell as he felt the spectacles being torn fromhim, and made a frantic effort to save them. But the glasses, inthe hands of the monkey, were already halfway up the aisle and amoment more the monkey was twisting the bows into hard knots andhurling pieces of glass at the spectators.
"Catch them! Catch them!" shouted Mr. Sparling.
"How, how?" answered a showman.
"Somebody--"
"I'll go up and get them," spoke up Teddy Tucker. Teddy simplycould not keep out of trouble. He was sure to be in the thick ofit whenever a disturbance was abroad.
"That's a good plan. How are you going to do it?"
"I'll show you. I'll shake 'em down if you will catch them whenthey reach the ring."
"Yes, but be careful that you don't fall."
"Don't you worry about me!"
Teddy untied a rope from a quarter pole, straightened it outand throwing off his coat and hat, began going up the rope handover hand. The monkeys peered down curiously from their perches,chattering and discussing the little figure that was on its wayup to join them.
Teddy reached the platform of the trapeze performers. From therehe climbed a short rope that led to a smaller trapeze bar higherup, thence to the aerial bars, where the whole bunch of monkeyswere sitting, scolding loudly.
"Shoo!" said Teddy. "Get out of here! Better get a net andcatch them down there," shouted Teddy, standing up on the barswithout apparent thought of his own danger.
"Look out that we don't have to catch you!" calledMr. Sparling warningly.
Teddy picked his way gingerly across the bars shooing the monkeysahead of him, now holding to a guide rope so that he might not byany chance slip through and drop to the ring forty feet belowhim, and all the while waving his free hand to frightenthe monkeys.
A few of them leaped to a rope some eight or ten feet away, downwhich they went to the ring and up another set of ropes beforethe show people below could catch them.
While Teddy was thus engaged, the whole troop of monkeys swungback on the under side of the aerial bars beneath his feet.
"Shoo! Shoo!" he shouted. "You rascals, I'll fix you when I gethold of you, and don't you forget that for a minute."
He turned, cautiously making his way back, when the lively,mischievous little fellows shinned up the rope by which he hadlet himself down to the serial bars.
"I'll drive you all over the top of this tent, but I'll get you,"Teddy cried.
Down below the audience was shouting and jeering. The peoplerefused to leave the tent so long as such an exhibition wasgoing on. No one paid the least attention to the "grand concert"that was in progress at one end of the big top, so interestedwere all in the Circus Boy's giddy chase.
"I'm afraid he will fall and kill himself," groaned Mr. Sparling.
"You can't hurt Teddy," laughed Phil. "He can go almost anywherethat a monkey could climb. But he'll never get them." Phil waslaughing with the others, for the sight was really a funny one.
"Oh, look what they've done!" exclaimed one of the performers.
"They've pulled up the rope," said Mr. Sparling hopelessly.
"Now he certainly is in a fix," laughed Phil.
The monkeys, after shinning the rope, had mischievously hauled itup after them, acting with almost human intelligence. One ofthem carried the free end of it off to one side and dropped itover a guy rope. This left Tucker high and dry on the aerialbars with no means at hand to enable him to get back to earth.
The audience caught the significance of it and howled lustily.
"Now, I should like to know how you are going to get down?"shouted Mr. Sparling.
Teddy looked about him questioningly, and off at the grinningmonkeys, that perched on rope and trapeze, appeared to beenjoying his discomfiture to the full.
"I--I guess I'll have to do the world's record high dive!"he called down. There seemed no other way out of it.