Part 4 (2/2)

”We stopped in front of the old stone house,” Djuna went on, ”and Mr. Boots showed us the iron animals on the lawn and everything.

”Then, just before we drove away, I happened to be looking up at the watchtower on top of the house and suddenly I saw a man up there swinging on a limb. He swung back and forth once, and then let go of a limb and shot right into the watchtower. Honest! I saw him!”

”Did you tell Mr. Boots?” Socker asked.

”Yes,” Djuna said; ”didn't I, Tommy? I told him and he thought I was stringing him. He said I was always seeing things that other people didn't see, and that I was pulling his leg; so I didn't say anything more about it. I'd almost forgotten it until I saw Mr. Barrow up on the catcher's trapeze, in just about the same position he was in that day and-and I thought he was the same man I'd seen 'fly' into Mr. Grant's window.”

”Have you said anything to anyone else about this, Djuna?” Socker asked.

”No,” Djuna said.

”We'll check it some way, Djuna,” Cannonball said. ”I believe you. I remember when we didn't believe you once before, and I know a couple of times when that big fathead standing beside you wouldn't believe you.” He gave Djuna a pat on the back and added, ”But forget it for now, because I can hear the calliope callioping, so it's time for the parade. We'll talk about it later.”

”I believe you, too, Djuna,” Socker said. ”In fact, I wouldn't dare disbelieve you, even if I knew you were wrong, after what has happened before!”

”Jeepers, Socker, I don't want you to feel like that!” Djuna said miserably. ”I just told you because-”

”Forget it for now, kid,” Socker said and he grinned down at Djuna. ”C'mon!” Socker twisted his hat around and his mouth with it and shouted, ”The be-ee-eg show! This a-way to the b-e-ee-g show! The performance starts soon after the stupendous, spi-i-ine ting-g-g-ling p-a-a-rade! Buy yoah tickets for the b-e-ee-g show!”

The calliope blared outside and they all started for the exit to get a good place to see the big parade.

Chapter Four.

The Boys Meet Queer People

Because Cannonball McGinnty was driving the white police car, he managed to park it right in the center of a street that crossed the main street of Riverton, down which the parade pa.s.sed.

The front b.u.mper of the car was right below the rope that was strung across the street to hold the crowds back, and, after Cannonball had parked, he and Socker and Tommy and Djuna all got out of the police car and climbed up on its roof where they could see best. Tommy and Djuna sat with their feet hanging down in front of the winds.h.i.+eld, and Cannonball and Socker squatted down right behind them.

They could hear the band and the calliope playing long before they could see it, but while they were waiting for it to come the balloon venders with their bright cheery-colored balloons, and the shouting fakirs and excited children, gave them plenty to watch.

”Buy baby a bal-loon! A nice red balloon for baby! A circus is not a circus without a bal-loon! Bu-u-y baby a balloon for the circus!” the venders shouted.

And then came the bespangled fairyland that was the parade!

And because almost everyone in the parade knew Socker and Cannonball, from the weirdly painted clowns to the uniformed drivers of the gilded animal and tableau wagons, they all waved at them as they pa.s.sed and Tommy and Djuna waved back at them, and thought they knew them, too.

The horses danced, the clowns made faces that scared themselves, the calliope player played ”Jingle Bells” for Cannonball while he sang it at the top of his lungs from the top of his patrol car, and when one of the clowns who had enormous feet and rode in a tiny police patrol wagon came along, Cannonball climbed down from his police car and rode two blocks beside the clown, with everyone screaming with laughter as the clown beat Cannonball over the head with a paper nightstick.

When the last gilded wagon had rumbled by, Tommy turned to Djuna and said in a whisper, ”And the billboards say that the parade is only a small sample of everything that is in the circus! Jeepers, I don't know whether I'm going to live through this day or not!”

”Okay, kids,” Socker said as the calliope's blatant music died away in the distance. ”Now we're going back to the chow tent and get us some food.”

”In the circus chow tent, Socker?” Djuna asked.

”In the circus chow tent,” Socker repeated, solemnly. ”We'll try to get a seat beside Bong-Bong, the Mule-faced Boy, who eats nothing but pink lizards covered with catsup.”

”Does he-honest, Socker?” Tommy asked in a horrified voice.

”Well,” said Socker, ”I've heard it whispered around, but let's not count on it. We don't have to eat lizards because he does.”

”Golly, I hope not,” Djuna said, and he and Tommy grinned at each other as they climbed down from the top of the patrol car and into the back seat.

After they had parked Cannonball's white car near the restaurant or ”chow” tent, they went inside and were greeted with a shout from Spitfire Peters, who indicated some seats at the long table where he was eating.

With him was Trixie Cella, Ned Barrow, and a midget clown who had an enormous red nose in the middle of his white make-up and wore a tiny policeman's uniform, with a large tin star pinned on the blouse. He wore a policeman's cap with the peak in the back, and when they joined him Spitfire introduced him to Tommy and Djuna as ”Merry” Andrews. He was the same clown Cannonball had ridden with, in the parade.

Trixie Cella had taken off her aerialist's costume and was dressed in a filmy lavender dress that made her look even prettier than she had looked in the big top that morning.

”Jeepers, she's awful pretty, isn't she?” Djuna whispered to Socker.

”She is,” said Socker. ”But you better not let Spitfire see you making eyes at her, because she's his wife!”

”She is?” Djuna said. ”Honest?”

”Swallow my gum and hope to die!” said Socker. ”And,” he added, ”here comes Joy Maybeck. She's not hard to look at, either.”

”Who's she?” Djuna whispered.

”She rides the rosinbacks,” Socker said. ”She's the greatest of them all.”

Djuna wanted to ask what a rosinback might be, but he didn't have time before the wisp of a girl Socker had called Joy Maybeck was being introduced to him and sat down at the table right beside him. She had beautiful platinum hair that she wore in a pageboy bob, large violet eyes and white teeth that flashed every time she smiled, which was a great deal of the time.

After Djuna, and Tommy, too, had eaten a large slice of roast, some very fresh green peas, mashed potatoes with gravy, two gla.s.ses of milk, and an enormous slice of apple pie with cheese, they both felt a great deal better, and Djuna got up the courage to talk to Joy Maybeck when she smiled at him.

”What,” he asked her, ”is a rosinback?”

”It's what I ride on,” she said with another smile.

”Sort of like an automobile?” Djuna asked, and he couldn't keep his bewilderment out of his voice.

”No,” she said and she laughed very merrily. ”It's a horse,” she whispered so no one else would hear her and laugh at Djuna, too. ”Have you ever seen a circus?” she added.

”W-e-e-ll, no,” Djuna said. He wanted to say yes, because he didn't want her to think he was too much of a kid, but he was honest and told her he had never seen one before.

”I'm what they call an equestrienne,” she told him. ”In other words, a bareback rider.”

”O-h-h!” Djuna said. ”When it's galloping around the ring?”

”That's right,” she told him. ”I turn somersaults while I'm riding, too,” she added.

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