Part 20 (1/2)
”We want a good all-around gymnast and tumbler,” said Carl Ross. ”As it is the show is lop-sided-too much singing and dancing.”
Leo was asked to give an exhibition of what he could do, and readily complied, performing at first on the floor of the stage and then on a bar let down from the flies.
”Very good!” said Nathan Wampole, highly pleased, and Carl Ross also smiled his approval.
At the conclusion of the show that evening Leo decided to join the company, and from that moment on he and Carl Ross became warm friends.
From c.o.keville the company proceeded to Lumbertown and then to Wimblerun. For the time being Leo lost track of the circus and devoted himself entirely to his new position. His acts on the stage were well received, yet Carl Ross remained, as heretofore, the star of the combination.
”I wish I could do tricks,” said Leo, as he watched the young magician at practice. ”But I don't believe I could learn.”
”You could learn as easily as I could learn to act on the trapeze,”
laughed Carl. ”If I tried that I would get dizzy and fall sure.”
”Every one to his own line,” concluded Leo. ”I can go up any distance into the air and not be afraid.”
”Up in a balloon?”
”Yes, even up in a balloon,” and Leo told of his adventures along that line.
For several weeks matters ran smoothly, but then they took a turn. Leo found out that Nathan Wampole loved dearly to play cards, and every dollar the manager could raise was staked and lost at the gaming-table.
For two weeks he could not get a cent of salary.
”I don't like this,” he said to Carl Ross, when the pair talked the matter over.
”I don't like it myself, Leo. But what can we do about it?”
”That is what I would like to know. I am half-inclined to go on a strike.”
”I doubt if he has any money. Business was poor last week on account of the rain. I imagine we are lucky to get our traveling expenses and board bills paid.”
”You don't know if the board bills really are paid,” was the suggestive response. ”I haven't seen Wampole pay Mrs. Gerston a cent.”
”Well, if he doesn't pay we'll have trouble; that's a foregone conclusion,” said Carl. ”He ought-Here he comes now, and two strange men with him.”
Carl broke off short as Nathan Wampole entered the dressing-room of the little country theater at which the company had been performing for the past two nights.
”I've got to have my money, and that's all there is to it,” one of the men was saying. ”You agreed to pay for the theater after the first performance, and you haven't paid a cent.”
”I will pay to-morrow,” replied the owner of the organization uneasily.
He was naturally a closefisted man, and bad business had made him more miserly than ever.
”That don't go. You pay this afternoon or this theater will be dark to-night.”
A long war of words followed, and it soon transpired that the second stranger was a constable, brought to enter an attachment on the scenery and other things, should Nathan Wampole fail to come to terms.
”I'll tell you what I'll do,” said the proprietor finally. ”I'll pay you twenty dollars on account, and the other fifty as soon as the money is taken in at the box-office to-night.”
He held out the twenty dollars temptingly as he spoke, and the landlord took it with but little hesitation.