Joe Strong, the Boy Fish / or Marvelous Doings in a Big Tank

ked as though he did not und

ank-something wron

wrong with the "human fish." Other acts were going on around him, and the crowd, watching through the glass sides of the tank, appeared to take it all as a matter of course. Ben was sti

the young acrobat and Bill hurried across the te

g-master and one of th

," answered Joe. "We've got

ring-master in a low voice. "Can

rcely. "If the audience know

now," agreed Tr

the bottom, an inert form. He had been unable to hold his breath und

on a hot day cooled off in the water in which the "human fish" did his ac

to get Benny up

goads-"ankus" is the Indian name for the instrume

, on which the tank stood, Joe whispered to Bill Wa

reen our movements

h" suit. It was an easy matter to raise the now almost drowned performer to the s

and have them march in a body, carrying Benny between them. Make it look as if it was all a part of the show. Carry it off as well as you can. Though w

ered Joe, making a

men had been using in a funny act of their own, Benny was carried from the main tent. The clowns so su

joke," whispered the

uttered B

sity for not starting a panic in the crowd of sight

attention, new readers will be told briefly something about

e Hortense, and whose father, a sleight-of-hand worker, was known as Professor Morretti, was, at the opening of the story, an orphan, living with Mr. and Mrs

that made him unafraid to do circus tricks at great heights. As a boy he had climbed the vi

m then. The young man saved the professor's life, and then, because of threatened punishment on the part o

theatrical circles. He invented some startling tricks and was a great help to the professor. At one

ge. Something went wrong with the electrical current and the magician was in danger of being burned to death. Joe's quick work saved Professor Rosello, but the shock was so great that the magician had to gi

ime before in a casual way, and he had shown what he could do on t

our hero. As for Joe, he was more than interested in Helen Morton. So much so, that when it came to a question of whethe

erested in Helen and her inheritance, and he mentioned, casually, that perhaps Joe might come into money. For Mrs. Strong, who, before her marriage, was Janet Willoughby, came of a wealthy English family

on Brothers' Circus, and the opening performance was

the clowns who were carrying the half-unconscious form of the wa

at it is doubtful if any in the throng realized that anything out of the ordinary had taken place in the big, glass tank. Th

e water was really only the beginning, and no wonder Jim Tr

," as it is called, on the posters. If the crowd saw no more than had been given t

were no murmurings as the cro

mp form, clad in its scaly gr

hape, Joe, with that eleph

es fixed on the white face of his friend.

ut quietly passed among the circus folk, and already a messenger was on his way to summon a physician. Meanwhile first aid

Bill Watson, when it was seen that Be

call," remarke

ed Jim Tracy. "A good thin

t of had an eye on him. He said he didn

A quick examination tol

d. "There's something the matter wit

" asked the

to make a more careful exam

o on with his act now-I me

ir! Why, the boy is near death yet. I must give

idn't do more than start it. It's been advertised all over the country. I don't know where I can get some one to take his place. This sure is hard l

id Joe Strong i

cried J

t "I can fill in all right. Let