"Why did you strike me?" cried David hoa.r.s.ely, his lips twitching, his eyes glowing like coals.
"Aw, none o" that, now, none o" that," snarled Braddock, taking a step forward.
"Why did you strike me?" repeated the boy dully.
"Calm yourself, my boy," Mrs. Braddock kept repeating insistently, without raising her voice, always low, tense, impelling.
The tears sprang to his eyes--tears of rage and helplessness. With a sob he turned away and leaned his head against the pole.
"Poor boy," she whispered.
"Don"t you call me a brute, Casey," roared Braddock, turning upon the contortionist in a fury. Casey had not uttered a word, but Braddock instinctively antic.i.p.ated the charge. The contortionist was afraid of him. He drew back with a scared look in his eyes.
Mrs. Braddock was speaking quietly, compa.s.sionately to the suffering boy. "We must be careful," she said, "not to oppose him too strongly.
Those men are out in front. He will turn you over to them if you resort to violence. Calm yourself, do. There is still the chance that he may change his mind. He is not really heartless. It is only his way."
"Why did he strike me?" again fell from the lips of the fugitive.
At this moment Grinaldi came hurrying in from the ring. He took in the situation at a glance. Behind him, peering over his shoulder, was a black-haired young woman in pink tights and spangled trunks.
David was afterward to know this handsome, black-haired girl as Ruby Noakes, the daughter of Grinaldi, otherwise Joey Noakes, and known to the gaping world as Mademoiselle Roxane, the Flying Queen of the Air.
CHAPTER III
DAVID ENTERS THE SAWDUST RING
Braddock saw at once that the old clown was against him. With an ugly imprecation he directed one of the attendants to go to the main entrance with instructions to bring Mr. Blake and his friend back to the dressing-tent.
"We"ll see who"s running this show," he declared, taking a fresh grip on the stake, and rolling the dangling cigar over and over between his teeth.
"Hold on, Camp," said Grinaldi, checking the attendant with a gesture.
"See "ere, Tom," he went on earnestly, "wot"s the reason you won"t give this one an even chance with the others?"
"Stand aside, Christie," Braddock said to his trembling daughter. "Don"t get in the way. Oh, I"m not going to smash the cub, so don"t worry.
Here! Come away from him, I say. Both of you. I won"t stand for any petting of a rascal like him. Well, I"ll tell you, Joey Noakes," he went on, turning to the clown, "I don"t mind saying I need the money.
This kid"s going to be caught by somebody before long, and the man that does it gets five hundred. It might as well be me. Business is business, and just now business is bad. You people all know what this infernal weather has done for us. We haven"t had a paying day since we opened, and here it is the middle of May--nearly six weeks, that"s what it is. There"s a lousy three hundred dollars in the big top to-night and half as much this afternoon. I tell you if these rains keep up I"ll have to close. It takes more than five hundred dollars a day to run this show. I owe back salaries--all of you have got something coming to you. Five hundred dollars velvet, that"s what this boy means to me--not for myself, mind you, but for the treasury. That"s why I"m going to turn him over, if you want to know."
"But he ain"t guilty," said Grinaldi sharply.
"How do you know?" snarled Braddock. "Go and do what I told you," to the wavering attendant. Mrs. Braddock and Christine were standing beside the dejected boy, the former looking steadily at the face of her husband, whose bloodshot eyes would not meet her gaze. Christine"s eyes were wide with the bewildered stare of an intelligence that has suddenly been aroused to new aspects: she was having a glimpse of a side to her father"s character that had never been revealed to her before.
She put forth a hand and drew Ruby Noakes close beside her, pressing her hand tightly in actual alarm. The Noakes girl"s arm went around the slender figure, but she continued to stare curiously at the face of the stranger in their midst. She was half a head taller than Christine, and at least three years her senior.
"We ought to have a new clown to help out dad, Mr. Braddock," ventured Miss Noakes coolly.
Braddock stared at her. He was not in the habit of accepting feminine advice.
"What"s that?" he barked.
"Keep still, Ruby," cautioned her father nervously. Ruby"s lips parted quickly, and then, thinking better of it, she closed them.
David"s face took on a queer, uncertain expression while Braddock was advancing his dire need of money as an excuse for turning him over. The proprietor resumed his bitter harangue against the weather, prophesying bankruptcy and sheriff"s sales. The boy"s face began to clear. An eager, excited gleam came into his eyes. He looked about him as if searching for some sign of corroboration in the faces of the performers. A certain evidence of dejection had crept into more than one countenance. It began to dawn on him that the man was more or less sincere in his argument; even the words of others, in conflict with his purpose, served to convince him that the money was needed, very seriously needed.
"If he"s innocent, he can prove it," argued Braddock stubbornly. "The county pays the five hundred. It"s nothing out of his pocket. Why the devil shouldn"t I get it?"
David had opened his lips two or three times to utter the words that surged up from his anxious, despairing heart. A sense of guilt and shame had checked them on each occasion. Whatever it was that he felt impelled to say, his honest pride rebelled against the impulse.
Now he lifted his head resolutely, and addressed the proprietor, whose stand appeared to be immovable.
"I will pay you the five hundred dollars," said David clearly.
Every eye was turned upon him, every tongue was stilled. The tumblers who had started for the ring stopped in their tracks to gaze in open-mouthed wonder at the straight, grotesque figure that faced Braddock.
The proprietor blinked unbelievingly. Then he gave vent to a short, derisive laugh.
"You will, will you?"
David felt a hot wave of blood rush to his head. His offer had met with the rebuke it deserved!
"I thought that if it was only the money, I could let you have it. I didn"t mean to try to buy you off," he explained hastily.
"Are you in earnest?" demanded Braddock, depositing the stake on the ground, a curious glitter swimming across his eyes.
"About the money?"
"Certainly. Where are you going to get it?"
"I"ve got it with me," said David, feeling at his side. A look of dismay spread over his face. It was quickly dispelled by the recollection that his own clothes were lying in the men"s dressing-room. "It"s in my vest."
No one thought to oppose him as he pa.s.sed hastily under the flap. He was back in a moment, carrying his rain-soaked waistcoat. With nervous fingers he drew a heavy pin from the mouth of the inside pocket, and extracted a long leather purse therefrom. It was tied up with a heavy piece of string.
"Do you mean to tell me that you"ve got five hundred dollars in there?"
demanded Braddock incredulously.
David felt without seeing the look that went through the crowd. He knew, by some strange mental process, that they were condemning him, that they were drawing away from him. He was bewildered. Then suddenly he understood. It came like a blow. Something rushed up into his throat and choked him.
They took this money to be the profits of murder! The spoils of a dreadful sin!
Speechless, he turned to Mrs. Braddock. There was no mistaking the look of pain and distress in her dark eyes. There were doubt and wonder there, too. It seemed to him that she shrank back a step; although, as a matter of fact, she remained as motionless as a statue. Christine was glowing upon him in grateful amazement, unutterable relief in her gaze.
To her, it meant only that he was rich and could save himself. It did not occur to her that he had come by the riches dishonestly, nor was she at once conscious of a feeling that her father would do wrong to accept the tribute. It was not until later that she felt the shock of revulsion.
"It is my money!" cried David, speaking to Mrs. Braddock. "Every cent of it! I--I know what you are thinking. You think I stole it." His eyes were flashing and his chin was held high now. "I"ll kill any one who says I steal. I"d sooner commit murder a thousand times than to steal."
"How did you--come by all that money?" asked Mrs. Braddock, more than half convinced by his fervor.
"That"s what I"d like to know," added her husband. "Here! Lemme take that pocket-book."