Phil Rushington's Search, or, The Unknown Rider of the Ring — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DO AND DARE WEEKLY. 12 ng, the curtain was jerked trotted: into the ri : ng and Phil was left to back acrdss»the ope”! himself. Hardly came hurrying 1. “This is luck!” breathlessly; “‘l feared you would be in the had this happened when Curly exclaimed the groom, ring. “No. I thought best not to go this after- noon. But why do you want me? What’s the matter?” ‘I’m going to prove that I was perfectly ‘nnocent of cutting that strap, Mr. Rushing- ton. I want you to come with me.” “Where?” 3 “Only a few yards distant. You will not need the horse. In fact, it will be better for us to go on foot. You do not object to eaves-dropping, do you, sir?” “Well,” said Rush, giving the groom a sharp look, “that depends. Whose conversa- tion are we to overhear?” “There are two of them, sir, and one is Reddy.” “Reddy is still around here, is he?” ~YeS, sir.” ~Then I'll go with you.” Leaving his horse, Phil accompanied the groom out of the dressing-tent. See CHAPTER IV. CAGED. Owing to a fall from a platform car which one of the wild anima] cages had sustained a day or two previously, several bars wrenched from the grating, insecure, had been making the cage On reaching the present town, Rush had caused the animals to be removed from the broken cage and the wagon hauled to the nearest blacksmith shop for repairs The repairs completed, the | hauled back and now stood, painted sides in place, edged back of the menagerie tent. wagon was with both its up against the Toward this A a wagon Curly now led the young showman, Grst cautioning him to step lightly 7 serve silence. - * * . Ls ~ his ear against the boards and listened jn- tently. A mumble of voices reached him, but he could not distinguish’ the spoken words. Of one thing he was certain, how- ever, and that was that there were two speak- ers—a discovery which bore out the informa- tion given by Curly. Laying a hand on Rush’s arm, the groom pointed to the end of the wagon where a bar- rel had been placed. Catching the man’s idea, Rush climbed to the top of the barrel, the elevated position bringing his head close to the two screen-covered ventilators in the end of the van. He was thus enabled to hear dis- tinctly all that was said. “You think this is perfectly safe, eh?’ queried a husky voice which Phil recognized as belonging to the hobo to whom he had given a quarter a little while before. “Sure,” answered the voice of Reddy. “That idea of mine about taking off the side, getting in here and then lifting the side back again, was a bright one.” “But the cage door is closed, an’ it closed with a snap, too. It didn’t lock, did it?” “Bosh! Do ye think it’s a spook cage an’ can lock itself ?” “It allus gives me the creeps, Reddy, ter get behind a lay-out of bars. It don’t bring back no pleasant memories, you can bet on that Ys | “You've been in the jug so much, Bumpers, that you ought to feel at home behind a ¢ cS ~ grating,” eee tee sare “Quit yer joshin’—it’s too delicate a mat- +) . ter “Well, set yer mind at rest about bein’ locked in here, It ’u’d take a padlock an’ a pair o’ hands to do that, an’ neither one is forthcomin’.” - - be ‘0 — s ae _* fh. 6.4 oun ‘ - i Oe - ‘ * ae * <=" ay — — 3 ‘ <5 ho - Ys oe pes’ a) oa € a” NaN, i 4 and pre-_ -* “to a ® - _- 2 me f aw | a wl eg sie ~ _ Si J =a : ° vs ..- . os oe ‘4 B 2a ? ATS aL alle ar ~~ ve 7 ae 4 ’ Halting «t the side of the van, Rush laid @