"What's the matter?" asked Joe quickly, as he detected an under note of
anxiety in the girl's voice. "Is your star horse, Rosebud, lame or off
his feed?"

"Oh, no," she answered. "It's just--Oh, here comes Mother Watson, and I
promised to help her mend a skirt," said Helen quickly, as she turned to
greet the veteran clown's wife. "See you later, Joe!" she called to him
over her shoulder as she started away.

The young magician moved away toward his own private quarters.

"I wonder what's the matter with Helen," he said. "She doesn't act
naturally. If that Bill Carfax has been around again, annoying her, I'll
put him out of business for all time. But if he had been around I'd have
heard of it. I don't believe it can be that."

Nor was it. Helen's anxiety had to do with something other than Bill
Carfax, the unprincipled circus man who had so annoyed her before Joe
discharged him. And, as Joe had said, the man had not been seen publicly
since the fiasco of his attempt to expose Joe's mystery box trick.

"Well, I suppose she won't tell me what it is until she gets good and
ready," mused Joe. "Now I'll go in and have a little practice at the big
swing before the parade."

Joe did not take part in the street pageant, though Helen did, riding
her beautiful horse to the admiration, not only of the small boys and
their sisters, but the grown-up throng in the highways as well. Helen
made a striking picture on her spirited, but gentle, steed.