successful. And at once he decided on a courageous proceeding.

"I'll bring all my weight suddenly on that left hand cable," he mused,
as he swung to and fro, from side to side of the big tent. "If it's
going to break it will do so then. And I'll be ready for it. I'll then
keep hold of the trapeze bar, which will be straight up and down instead
of crosswise, and swing by that. The other cable seems all right." This
was a fact which Joe ascertained by a quick inspection.

There was no time for further thought. As he swung, Joe suddenly shifted
his weight, bringing it all on the frayed and strangely rusted cable. As
he half expected, it gave way, and he dropped in an instant, but not
far.

The watching crowd gasped. It looked like an accident. And it was, in a
way, but Joe had purposely caused it. As the wire broke Joe held tightly
to the wooden bar, which was now upright in his hands instead of being
horizontal. And though it slipped through his fingers, perhaps for the
width of his palm, at last he gripped it in a firm hold and kept on with
his swing.

And then the applause broke forth, for the audience thought it all a
part of the trick--they thought that Joe had purposely caused the cable
to break to make the act more effective.

To and fro swung Joe, nearer and nearer to the second platform, and
then, reaching the height of the long arc, he turned his body and
stepped full and fair on the little square of velvet-covered boards.

With a lithe contortion, Joe squirmed to an upright position, recovering