there youse!" he yelled to some venturesome lads. "Want to git mushed
up?"

The blaze was a big one, considerable damage was done, and several
persons were injured. But quick work by an efficient department
prevented the flames from spreading to the buildings on either side of
the one where it had started.

Joe and Helen stayed long enough to see the menace gotten under control,
and then they departed just as the ambulance rolled away with the last
of the victims.

"That's the fire-eater they're taking to the hospital now," said the
policeman who had first spoken to the young circus performers. "They
took him into a drug store to wrap him in oil and cotton batting."

"Will he live?" asked Helen.

"Just a chance," was the answer. "Say, if I had to get my living eating
fire I'd starve," confided the policeman. "It must be some stunt! I
always thought it was a fake, but this fire burned real enough."

"Oh, it isn't all fake," said Joe, "though of course there's a trick
about it."

"You seem to know," said the policeman, and he smiled at Joe and Helen.
His chief troubles were about over with the departure of the ambulance
and the knowledge that filtered through the crowd that the most of the
excitement was over.