"How about the unsold tickets these agents send back to us? Isn't there
a chance on the way up for some one to slip out some of the pasteboards,
Mr. Moyne?"

"There is a chance, yes, but it hasn't been done. I have checked up the
accounts of the stores, and there is the cash or the unsold tickets to
balance every time. But somehow, and from some place, an extra number of
the ordinary admission tickets are being sold, and we are not getting
the money for them."

"It is queer," said Joe. "I have an idea that I want to try out the
first chance I get. Save me a bunch of these ordinary admission tickets.
Take them from the boxes at random and let me have them."

"I will," promised the treasurer. "There is nothing we can do to-night
to stop the fraud, is there?" he asked. Mr. Moyne was a very
conscientious treasurer. It disturbed him greatly to see the circus lose
money.

"I don't see what we can do," said Joe. "If we start an inquiry it may
cause a fight. Let it go. We'll have to charge it to profit and loss.
And don't forget to let me have some of those tickets. I want to examine
them."

Mr. Moyne promised to attend to the matter. Joe then had to go on in his
Box of Mystery trick, and when this was finished, amid much applause, he
caused Helen to "vanish" in the manner already described.

The circus made considerable money in this town, even with the bogus
admissions, and as the weather was fine and as the show would exhibit