The Circus Boys on the Plains Part 44

"Billy!"

"Well?"

"If you back down now, do you know what I'll do?"

"What will you do?"

"I'll give you the worst walloping you ever had in your life."

"You can't do it."

Teddy whipped off his coat.

"Come on; I'll show you."

Conley burst out laughing.

"The Boss says you are a hopeless case. I agree with him.

Come on. I'll help you to break your neck."

They started off together. When they reached the pole, the pair dodged into a convenient doorway where they waited to make sure that they were not observed.

"I guess it is all right," said Teddy.

"How you going to get up there?"

"I brought a pair of climbers that I found in the car yesterday-- the kind those telephone linemen use to climb telephone poles with. Won't I go up, I guess _yes!_"

Teddy first strapped the banners over his shoulders, in such a way that they would not impede his progress; then he put on the climbers, Billy watching disapprovingly.

All was ready. With a final glance up and down the street Teddy strode from his hiding place.

He walked up the pole as if he were used to it. In a few minutes the watcher below could barely make him out in the faint moonlight.

"Look out, when you get up higher. The pole may be rotten,"

called Billy softly.

"All right. I'm up to the splice."

Here Teddy paused to rest, being now about halfway up the pole.

Before going higher the Circus Boy prudently wrapped the small rope that he carried twice around the pole, forming a slip-noose.

He made the free end fast around his body in case he should lose his footing.

This done, Teddy felt secure from a fall.

He worked his way slowly upward, creeping higher and higher, inch by inch, cautious but not in the least afraid, for Teddy was used to being high in the air.

Now and then he would pause to call down to the anxious Billy.

"Stand under to be ready to catch me if I fall," directed Tucker.

"Not much. You hit ground if you fall," jeered Conley.

Teddy's laugh floated down to him, carefree and happy.

The Circus Boy was in his element.

Finally he managed to reach the top, or nearly to the top of the pole without mishap. The slender top of the flag pole swayed back and forth, like the mast of a s.h.i.+p in a rolling sea. It seemed to Teddy as if each roll would be his last.

He felt a slight dizziness, but it pa.s.sed off quickly. In fact, he was too busy to give much heed to it. With nimble fingers he unpacked his roll of banners; and, in a few minutes, he was securing the long streamer to the pole, which he did by lacing it to the pole with leather thongs, through eyelets that he had sewed in the cloth.

In a few minutes the great banner fluttered to the breeze.

"Hurrah!" cried Teddy exultingly. "We're off!"

As he called out Teddy suddenly felt his footing give way beneath him. He had thrown too much weight on the climbers, and they had lost their grip.

CHAPTER XXII

A DASH FOR LIBERTY

"Help!"

"What is it?" cried Billy in alarm. "I'm hung up--hung down, I mean!"

"What--what's the matter, are you in trouble?"

"Yes, I'm hanging head down. I'm fast by the feet.

Help me down!"

"Help you down? I can't help you. You will have to get out the best way you can. Can't you crawl up and free your feet?"

"No; go get Phil."

"Can you hold on?"

"I--I'll try. Go get Phil."

Conley dashed away as fast as he could run.

"I knew it, I knew it," he repeated at almost every bound.

Teddy's climbers had lost their grip in the rotting wood.

Before he could recover himself he had tumbled backward.

Fortunately the rope had clung to the pole; he was held fast but Teddy was hanging with his back against the pole, being powerless to help himself in the slightest degree. Again, he was afraid that, were he to stir about, the rope, which had slipped down and drawn tight about his ankles, might suddenly slide down the pole and dash him to his death.

Not many minutes had elapsed before Phil and Conley came running back. Phil, at the suggestion of the a.s.sistant manager, had brought a pair of climbers with him, Billy explaining, as they ran, the fix that the Circus Boy was in.