CONTENTS
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I—ON THE OWNER'S PRIVATE CARThe English Fat Girl gets mired on the lot. Teddy Tucker threatens to thrash the "Strongest Man on Earth." The hazards of a circus life. Teddy would put the whole show out of business. Phil and his chum assigned to Advance Car Number Three.
CHAPTER II—OFF FOR NEW FIELDS"Boss Sparling seems in an awful hurry to get rid of us."
Circus Boys meet a cold reception. Phil is made a
"barn climber." Teddy threatens to wring the car manager's neck.
"Soak him, Phil!" yells the boy on the pile of railroad ties.
Phil gets into action. "I've had enough!" groans the car manager. A telegram to the owner complains of the Circus Boys. "Either you get off this car or I do." The advance car is a bedlam. More trouble for the Circus Boys is in sight.
CHAPTER IV-INTRODUCED TO THE CREWCircus Boys meet "Rosie the Pig" and other notables. The porter tells how Phil worsted Mr. Snowden. What a "contract hotel" is. Teddy decides to take bean soup. "Why didn't the contracting agent sign us up with a livery stable?"
CHAPTER V—THE MIDNIGHT ALARMHow an advance car is operated. The "banner man" and his little magnetic hammer. "You're a bird on the trapeze." The boys exchange confidences on snoring. Circus Boys go to sleep on beds of paper. Aroused by a great uproar.
CHAPTER VI—ALMOST A TRAGEDY"He's fallen into the paste can headfirst!" Teddy Tucker has
a narrow escape from death. The manager gives Phil a ducking.
"Rain-in-the-Face" sees a great light. An irate car manager.
How Teddy took his revenge on Mr. Snowden.
"He pulled me out of bed!" Great excitement on Car Three. Snowden hopes Phil will fall off and break his neck. Young Forrest pastes a poster on himself. "Young man, you have a cast-iron nerve!" The Circus Boy "squares" a hard-shell farmer.
CHAPTER VIII—THE CIRCUS BOY WINSPhil gets a silo, and a hog pen for good measure. Farmers witness a circus stunt not down on the bills. A narrow escape. Taking a desperate chance. Phil "the champeen of them all." Circus sheets that stood out like a fire on the landscape.
CHAPTER IX—TEDDY GETS INTO TROUBLEBlue jeans replace pink tights. When it rained paste. "I didn't know you had your nose stuck in the paste pot when I turned on the steam." Teddy sets himself the task of reforming a "crazy man." The trouble maker is named "Spotted Horse." "You're discharged!"
CHAPTER X—A SURPRISE, INDEED!Billy Conley is up to tricks. Mr. Sparling takes a hand. The car manager gets his deserts. "You will hear great things of Phil Forrest one of these days." "I'm going to thrash a man within an inch of his life!" Phil hears an amazing thing.
CHAPTER XI—THREE CHEERS AND A TIGERPhil Forrest, Car Manager. Dazed by an unexpected promotion.
Teddy graduates from the paste pot. How circus money is spent.
The Circus Boys win new laurels. Teddy becomes a press agent.
Phil makes a speech and is welcomed as "The Boss."
"Bad habit to go to bed on an empty stomach." Teddy Tucker discovers a rival on a side track. "Here's trouble right from the start!" The new car manager gets into rapid-fire action. "We must beat the 'opposition.' Now, boys, it's up to you!" The mine is laid.
CHAPTER XIII—A BAFFLED CAR MANAGER"That fellow is playing a sharp trick." Phil breakfasts with his rival and extracts information from him. "You ain't half as big a fool as you look, are you?" Bob Tripp gets a great shock. Farmers guard Phil Forrest's posters with shot guns.
CHAPTER XIV—TEDDY WRITES A LETTERCircus Boys steal a second march on the "opposition."
Teddy Tucker whoops for joy. The new press agent begins work.
"Spotted Horse" has too many fingers for typing. A suggestion
for billposters. Circus Boys strike hard blows.
All surrounded in Kansas. Three "opposition" cars discovered in the same yard with Phil Forrest. A race for the country. Paste cans dance a jig. Rivals turned over into a ditch. A case of give and take.
CHAPTER XVI—A BATTLE OF WITSWhen money made a big noise. The canary car manager gets an
awful jolt. "Be on your way, my little man," urges Phil sweetly.
"Turn out every man in town! Run as if the Rhino of the Sparling
Circus were after you!"
The battle is on in earnest. Trouble is on the air.
"Paste them, fellows!" howls Teddy. "Look out! The police
are coming!" "I arrest you for disturbing the peace!"
Phil faces the officers of the law boldly and wins for his show.
Congratulations from the show's owner. Four rival advance cars go out on one train. Teddy sends the enemy's cars adrift. Sleeping a sleep of innocence. Phil is puzzled over the mystery of the missing cars. Teddy's expression arouses the suspicion of his chum.
CHAPTER XIX—PHIL'S DARING PLANTeddy Tucker admits his guilt. Forrest reads "Spotted Horse" a severe lecture. "Is the sermon over?" A lesson that bore fruit for a day or so. Pat "smells a rat." "She's moving! We're off!" The Circus Boys adrift on a runaway car.
CHAPTER XX—ON A WILDCAT RUNA dizzy ride through the storm. "Don't bother me, I'm making the next town!" A thrilling moment. Phil faces death with a smile on his face. "Hold fast, we're going to sideswipe them!" The agent at Salina gets a surprise.
CHAPTER XXI—IN A PERILOUS POSITIONTeddy throws out his chest and seeks publicity. "Spotted Horse" has a daring plan. The Circus Boy a hundred feet in the air. Teddy takes a desperate chance to earn Phil Forrest's fifty. Overtaken by disaster as the Sparling banner floats to the breeze.
CHAPTER XXII—A DASH FOR LIBERTY"Help! I'm hung up!" Teddy is suspended, head downward, between earth and sky. Phil hurries to the rescue. "I'm all tied up in a knot!" wails the unhappy Tucker. Teddy takes a long drop, landing on Billy's neck, and bowls over a policeman.
CHAPTER XXIII—THE DESERTED VILLAGEA new trouble-plan in the making. Teddy is so happy that he can't go to bed. The "opposition" is lost again. Phil makes his chum tell how he tricked the rival car managers. How Phil Forrest proved that he was a real manager.
CHAPTER XXIV—CONCLUSIONThe manager of "The Greatest Show on Earth" wants Phil. Setting out to "drive the other fellows off the map." "No more meals at the Sign of the Tin Spoon." Circus Boys have a happy windup to an exciting show season.