Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1912-10-10
The Rose
In the Ring
By GEORGE BARR M'CUTCHEON
Copyright 1910 by Dodd, Mead @ Co.
By GEORGE BARR M'CUTCHEON
Copyright 1910 by Dodd. Mead @ Co.

Silence fell upon them once more.
They swung forward into the lower
road, their sullen eyes set on the lights
ahead. Heavy feet, dragging like hun
dredweights, carried them over the
last weary mile. Into the outskirts of
the little town they skunk. The streets
were deserted, muddy and lighted but
meagerly from widely separated oil
lamps set at the tops of as many UNI
stable posts. The rolllcking nuiclstep
OF circus band came dancing over
the night To meet the footsore men.
Slowly they approached the vacant
lots beyond the business section.
known as the show grounds New
they began TO encounter struggling,
envious atoms of the populace. wan
derers who could not produce the adj
mission fee and who were not permit
ted by the rough canvasmen to Ven
ture inside the charmed circle lail
down by the guy ropes. At the cor
ner Of the tented common stood the
ticket wagon, the muddy plaza in
front of 1t torn by the footprints of
many bnm0n beings and lighted ny q
great gasoline lamp swung from q pole
hard by. Beyond was the main en-
trance Of The animal tent presided
over by uniformed ticket takers.
Here and There in The gloomy back
ground stood the canvas and pole wag-
ons, shining in their wetnass against
the feeble lisht that oozed through
the opening between tie side wall and
the edge OF the G8pnine main top, or
Glisfening with sudden brightness in
! response to he passing lantern or torch
in the hand of rubber coated minion
Who belonged to the circus. vast
honor no matter how lowly his posi-
| ton may have been. Costume and
baggage wagons. their white and gold
| glory swallowed up in the NAV of the
night. stood backed up against the
| dressing tent off to the right. The
f, horse tent beyond was even now being
! lowered by shadowy, mystic figures
who swore and shouted to each other
across spaces wide and spaces small
| without regulating the voice to either
effort. Horses With their clanking trace
| chains, in twos and tours, slipped in
and out of the shadows, drawing great
vehicles which rumbled and Jared
with the noise peculiar to circus wag-
ons. Tired, underfed horses that paid
| little heed to the curses or the blows
| of the men who handled them, so ac-
customed were they to the proddings of
life.
i And inside the big tent the band
| played as only a circus band can play,
J jangling an accompaniment to the
\ laughter and the shouts of the de-
lighted multitude sitting in the blue
with it's earthern circumference. it's
sawdust carpet and its dripping lights.
The smell OF the thing. Who has
ever forgotten it? The smell of the
sawdust. the smell of the cleaning
lights, the smell of animals and the
smell of the canvas top! The smell of
the damp handbills. the programs and
the bags of roasted peanuts.
Blake and his companion, standing
apart from the lank. wide eyed guide.
We're conversing in low tones.
WED better make the circuit of the
tents said Blake. evidently the leader.
You 60 TO the right and I'll take the
other way round We'll meet here.
Keep your eye peeled. He may be
hiding under the wagons where it's dry
Then he turned to the guide.
I'VE won't need you any longer" he
said. '"This is as far as we go Here's
your pay
"Yas, r. said the smi!eless guide
A brief good night" to his employers
and the lean mountaineer purchased {:
ticket and hurried into the tent. We
do not see him again. He has served
his purpose.
His late employers made off on theil
circuit of the tents, sharp eyed bu
casual, doing nothing that might leat
the circus men to suspect that they
We're searching for one among them
In the good old days of the road circu:
there were thieves as well as giants
if a man was not thief himself he a
least had a friend who was. Their,
was honor among them.
A scant hour before the three mel
came to the show grounds their quar-
ry arrived there. That Blake ant
his companion We're man hunters goe
without saving. but that the person 70
whom they searched should be hun
CRY. wan faced. terrified boy of eigh
: ieen seems hardly in keeping with tn
relentless nature of the chase.
The ring performance in the mai
tent had been in progress for fifteel
Or twenty minutes when the fugitive
exhausted drenclIcd nild shiverine
/ crept into the protected nook whic
! marks the junction of the circus an
dressing tops. Here it was compar
t lively dry: The wind did not send ii
| hin mist into this canvas Granny. Ne
, SO dark os he may have desired, IL on
We're to Judge by the expression in hi
!. fererish eyes as he peered back at th
darkness nut of which he had sunl
/ bur 81 eranped In shadow thar onl
the eye of n ferret could have dsstir