The last two were dressed in Pierrot clown suits. One carried a tall ladder. Just before he reached the spot where Nancy and her friends were seated, he planted the ladder upright in the ground and held onto it. The other clown named Pietro, began to climb up. When he reached the top, the clown below suddenly let go and walked off.
“Oh!” everyone under the tent cried.
To their amazement, the clown on the ladder did not fall. He balanced himself skillfully, swaying back and forth above the green tanbark. As everyone realized that this was a trick of great cleverness, and not just a clownish act, they clapped loudly.
“It’s going to be even harder for him to climb down,” George observed tensely.
The audience watched breathlessly as the clown slowly lowered himself without falling. He turned in a complete circle to acknowledge the loud applause.
As he bowed low before Nancy’s group, a startled look came over his face. The clown walked forward and stared at Nancy’s bracelet.
“Where did you get this, miss?” Pietro asked in a low voice.
Before the startled girl could reply, a whistle sounded and the band began to play. The clown hurriedly said, “I must speak to you after the show. Please meet me beside King Kat’s cage.”
CHAPTER IV
An Amazing Aerialist
“Pietro!” Nancy called as the clown moved off. “Please tell me—”
But the performer did not turn around. I was not until he had completed a full circuit of the ring doing his amusing antics that he stopped to speak to her again.
“Where did you get the bracelet?” Pietro whispered as he completed a triple somersault.
Teddy Brown clapped so loudly he nearly drowned Nancy’s answer. “A New York shop. But it came from Europe.”
“Do you know where the missing horse charm is?” the clown asked.
“No.”
“I do.”
“Who has it?” Nancy questioned eagerly.
Pietro had no opportunity to answer, for at that moment a whistle summoned all the clowns from the ring. Several acts followed. Nancy found them intriguing but could not keep her mind entirely on the circus. Her thoughts reverted constantly to the clown’s words and his request that she meet him at the end of the show. Certainly there was some secret about her charm bracelet that was not pure legend!
Presently it was time for the main act. All the lights were dimmed, except the floodlights on the center ring. Kroon, dressed in striped trousers, Prince Albert coat, and wearing a high silk hat, walked to the microphone.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, “you are about to witness the world’s most daring, most stupendous aerial act! Lolita, our Cinderella, will meet her prince in mid-air and dance for him. But at the stroke of twelve, this brief romance will end. Ladies and gentlemen, do not take your eyes off this colossal spectacle!”
As the ringmaster retired, the spotlights picked up a small Cinderella carriage being drawn along the tanbark by two white wooden steeds. In it sat beautiful, fairylike Lolita, dressed in a white, silver-spangled robe.
The applause was thunderous as attendants attached the carriage to pulleys and Cinderella was slowly pulled up a slanting wire to the top of the tent. Daintily Lolita stood up, discarded her robe, and stepped out in white satin acrobatic tights to a tiny platform which was suspended from the ceiling.
At once, additional floodlights showed four young men aerialists, signaling for her attention. Smiling, Lolita waited as each one swung toward her, executing a simple dance act on the trapezes to one-step, tango, rhumba, and polka tunes. But as each man knelt on the platform and indicated that he wanted to marry Cinderella, Lolita shook her head and he swung away.
As she stood there, acting discouraged, suddenly a handsome prince in a gleaming silver costume appeared in the spotlight beside her. The two smiled, then kissed.
“Prince Charming!” announced Bess, gazing enthralled at the performance. But her friends scarcely heard her. Their eyes were fixed on the acrobatic drama far above them. To the strains of a waltz, Cinderella would dance a few steps alone on a trapeze, then swing toward her prince. After executing some steps together on the aerial swing, she would leave him and repeat the solo, each time in more difficult rhythms. At the end of the third solo, Lolita promised to marry him.