“They’re driving in stakes, Brandon,” he exclaimed. “See—there’s a wagon—a four-horser, and lots of others back. We’re just in time to watch ’em put up the tent.”
Over on the lot an odor of rank weeds and grasses filled the air. It was all very black and forbidding, unpleasantly suggestive of treacherous4 pitfalls5 or deep, stagnant6 pools of water, save where the rays of flaring7 light streamed through the gloom.
Heavy wagons8 drawn9 by four horses rumbled11 their way across the bumpy12, uneven13 field, occasionally becoming stuck in the yielding[46] turf, whereupon the yells of drivers and cracking of whips came sharply to their ears.
“Working like the dickens, aren’t they?” remarked Victor. “Let’s skip around a bit.”
The two, steering14 a course around various obstructions15, made their way toward the busy scene. Soon they caught a glimpse of a faint grayish mass of canvas spread out over the ground, while towering aloft like the masts of a ship were a number of poles.
“That’s the big top, or main tent,” said Dave.
“Heads up there—look out!”
Above the sound of the jolting16 and creaking of a big red wagon and crisp jingle17 of harness came the deep-throated warning. The leaders of a four-horse team swerved18 sharply around.
“Over here, you for the flying squadron,” some one hailed from the distance.
“Flying squadron! What in thunder is that?” cried Victor, wonderingly.
“The commissary department,” answered Dave. “In all well-regulated shows that is attended to first. Guess this wagon is full of stuff they’ll need in a hurry for the mess tent.”
[47]A straggling procession, mainly of boys, soon began to arrive; the lonely, dismal19 lot was fast becoming transformed into a scene of great bustle20 and activity. More torches were flaring, and the echoing thuds of the sledges21 increased in force and number. A bright glare from a calcium22 light soon streamed over the field.
A force of workers with pick and shovel23 were leveling the ground, while still others spread thick layers of straw over tracts24 where recent rains had formed puddles25 of considerable size.
Presently a murmuring chorus from the crowds of excited children burst into a loud hubbub26 of joyous27 shouts.
Some distance ahead, amid the wagons, a huge form was looming29 up, now dim and scarcely seen in the gloom, then brought sharply into relief by the flaring lights.
“Hurray, here’s the elephant, as I live,” shouted Victor. “Gee, Brandon—what was that? Didn’t you hear something?”
The boys were threading a dark, gloomy[48] passage between two great wagons, now horseless, their tarpaulin-covered tops seeming to tower to a great height above them. A strange sound, suggestive of a deep sigh, had cut into Victor’s sentence, and when it came a second time the two looked about them with interest.
They saw several bales of hay, showing dimly against the field, another deserted30 wagon, and an indistinct figure.
“Hello!” exclaimed Victor.
As he spoke31 the form began to rise, and, to their utter astonishment32, continued to rise until it stood high above the bales, and so high that both uttered an exclamation33.
“Great Scott!” breathed Victor. “Why—why——”
“Say, who are you?”
A shrill34 childish treble came from the towering figure, which immediately began to move around the barricade35 of bales toward them. The boys watched him with breathless interest.
“Say, who are you?”
They craned their necks to look up at the face that gazed into theirs, but the obscurity was so great that neither could determine the[49] age, the character, or the appearance of the singularly tall being whose voice resembled that of a fourteen-year-old boy.
“I say—what’s the matter? Who are you, anyway?”
“If we could find a step-ladder,” began Victor, struggling unsuccessfully to repress his mirth, “it——”
Victor lighted a match, and, shielding the fluttering flame in the hollow of his hand, deliberately39 directed the rays into the face of the giant. They saw a small, well-shaped and extremely boyish head crowned with dark brown hair.
“Well, now, I hope you are satisfied.” The shrill treble held a note of resignation.
“Goodness gracious! How old are you?” demanded Victor.
“Fifteen. And I’m the most miserable chap in the——”
“Why—what’s the matter?” inquired Dave.
[50]“You’d better ask me what isn’t the matter,” answered the young giant, with a long, deep sigh. “Come on—sit down. I do so want to talk to somebody before Peter Whiffin gets here.”
“Peter Whiffin! Who’s he?”
“General manager of Ollie Spudger’s Great Combined Peerless Circus and Menagerie. He doesn’t allow me to talk to people. You see”—the giant, leading the way, paused until he had settled himself on a bale of hay, where, after a great deal of difficulty, he managed to dispose of his long legs in a comfortable fashion—“well, it’s this way,” he went on, dolefully: “Peter Whiffin doesn’t believe in giving anything for nothing. I belong to the show—see? People must pay to look at the giant; so I’m smuggled40 around in the dark. It’s awful. Mustn’t talk to strangers; mustn’t do this, or that. An’ when anybody does see me outside the tents I’m followed an’ stared at, an’ made fun of. Oh, but I’m so sick of it! An’, do you know——”
“Well?” questioned Dave.
[51]“I’m still growing.”
“Goodness gracious!”
“Yes; it’s a fact—an’ most seven feet now.” The giant seemed almost on the verge42 of blubbering. Then, with an effort, he controlled his voice. “But say, who are you?”
“One member of the Rambler Club, and one near-member,” grinned Victor.
“There it goes again—always the same; every one has to guy me. Oh, I’m the most miserable chap in the whole——”
“Avast there, my hearty43!” laughed Dave. “I’ll explain.” And he did, while the giant listened with rapt attention.
“Oh, if I could only do something like that, too,” he murmured, when Dave had concluded. “What a dandy lot of fun you fellows are going to have. But it’s no use!”
“Hey, Georgy—oh, Georgy! Where in thunder are you?”
“There’s Peter Whiffin.” The giant raised his voice. “Over here, Mr. Whiffin.”
The circus manager, scarcely seen in the gloom, and coming from the direction of the lights, increased his pace, scrambling44 around obstructions, and giving vent45 to his displeasure[52] at the weeds and inequality of the ground by emphatic46 exclamations47.
“Well, what’s all this?”
Peter Whiffin had a querulous voice and a manner which went singularly well with it. He was a small man, and Victor’s method of throwing light on the subject by means of a match immediately disclosed sharp features, a pair of shifting gray eyes, a face lined with hollows and wrinkles, and a yellow moustache which drooped48 despondently49 at the corners.
“Well, blow me—if you ain’t ’bout the coolest I ever see!” exclaimed Peter Whiffin, when the fluttering flame had vanished. “You’ve got your nerve with you, hey?”
“Always carry plenty of it in stock,” said Victor, calmly.
“I have to talk to some one, Mr. Whiffin; I’m so miserable.”
“Well, well! Says he is miserable! Did you ever hear the like o’ it!” The manager’s tones bespoke51 the deepest disgust. “Why, ain’t he makin’ more money in a week than most people in a month? Well, well!”
[53]Mr. Peter Whiffin’s emotions seemed to rise to such a point as to almost choke his utterances52. He strode to and fro for a moment, then exclaimed:
“I’ve a good mind to fetch you one right in the ribs53. It’s ingratitood—it’s worse. An’ his pap a-gittin’ paid every week as reg’lar as the clock ticks! I’ll plunk you for that, I will.”
“Well, then, don’t git off no more sich nonsense. Miserable, indeed! That ’ud be somethink for your pap to hear ’bout, eh? Ain’t there no thanks in that nature o’ yourn?”
“What have I to be thankful for, Mr. Whiffin? If I was only like these boys here I’d give anything in the world.”
Peter Whiffin snorted with indignation. He did more. Seizing the giant roughly by the arm, he commanded him to move, and move fast, under penalty of receiving an assorted55 number of hooks, straight lefts, and right uppercuts, and accompanied his remarks with an exhibition of these same blows, all[54] coming perilously56 near the person of the complaining giant.
“If this here chatter57 ain’t a bit more’n the limit,” he growled58. “An’ me not knowin’ what I’m a-goin’ to do for a barker to-morrow!”
“He’s went an’ took sich a cold that his voice sounds like a frog croakin’; that’s what’s the matter. If I ain’t in a mess for a spieler my name ain’t Whiffin. I can’t do it meself; an’ there ain’t nobody worth shucks in the hull60 shootin’ match.”
The voice of the unhappy manager gradually grew faint in the distance, then, presently, became lost altogether amidst the medley61 of noises that arose on all sides.
“Say, Brandon, think of that poor little giant standing62 for all of Peter Whiffin’s fresh talk,” said Victor, disgustedly. “Why, if he’d just start falling——”
[55]The two walked out beyond the grim shadows of the wagons, directing their course toward the light and activity beyond. Already the canvas of the “big top” was looming high in the air, a dim, shapeless patch of ghostly white. The rumble10 of vehicles had given place to the clink and rattle64 of harness, as teams were unhitched and driven across the lots.
A crowd of shouting children surrounded three elephants, while others flocked around closed cages, uttering comments which revealed their curiosity regarding the strange and savage66 inmates67. Boys carrying buckets of water passed and repassed, straining their little arms to an alarming extent, but feeling sure that they were having the time of their lives.
Dave and his companion soon found themselves in the thick of the fray68 watching a pair of sturdy horses hitched65 to the end of a long rope which led to a block and tackle.
Crack! The driver’s whip echoed sharply. Away they went. The center of the big top was drawn slowly up to its highest point on the middle pole, and, within a short time, the[56] limp canvas began to straighten and assume the form of a circus tent.
“Jolly well done, that,” commented Dave. “Spudger’s Great Combined Peerless Circus and Menagerie looks like a winner to me. And the mess tent is all up, too.”
They moved off toward it, each occasionally halted by piles of rubbish. Twice Victor put his foot into an unseen hole, then cracked his shin against a piece of board.
“Makes a pleasant variety, doesn’t it?” said Dave, as he heard his companion’s howl of disapproval69.
“Pleasant?” snapped Victor. “It’s a wonder something hasn’t risen up off the ground and broken my legs. Are we about to fall into the town ash-pit, or what?”
“We may escape such a fate as that.”
Victor laughed.
“Well, Brandon,” he said, “if it hadn’t been for your encouragement to the paper industry my ankle wouldn’t be aching like the dickens.”
“Or we shouldn’t have seen the circus, either,” returned Dave, “which shows that some good has come from my poems, after all.”
[57]At the mess tent they found preparations for feeding the workers going on briskly. But their attention became speedily attracted toward several tents in which the horses were being stabled.
“Makes me think of Wyoming and old broncho days,” went on Dave, softly. “Guess I won’t do any more riding, though, for a mighty long time.”
“Oh, fade away with such boasting,” said Victor. “Nothing could make me believe that you ever rode a broncho.”
“Why, I——”
Dave didn’t get far with his protest.
It was not until half an hour later that the two turned away from the noise and chaotic72 confusion in which Spudger’s Great Combined Peerless Circus and Menagerie was still involved.
“I shouldn’t mind seeing the show,” remarked Victor, “but at ten o’clock sharp to-morrow morning Uncle Ralph’s yacht pulls out.”
“And our motor car will leave about two[58] p. m.,” said Dave. “So, unless something happens mighty soon, the adventures of the Rambler Club in this part of the country will add only a few dozen pages to my history.”
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1
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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5
pitfalls
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| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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flaring
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| a.火焰摇曳的，过份艳丽的 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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9
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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10
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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11
rumbled
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| 发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋） | |
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12
bumpy
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| adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的 | |
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13
uneven
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| adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的 | |
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14
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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15
obstructions
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| n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 )；阻碍物；阻碍；阻挠 | |
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16
jolting
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| adj.令人震惊的 | |
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jingle
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| n.叮当声，韵律简单的诗句；v.使叮当作响，叮当响，押韵 | |
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18
swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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bustle
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| v.喧扰地忙乱，匆忙，奔忙；n.忙碌；喧闹 | |
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21
sledges
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| n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载 | |
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22
calcium
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| n.钙(化学符号Ca) | |
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23
shovel
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| n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出 | |
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24
tracts
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| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
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25
puddles
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| n.水坑， （尤指道路上的）雨水坑( puddle的名词复数 ) | |
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26
hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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27
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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28
commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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29
looming
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| n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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30
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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31
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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32
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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33
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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34
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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barricade
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| n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住 | |
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36
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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37
petulant
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| adj.性急的，暴躁的 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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40
smuggled
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| 水货 | |
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41
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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42
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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43
hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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44
scrambling
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| v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞 | |
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45
vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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46
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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47
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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48
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
despondently
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| adv.沮丧地，意志消沉地 | |
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50
gab
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| v.空谈，唠叨，瞎扯；n.饶舌，多嘴，爱说话 | |
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51
bespoke
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| adj.（产品）订做的；专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求 | |
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52
utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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53
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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54
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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55
assorted
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| adj.各种各样的，各色俱备的 | |
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56
perilously
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| adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地 | |
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57
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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58
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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59
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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60
hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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61
medley
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| n.混合 | |
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62
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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63
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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64
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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65
hitched
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| （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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66
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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67
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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68
fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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69
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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71
abide
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| vi.遵守；坚持；vt.忍受 | |
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72
chaotic
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| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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