FOR just a minute the Brownies failed to realize how serious it was for Miss Gordon to lose her billfold.

“Step aside, please,” requested the ticket seller to the Brownie leader. “You are holding up the line.”

“I’ve lost my billfold,” murmured Miss Gordon. “I’m afraid I’ve been robbed.”

“Well, go tell a policeman,” said the ticket seller, not very much concerned. “I can do nothing for you.”

Miss Gordon stepped out of line so that other persons could buy their tickets.

“Oh, what will we do now?” asked Connie anxiously. “Won’t we get to see the circus? And is our camping money gone too?”

Miss Gordon did not reply. Instead, she kept searching through her pockets, hoping to find the missing billfold. But it was not there. “I distinctly recall placing the billfold in my inside suit pocket,” she said. “I don’t see how it could have fallen out.”

Hoping to find the lost money, the Brownies searched the sawdust near the sideshow tents and even walked back to the circus entranceway.

“It’s gone,” Miss Gordon acknowledged. “Probably taken by a pickpocket. Now that I think of it, a stranger brushed against me only a moment or two ago.”

“While we were standing near the fat lady’s tent!” recalled Veve. “When you looked at him, he said ‘sorry’ and hurried away.”

Miss Gordon turned to gaze quickly through the crowd. The stranger no longer was to be seen.

“I remember him too,” declared Jane. “He had a mole on his cheek.”

“And he wore a brown suit,” added Connie.

“I don’t suppose we’ll ever see him again,” sighed Miss Gordon. “It makes me fairly ill.”

“Is all our camping money gone?” Eileen asked plaintively.

“Every penny. Besides, the billfold contained five dollars of my own and our circus tickets.”

As the full significance of the bad news dawned upon the Brownies, they were stunned. For a moment, they could say nothing.

“Let’s tell a policeman,” Veve proposed at last. “He’ll catch that old pickpocket.”

“I fear we’ll never see the billfold again,” responded Miss Gordon. “Or the pickpocket.”

“Now we’ll miss the circus and not get to go to camp,” Jane said, fighting to keep back the tears. “After all the work we did!”

“I’ll make up the camp money,” Miss Gordon offered quietly.

“Oh, that wouldn’t be fair,” Connie protested.

The Brownie leader insisted that she alone had been to blame for the loss. “If I had any money with me, I’d buy circus tickets,” she added. “As it is, I don’t see how we can attend the afternoon show.”

All the Brownies except Veve had brought a little spending money, but not enough to pay for a circus ticket.

At the entrance to the big circus tent a barker now began to call in a loud voice:

“Right this way, folks! The show starts in five minutes!”

Inside the big top, a band had struck up. Hearing the lively music, the crowd deserted the side shows. Soon Miss Gordon and the Brownies were among the few who remained outside the main circus tent.

“I have an idea,” declared the troop leader, for she saw that some of the girls were on the verge of tears. “I’ll ask the ticket seller if he will take a personal check.”

The Brownies considered her proposal a fine one indeed. Quite cheerfully they “tagged” along as the teacher hastened to the ticket booth.

“Eight?” the man asked, tearing off the pink tickets from a large roll.

“Yes,” replied Miss Gordon, “if you will accept a check.”

The ticketman looked hard at the Brownie troop leader. Having come on duty only a few minutes earlier, he never before had seen her.

“Sorry, we can’t take checks, Miss.”

Miss Gordon attempted to explain that the Brownies had earned free passes and money by selling circus tickets, only to have everything stolen.

The ticket seller did not act impressed by the story.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated. “We can’t take a personal check.”

“I don’t mind missing the circus myself,” said Miss Gordon, “but my Brownies have planned on it for a week—”

“Please let us in,” pleaded Veve, standing on tiptoe to gaze up at the ticket seller.

“I sure hate to disappoint a kiddie,” he said. “Especially seven of ’em. Tell you what I’ll do, Miss. You leave your wrist watch here as security, and I’ll let you have the tickets.”

“But I have no watch either!” gasped Miss Gordon, gazing down at her left wrist. “That pickpocket must have taken it too.”

The Brownies were dismayed to learn that their leader’s watch also had been stolen. They knew Miss Gordon needed it every day in her work as teacher of the fourth grade. Her salary was not so large that she could afford to buy a new wrist watch and make up the Brownie camp money.

Upon hearing that Miss Gordon did not have a watch, the ticket seller appeared to lose patience.

“I’m afraid you’re out of luck, Miss,” he said. “A rule is a rule. We can’t take your check.”

Miss Gordon and the Brownies were compelled to move away from the ticket booth. From inside the big tent the band had struck up another tune. “The show’s starting,” said Veve. “And we won’t see any of it.” A tear splashed down her cheek.

“I’m as sorry as I can be,” said Miss Gordon. “I might return home for more money, but the circus would be nearly over before I could get back.”

“It doesn’t matter,” declared Connie bravely. “Brownies have to learn to take disappointments.”

“You’re all being splendid about it,” said Miss Gordon. “But this is a bitter disappointment, I know. For all of us.”

Now the Brownies were so engrossed in their troubles that they had failed to observe a circus man walking toward them. Seeing Connie, he exclaimed in a hearty voice:

“Well, well, if here isn’t my little friend! Going the wrong direction, aren’t you? The big tent is the other way.”

Connie and the other Brownies turned quickly. The man who had addressed them in such a friendly way was Mr. Carsdale.

“Oh, hello, Mr. Animal Trainer,” Connie greeted him.

“You’ll be late for the circus unless you hustle into the big top,” warned the man. “The show’s starting now.” “We can’t see it,” said Connie, and she explained how Miss Gordon’s billfold had been taken by the pickpocket.

“My wrist watch also,” added the Brownie leader.

Mr. Carsdale gazed from one girl to another as he heard the story. Without being told, he knew the Brownies were bitterly disappointed and trying to hide it.

“This will never do,” he said. “You really want to see the circus?”

“Oh, yes!” agreed the Brownies, scarcely daring to hope.

“Maybe we could carry water for the elephants—after the show,” said Veve quickly. She had heard that children sometimes did that in order to see the circus free.

“Follow me,” directed Mr. Carsdale. “I know an easier way.”

Walking over to the ticket booth, he talked with the man in charge.

“Bill,” he said, “these girls are all my friends. They’re okay, so pass them right in.”

“Sure, if you say to do it,” the other man agreed.

From a cigar box he removed eight special tickets which bore the printed words: “Complimentary.” These he gave to Miss Gordon.

“Can’t I pay you for them later?” Miss Gordon asked the animal trainer. “I could bring the money tonight.”

“Forget it,” answered Mr. Carsdale. “I have a financial interest in this circus, so what I say goes. Too bad about your billfold. Did you lose very much?”

“Nearly twenty-five dollars. Except for a five dollar bill, it was money the Brownies had earned for a camping trip. My wrist watch was a special keepsake.”

“Marked in any particular way?”

“My initials ‘J.G.’ were engraved on the back of the gold case.”

“We’ve had plenty of trouble with pickpockets lately,” revealed Mr. Carsdale. “You didn’t notice the fellow, I suppose.”

“Several of the Brownies did.”

“Think you might recognize the man if you saw him again?” the animal trainer asked the girls.

“I would,” declared Connie and Jane in unison. Veve nodded her head also.

“In that case, it might be worth while for you to talk to our detective after the circus is over,” suggested Mr. Carsdale. “Pickpockets tend to follow a show from town to town. We might run into this fellow later on.”

“For whom shall I ask?” inquired Miss Gordon.

“Clem Gregg. Wait at the exit after the show and I’ll bring him around.”

Miss Gordon thanked the circus man and promised to report the theft to the detective.

“I’ll have to hurry now,” said Mr. Carsdale, turning away. “My act soon will be on.”

Miss Gordon and the Brownies did not wish to be late either. Hastily, they walked to the entrance gate of the big tent.

All along the passageway were wild animals in cages. However, the Brownies did not take time to look at them. As it was, they barely reached their seats high in the stand before a shrill whistle announced the start of the circus.

Connie and the Brownies drew happy sighs as they peered down at the three sawdust rings. After all their worry and trouble, they hadn’t missed a thing.