AS the circus procession swept into the main tent, the Brownies caught their breath. Never before had they seen anything so elegant!

At the head of the parade rode a lady on a milk-white horse. Wearing a white silk gown and a hat with a long plume, she carried an American flag.

Behind came many of the performers dressed in sparkling costumes.

Six elephants followed in single file. A man who rode the lead animal used a long rod to guide his mount.

Next came the horses, ridden by circus performers.

Suddenly Veve pinched Rosemary’s arm and cried: “Look!”

A large white steed with a red brocaded saddlecloth had entered the arena. Eva Leitsall rode gracefully on the animal’s broad back. The little girl wore tights and looked like a princess, so proudly did she carry herself.

“Oh, Rosemary, don’t you wish you could ride like that?” sighed Veve.

At that moment Eva gazed into the stands, directly at the Brownies. She noticed the Brownies, because with exception of Veve, they all wore their brown checked uniforms.

Eva had not forgotten the girls, for she smiled and waved her hand.

Following the bareback riders came the Queen, riding in a beautiful golden coach drawn by four white horses with purple plumes. At the very tail of the parade were the clowns, who rode in an old flivver that made crazy noises.

Suddenly the old car exploded with a loud bang. As it fell apart, the clowns ran in every direction, pretending to be frightened.

The arena cleared and then skilled performers came into the rings. So many interesting things went on at one time that the Brownies could not watch half of them.

Thrilling indeed were the trapeze performers. Even better, the Brownies liked the butterfly act. Girls with large colored wings on their backs were raised high into the air and whirled around.

The Brownies clapped hard when Mr. Carsdale did his animal act. With ease he made his tigers roll a large red ball and jump through a paper hoop. One of the large cats kept snarling and trying to strike the whip with its paw.

“Mr. Carsdale must be the bravest man in the circus,” declared Veve.

Soon the riding acts came on. Eagerly the Brownies watched for a glimpse of Eva Leitsall.

“There she is!” cried Veve, standing up in the bleacher seat. Rosemary had to pull her down so that other spectators could see.

Eva Leitsall turned a somersault from one horse to another. At the very end of the act, she made her steed jump through a paper hoop.

“Such beautiful riding,” sighed Connie. “It must be wonderful to travel with a circus.”

“And never have to do any school work,” added Belinda. Examinations were due the next week and already she was dreading them.

Soon a man came through the audience selling pop and lemonade, peanuts and popcorn. Just to watch him made the Brownie Scouts very hungry and thirsty.

“Here you are, folks,” called the white-coated salesman. “Get your hot roasted peanuts! Twenty cents a bag. Peanuts! Popcorn! Cracker Jack!”

The man passed so close the Brownies could smell the good things he carried.

“I’ll have a box of Cracker Jack,” announced Jane, who had brought a quarter spending money. “I should get a prize.”

All the girls except Veve and Connie bought something. Veve had no money, while Connie felt it would be impolite to make a purchase when Miss Gordon and her little friend were without funds.

Rosemary and Belinda offered some of their popcorn to the two girls, but eating a little only made them hungrier.

The circus was only half over when a man in the seat ahead moved directly in front of Veve. Unable to see, she stood up to watch the trained seals balance red balls on the tips of their noses.

Now Veve, who had worn a hat, had been holding it on her lap. Before she could catch it, down it tumbled between the gap in the board seats. She saw it drop to the ground beneath the stand. “Oops! There goes my hat!” she exclaimed.

“Oh, Veve!” groaned Jane, annoyed by the interruption, “why weren’t you more careful?”

“I was as careful as I could be,” Veve insisted in a hurt voice. “The hat slipped before I could catch it.”

“I’ll go with you to get it,” offered Connie, who knew Veve would not want to go alone.

“Are you certain you can find your way back?” Miss Gordon asked the girls.

“That’s easy,” Connie said. “We’re five rows from the top of the tent.”

“In Section C,” added Miss Gordon. “Well, run along before someone picks up Veve’s hat.”

The two girls had a difficult time getting out of the long row of seats because people seemed unwilling to move. One fat man took up so much space Veve barely could squeeze past his knees.

Taking care not to slip on the plank steps, the girls went down beneath the stand. Veve’s straw hat lay in the dust, but it had not been damaged.

Gazing upward into the stand, the girls could see hundreds of shoes above them. They wondered which ones belonged to Miss Gordon and the Brownies. Of course they could not tell. Lying on the ground beneath the stand was a strange assortment of articles—pop bottles, scraps of paper, empty boxes and a lady’s belt.

Bending down to pick up the belt, Veve saw a round, shiny object half covered by a piece of colored candy paper. For an instant she thought it might be a cap to a pop bottle. But as she kicked the paper away, she saw that it was a fifty cent piece.

Never before had Veve found so much money. She knew it had fallen from the pocket of someone in the stand above. But in the crowd she never could hope to find the owner.

Tying the coin into her handkerchief, Veve searched for other money. However, she could not find any, so finally she and Connie returned to their seats.

“You missed the best part of the circus,” Rosemary whispered as they sat down.

“Who cares?” answered Veve, displaying the belt and the fifty cent piece. “See what I found.”

Miss Gordon suggested that the belt be turned in at the circus office at the conclusion of the show.

“And the money?” Veve inquired anxiously. “Must I give that up too?” “No,” replied the teacher. “The person who lost it couldn’t possibly identify a fifty cent piece.”

“Then it’s mine to spend?”

“Yes, Veve.”

“I know what I want,” declared the little girl. “Peanuts.”

When the salesman came around again, Veve signaled for him to stop. She bought a bag of peanuts for herself and one for Miss Gordon. Connie had her own money and would not let Veve buy any for her.

The Brownies enjoyed every minute of the circus but toward the end began to grow a bit tired. Just before the last act, a number of cowboys and cowgirls galloped into the ring, swinging their ropes.

Then a man announced that immediately after the circus there would be a Wild West show.

“Will we stay for it?” Eileen asked eagerly.

Miss Gordon explained that one had to buy another ticket in order to see the show.

“Anyway, we’ve had quite a day already,” she added.

“We’re to meet Mr. Carsdale and the detective too,” Connie reminded the Brownies. “They’ll be expecting us.” “That’s right,” agreed Miss Gordon.

Soon the circus came to an end. When they stood up, the Brownies felt stiff and tired, for the bleacher seats had been very hard.

“Let’s wait until the crowd has left the tent,” suggested Miss Gordon. “It will be much easier than trying to push our way through.”

Soon the circus tent was fairly clear of spectators. Miss Gordon and the Brownies then were able to climb down over the board seats with ease.

Once at the exit, Miss Gordon glanced about for the animal trainer. Mr. Carsdale was nowhere to be seen.

“He seems to have forgotten about us,” the Brownie troop leader remarked.

For ten minutes they patiently waited, but the animal man did not come. Miss Gordon said she thought it would be useless to remain any longer.

“No, wait!” cried Sunny. “I see him now.”

Mr. Carsdale walked briskly toward the Brownies, accompanied by a tall, thin man. The girls were quite certain he must be the circus detective.

However, they were a little disappointed, because the man did not look in the least as they had expected. He wore a gray business suit and did not show a badge. “Sorry to have kept you waiting,” apologized Mr. Carsdale. “This is Clem Gregg, the company detective. You might tell him about losing your billfold and the watch.”

“Carsdale says you saw the man who stole it,” commented the detective, addressing Miss Gordon.

“I thought perhaps I did,” replied the Brownie leader. “At least I recall a man who pressed close to me in the crowd near one of the side shows.”

The circus detective asked Miss Gordon for a description of the pickpocket.

“To tell you the truth, I scarcely noticed him,” the teacher admitted. “The girls’ observations were much better than mine.”

“He had a mole on his cheek,” volunteered Connie. “And he wore a brown suit.”

“A man may change his suit,” remarked the detective. “He cannot so easily rid himself of a telltale mole. Would you say he was short or tall?”

“Fairly short,” declared Sunny before Connie could speak.

“And did he have a pointed nose?”

“Yes, he did!” exclaimed Veve in astonishment. She wondered how the detective could know so much about the pickpocket.

“Your description fits Joe Potassick,” declared the detective. “‘Joe the Pick’ we call him. I thought I saw him in the crowd today. But he slipped away from me again.”

“Then you know of the man?” inquired Miss Gordon in surprise.

“Every circus detective knows Pickpocket Joe. He’s given us plenty of trouble.”

“Does he steal from the circus people?” inquired Jane curiously.

“No,” replied the detective, smiling down at the Brownie with the shining braids. “Joe the Pick follows the circus from town to town. He mingles with the crowd and takes pocketbooks and jewelry.”

“Just as he stole Miss Gordon’s billfold and the Brownie money,” supplied Jane.

“That’s right,” agreed the detective. “As a rule we have little trouble rounding up the average pickpocket. But Joe is a slippery fellow. So far he has managed to elude me.”

“What do you do with pickpockets if you catch them?” Belinda asked curiously.

“Sometimes we merely run them out of town,” the detective replied. “But if ever we catch Joe in the act, we’ll have him arrested and sent up.”

“I realize there is little chance to recover the money taken from my billfold,” said Miss Gordon. “I plan to make up the loss to the Brownies. The watch, however, was a prized keepsake.”

The detective asked the teacher for a description of it, as well as her name and address. Carefully he wrote the information in a little red booklet.

“If the watch ever turns up, I’ll notify you,” he promised. “The chances are though, that Pickpocket Joe will pawn it.”

While Miss Gordon and the detective talked, Mr. Carsdale chatted with Veve, asking her if she had enjoyed the show.

“Oh, yes, especially your act,” she replied politely. “Was it hard to make the tiger jump through the hoop?”

“Not when you know how,” laughed the animal man. “What else did you like?”

“Oh, the beautiful golden coach. And the little circus girl rider.”

“Eva Leitsall? She’s standing over there now.”

Mr. Carsdale nodded toward the entrance of the big tent. The circus child stood there, watching the Brownies. But when the little girl saw them looking at her, she slipped back out of sight behind the flap of the canvas. “Bashful, I guess,” chuckled Mr. Carsdale.

A few minutes later, Mr. Carsdale went away to talk to one of the circus workmen who was driving a stake. Again Eva peeped out at the Brownies. This time she did not appear in the least shy.

“H—ist!” she whispered, looking directly at Veve and Connie.

The two Brownies scarcely could believe their eyes. Plainly, Eva was motioning to them, signaling for them to come over to the entranceway of the tent.