“Why play so fast? You know we can’t do our tricks at top speed. Are you trying to mess up our turn?”

The band leader shouted something back. It must have been rude, because one of the donkey-men shook his fist and began to run towards the band.

A loud voice crashed in on the argument, and made everyone jump. It was Mr Tapper, old Grandad, giving his orders in an enormous voice.

“ENOUGH! You, Pat, and you, Jim, get out of the ring. I give the orders, not you. ENOUGH, I SAY!”

The two donkey-men glared at him, but did not dare to say a word more. They stalked out of the ring, taking the donkey-skin with them.

Dead-Shot Dick looked very ordinary, dressed in a rather untidy flannel suit. “He’s not going to go all through his act,” said Jeremy. “You’ll see him another night, when the show’s on for the public — he shoots at all kinds of things — even a sixpenny bit dangling on a long string from the roof — and never misses! He’s got a smashing rig-out too — sequins sewn all over his trousers and jersey — and his little horse is a wonder — goes round and round the ring and never turns a hair when Dead-Shot Dick fires his gun! Look — there he is, peeping in to see if Dick’s coming back to him.”

A small white horse was looking anxiously at the ring, its eyes fixed on Dead-Shot Dick. It pawed the ground as if to say, “Buck up! I’m waiting for you! Am I to come on or not?”

“All right, Dick — you can go off now,” shouted Grandad. “I hear your horse has hurt a foot — give him a good rest tonight. We’ll want him on tomorrow.”

“Right, sir!” said Dead-Shot Dick. He saluted smartly, and ran off to his little horse.

“What’s next, Jeremy?” asked George, who was enjoying everything very much.

“Don’t know. Let’s see — there’s the acrobats — but the trapeze-swings aren’t put up yet, so they won’t come on tonight. And there’s the Boneless Man — look, there he is. Good old Boney! I like him. He’s free with his money, he is, not like some of the other folk!”

The Boneless Man looked very peculiar. He was remarkably thin, and remarkably tall. He walked in, looking quite extraordinary. “He can’t be boneless!” said Dick. “He couldn’t walk if he was!”

But the Boneless Man soon began to seem absolutely boneless. His legs gave way at the knees, and his ankles turned over so that he sank down to the ground, unable to walk. He could bend his arms all kinds of different ways, and turned his head almost completely round on his neck. He did a few peculiar things with his apparently boneless body, and finally wriggled along the ground exactly like a snake!

“He’ll be dressed in a sort of snake-skin when he does his act properly,” said Jeremy. “Queer, isn’t he?”