"How did you come to let him get you so easily?"

"I fell over something."

"Oh, that's it?"

"Yes. I wasn't trying to hit him. I could have done so easily,
but I felt that I was in the wrong."

"Humph!" grunted the head clown. Then he turned to Diaz.

"See here, you fellow!"

"What you want?" demanded Diaz in a surly tone.

"I want to advise you to let those boys alone in the future.
They have been with this show a long time, and they are highly
thought of by Mr. Sparling. Were he to hear what you have done
tonight I rather think you would pack your trunk and quit
right here. I shall not tell him. Next time I see you doing
any such thing you will have to answer to me. I'm the head
clown here, and I won't stand for one of my men pitching
on a boy."

Teddy was chuckling to himself over the severe rebuke that Miaco
was administering to his clown.

"Do you boys intend going on tonight?" Miaco demanded suddenly,
turning on Teddy.