Agnes had begun to be very curious. And while he was talking, the girl was looking Sorber over for a second time.
He was not all bad! Of that Agnes began to be sure. Yet he wanted to beat Neale O'Neil for running away from a circus.
To tell the truth, Agnes could scarcely understand how a boy could so dislike circus life as to really _want_ to run away from even Twomley & Sorber's Herculean Circus and Menagerie. There was a glitter and tinsel to the circus that ever appealed to Agnes herself!
Personally Mr. Sorber lost none of his coarseness on longer acquaintance, but now Agnes noticed that there were humorous wrinkles about his eyes, and an upward twist to the corners of his mouth. She believed after all he might be good-natured.
Could she help Neale in any way by being friendly with this man? She could try. There was a rustic bench under the Baldwin tree.
"Won't you sit down, Mr. Sorber?" suggested Agnes, politely.
"Don't care if I do, Miss," declared the showman, and took an end of the bench, leaving the other end invitingly open, but Agnes leaned against the tree trunk and watched him.
"A nice old place you've got here. They tell me it's called 'the Old Corner House.' That's the way I was directed here. And so that rascal of mine's been here all winter? Nice, soft spot he fell into."
"It was I that came near falling," said Agnes, gravely, "and it wasn't a soft spot at all under that tree. I'd have been hurt if it hadn't been for Neale."
"Hel-_lo_!" exclaimed Neale's uncle, sharply. "What's this all about? That rascal been playin' the hero again? My, my! It ought to be a big drawin' card when we play this town in August. He always _was_ a good number, as Master Jakeway in high and lofty tumbling; when he rode bareback; or doing the Joey----"
"The Joey?" repeated the girl, interested, but puzzled.
"That's being a clown, Miss. He has doubled as clown and bareback when we was short of performers and having a hard season."
"Humph! Dunno about his being _yours_," said Sorber, with twinkling eyes. "He's mine, I reckon, by law."
Agnes bit her lip. It made her angry to have Sorber talk so confidently about his rights over poor Neale.
"Let me tell you how he came here," she said, after a moment, "and what he's done since he came to Milton."