Case with 4 Clowns by Leo Bruce Page B

her say. “I like people to be straightforward.”
    Cursing myself for being so stupid as to take this job, and the couple because they couldn’t stand in one place, I slipped from behind the wagon to see where they were going. Sure enough they were walking slowly across the field towards the elephant-tent, and I had to get quickly around the edge of it in order to get there before them so that they would not see me.
    I paused for a moment behind one of the wagons which they would have to pass in order to hear, if possible, whatthey were saying. They were walking arm-in-arm and I could tell by the way their heads moved that they were speaking.
    â€œWhat do you do in the circus?” I heard the girl ask.
    Clem’s reply was indistinct, but the girl took him up and repeated it. “On the trapeze?” she said. “That’s funny, I don’t recognize you.”
    â€œWe look different without the make-up on,” Clem mumbled.
    â€œYes, I suppose you do. Anyway, you were moving so fast I couldn’t get a good look at your face. I think your turn is marvelous. I wish you wouldn’t have all those clowns, though. Some of them are clever, I suppose, but they make me yawn.”
    â€œOh, I don’t know,” said Clem defensively. “It wouldn’t be much of a circus without the clowns. Why, they’re the oldest part of it. Anyway, they’re for the children, and I expect you laughed at them yourself, really.”
    â€œNo, I didn’t. They just made me tired.”
    There was a slight pause. Clem was obviously finding this subject a little tiresome and was searching for something less controversial. “What’s your name?” he asked at last.
    â€œAlice.”
    â€œMine’s Clem. My real name, of course. We all use other names in the ring; it sounds better.”
    The couple walked past me and on towards the elephant-tent, and this time I waited until they had disappeared inside before I moved. The last thing I wanted to happen was Clem or some of the other circus people to see what I was doing. Beef no doubt had a reason for this absurdly uncomfortable “job” he had given me. But, nevertheless, I found it in the worst of taste. I watched Clem hold the flap of the tent open for the girl, and then it dropped behind both of them, and I emerged from behind the wagon and walked as softly as I could across to it. I went round to the back, where I was outof the light from the tober, and here it was pitch black and impossible to see anything. So much so that I stumbled and fell over one of the tent-pegs.
    â€œWhat was that noise?” Alice’s voice asked urgently from inside the tent.
    Clem was calm and reassuring. “One of the elephants, I expect. Nobody will come around here, you needn’t worry. Why, you’re trembling.”
    The girl gave a short, nervous laugh. “That’s not because I’m frightened,” she said.
    â€œWhy is it, then?”
    She gave no answer, and for quite a while neither of them said anything. When they began talking again it was in so quiet a voice that I was unable to catch more than a word here and there. What, I wondered, did Beef expect me to do now? Was I supposed to worm my way into the tent itself and
see
what was happening? I could not imagine Beef being so cruel or unthinking as that. I sat, shivering slightly, in the cold grass, cursing everything and the Sergeant in particular.
    â€œOh, but it’s warm here,” said the girl’s voice suddenly. “I could stay here all night.”
    â€œYou’d have to sleep with the elephant-man then,” said Clem.
    She laughed lightly. “I shall have to go in a minute, anyway,” she said. “Whatever will Mother think of me?”
    â€œNo. Not yet,” said Clem, and for a little while again there was silence. “You look all misty, like a cloud,” said Clem’s voice after a while. “Your face