Read Dunc and Amos Hit the Big Top for Free Online

this from seeing the men work the way they work?”
    Dunc smiled. “Not exactly. I overheard two of them talking about how they were pretty close to ruining the circus so some other guys could buy it out cheap. But when I heard that, it was easier to put it all together.”
    “So you weren’t all that far ahead of me.” Amos moved to the front of the camper and looked out the window. “The trick is, what are we going to do about it?”
    “We have to get away and tell Willy and Billy.”
    Amos pointed outside. “That guy is still out there watching.”
    Dunc lifted an incredibly filthy curtain and nodded. “I see.”
    “So what do we do?” Amos looked at his watch. “They’re going to start selling tickets soon. Melissa will be there, and the trapeze acts are first, right after the entrance parade. I have to get my tights from the service trailer and put them on and get into the tent before it all starts.”
    Dunc stared at him. “Are you still talking about doing the trapeze?”
    Amos nodded. “It’s bound to work. I’ll be the only one up there, and she can’t help but see me.”
    “I thought the elephant would have changed your mind a bit. He threw you close to two hundred feet.”
    Amos shrugged. “I don’t remember much except a kind of swirling of things—like the ground above me and the sky below. But it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m going to do this or die trying.”
    “That’s what I’m worried about. That second part.”
    Amos ignored him. “So think up a way to get out of here. I have barely enough time to get into my tights.”
    “It’s not possible.”
    “Sure it is. It’s like putting on a big stocking. I watched the gymnasts in the locker room one time. You just stick a foot in and kind of peel them on.”
    “No. I mean getting away. That guy is watching like a hawk.”
    “Come on, Dunc. Quit fooling around. You
always
know what to do.”
    “Not this time. We’re locked up, and the only way out is to risk getting caught while we do it. We wouldn’t get ten feet.”
    “Oh man.” Amos shook his head. “I don’t believe you. All we need is a little razzle-dazzle and some frown-thinking by you, and we’d be right out of here. All you have to do is think of a diversion, catch the guy’s attention, while one of us gets away and goes for help.”
    Dunc snapped his fingers. “I have an idea.”
    Amos smiled. “Great. What is it?”
    “We just create a diversion, catch theguard’s attention, and one of us gets away to go for the authorities.”
    “Sounds good to me.” Amos nodded. “You create the diversion, and I’ll escape.”
    “Why you?”
    “I run faster because I’m more afraid, and if I don’t get away soon, I won’t make the trapeze act.”
    “Oh. Yeah. All right.”
    Dunc moved to the window again and studied the guard for a moment. The man took a pack of cigarettes from the rolled-up sleeve of his T-shirt—which showed a tattoo of a snake swallowing a small town—and began to light it with a match that he flicked with his thumbnail.
    This simple act provided the diversion needed—actually, more than they needed.
    When the guard flicked the wooden match with his thumbnail, it flared up, and he started to light the cigarette with it. But part of the phosphorous head of the match stuck beneath his thumbnail and lit as well the main part of the match head.
    Which effectively cooked the tip-end of his thumb to a well-done state and sent daggersof pain shooting up his arm to his brain. Even his not-too-bright intellect knew about pain, and he let out a bloodcurdling scream and started running in circles holding his hand.
    “Now”—Dunc turned to Amos—“out the window over the sink. Hurry!”
    Amos stood on the small bench and dived for the window. The glass part had been pushed open, but the screen was there.
    Amos took the screen with him, landed on the ground outside in a rolling ball, and was up and running before he had time to think of getting rid of