"I'm still surprised Ahasuerus hasn't made a move yet," said Thaddeus.

"If he does, we'll know what to do with him," Joe assured him. "I wonder how these guys have stayed in business so far? I paid a little visit to their show the other night and told Romany that a couple of the games looked rigged, and you know what he did?"

"What?"

"Closed them up!" laughed Joe.

"He just doesn't understand the role of law enforcement officers in a free market society," said Thaddeus. He smiled with Joe, but I could tell that he was disturbed, and I knew what he was thinking: what kind of carny manager doesn't know enough to grease a few palms when he hears a pitch like that? We heard a sudden commotion coming from inside the barn, and all three cops jumped.

"It's probably just a cat killing a field mouse," said Thaddeus. "Still, I suppose we ought to get this show on the road. Tojo, have Jupiter back his bus up to the vans."

I directed Monk as he maneuvered the huge bus into place, and then helped him unlock the various cages. Then, with all three cops standing guard, we began moving the freaks one at a time. The Elephant Woman, her huge watermelon-like head swaying gently, almost lost her balance, and if Monk hadn't caught her she would have fallen, but otherwise we had no trouble with the first van.

The Man of Many Colors was bright green when I opened up the second van. He walked meekly into the bus, followed by three of the others. The Sphinx seemed reluctant to move, but the Blue Man touched him lightly on the shoulder (withers?) and then he quickly leaped from the van into the bus and walked right into the cage Monk was standing next to.

Then came the Blue Man. As he climbed down out of the van I got my first good look at him, and it scared me. He stood almost seven feet tall, and was the skinniest person I had ever seen. His eyes were slanted, more so than any Oriental's, and the irises were orange. He had no nose at all, but there were two large slits where his nostrils should have been. His mouth was small and delicate, and looked like it was incapable of smiling. He was totally bald, and I couldn't see any hair where his eyebrows should have been.

His arms and fingers were jointed in strange places, as if a child had drawn a stick figure in a hurry. He drew himself up to his full height and stared right at me. I backed up a couple of steps, until I was standing between Thaddeus and Joe. He looked at Thaddeus and each policeman in turn, his orange eyes seeming to glow inside his bald, angular head. Then he slowly walked up the stairs to the bus. Even Jupiter, who risked his life daily with his animals, backed off as the Blue Man went into the indicated cage and pulled the door shut behind him.

"All set?" asked Thaddeus, and I could see that he too had been affected by the sight of the Blue Man.

"They're upsetting my cats," said Monk, and indeed the two leopards were hissing and spitting at the Sphinx. The lion was right next to the Blue Man, and he just stood there, nose dripping, eyes averted, trembling with fright.

"They'll be okay," replied Thaddeus quickly. "Follow me to the caravan and then stick the bus somewhere in the middle. If we get stopped for any reason, I don't want anyone peeking in there."

"Maybe you should have gotten the Dancer to ride shotgun," grunted Monk, closing up the bus and climbing into the driver's seat.

"You go with Jupiter, Tojo," said Thaddeus.

"I don't want to," I protested.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to ride with him."

He knew what I was talking about. "He's locked up safe and sound in a cage."

"I don't care," I said.

"Well, you little bleeding-heart dwarf, you'd better start caring. About all of them."

"What do you mean?"

"As of this moment, you're your brother's keeper." He grinned as I tried to protest. "You're the one who feels so damned sorry for them, aren't you—or did I hear you wrong?"

"The others, yes," I said, skipping verbs in my efforts to get my objection out. "But not him."

"All of them," said Thaddeus. The grin was frozen onto his face, but I could tell he wasn't kidding.

"Please!" I said. "Don't make me do it!"

"I can't make you do a damned thing," he said. "But I can sure as hell make you wish you had. Think about it, Tojo."

I was so upset and scared that I actually started sputtering, but no words came out, and finally I sighed and climbed into the bus next to Monk.

"I wonder if the bossman ain't bit off a little more than he can chew," said Monk, as we fell into place behind Thaddeus' trailer.

As if to lend emphasis to his comment, the lion began squealing in terror as we turned onto the main highway and headed off to join the rest of the show.

Chapter 5

You wouldn't think that moving from Vermont to Maine would make that much difference in the weather, but it did. There was snow on the ground, and the wind whipped through the tents so fiercely that even the heaters and blowers we set up didn't really keep us warm. The food stands put away their ice-cream freezers and concentrated on pushing soup and coffee.

Thaddeus had fired the ride men while we were still in Vermont, suggesting that they stick around there and try to latch on with the guy who had bought all the rides. He also got rid of Elmer and the rest of the actors.

The only people he kept from the freak show were Merrymax and Little Lulu.

Thaddeus was sure that Ahasuerus would show up, bail Romany out, and take after us with a paid posse of head-breakers. And since we were due to head south after our Vermont tour, he took us up to Maine on the assumption that Ahasuerus would never think of looking to the north with winter coming on.

When we arrived at the first town that would let us set up shop, Thaddeus had some of the men erect tents for the freak show, the girlie show, and the specialty show. Then Diggs set up his games, the food stands were assembled, and we were all ready to open.

That was when the problems started. Jupiter Monk presented the first of them.

"Just what do you plan to do with all those freaks?" he said, walking up to Thaddeus, who was directing the placement of some Midway lights.

"Display 'em," said Thaddeus. "What the hell did you think I was going to do?"

Monk shook his head. "That's not what I meant," he said. "What do you plan to do with them between shows?"

"I suppose we'll keep them in your bus," said Thaddeus. "They're safe there."

"That's what I thought you were going to say," said Monk. He drew a deep breath. "They aren't staying in the bus. You'd better find someplace else for 'em."

"What's the matter?" asked Thaddeus with a smile. "Do they make you nervous?"

"They're human beings, Thaddeus," said Monk. "You can't keep them in cages whenever they're not onstage. At least, you can't do it in my bus."

"They're a bunch of goddamned freaks and monsters," said Thaddeus. "What do you want me to do—rent them hotel rooms? Hell, half of them aren't built right to use a toilet even if I gave them one."

"I don't care what you say," said Monk stubbornly. "They've got to go. The only time I keep the cats and the bear in those cages is when we drive, and that's just for their own protection, so I won't have to scrape them off the walls and ceiling if we have an accident. You can't do to human beings what I won't even do to my animals."