The Fiery Ring

by Gilbert, Morris

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The Strange Woman

  As soon as Travis put the brakes on and brought the truck to a grinding halt, he turned to Joy and said wearily, “Well, it was sure a long drive, but we’re here finally.”

  Joy looked around at the setting and found it quite different from a circus. There were heavy wire cages all around, where she could see the animals were feeding. The elephants seemed to be enjoying spraying each other with water out of a pond, and the trailers were all parked in one area. “It looks nice,” she said. She opened the door and got out, and Travis came around and joined her. He stretched his back and said, “I’m glad to be here.”

  “But you’ll be leaving soon for Bible school.”

  Travis put his arm around her and smiled. “Yes, I will. You understand that I’ve got to go, don’t you?”

  “Of course.” She hugged him and then hesitated for a moment before saying, “I’m sorry I was such a beast at the Tatums and then all the way back. I’ve got a vile temper.”

  “No you don’t, sis.” Travis shook his head. “You’ve just let your bitterness get a hold of your heart, and I’m praying that you will be able to get rid of it.”

  Joy did not have time to answer, for Oz came barreling up, rolling as he walked, as always. He reached up to shake Travis’s hand, and as soon as he had greeted them, he said, “Did you hear about Colonel House?”

  “No, we haven’t heard anything.”

  Oz pulled his hat off, and his face reflected genuine sorrow. “I hate to be the one to tell ya,” he said with some hesitation, “but we lost the colonel.”

  Neither Travis nor Joy were shocked, as the colonel hadn’t been well in quite some time. “Was it his heart?” Joy asked.

  “Yes, it was. He went to bed one night, and the next morning when Stella tried to wake him up, he was gone. Not a bad way to go,” he said regretfully.

  “What’s going to happen with the circus?” Joy said.

  “Stella’s taken over. She’d been doing most of the work anyway. We’ll need a new ringmaster for next season. They’re pretty hard to find, but I’m sure she’ll find somebody.”

  “Is Chase all right?”

  “Working night and day. He’s got a whole bunch of new cats he’s training, and he hardly takes time to eat or sleep. I’m glad you’re here. Maybe you can take some of the load off him, Joy.” He hesitated, then said, “You got back just in time. The funeral’s this afternoon at three o’clock.”

  ****

  The funeral of Colonel Maurice House was simple. The chapel of the funeral home was crowded with circus performers, workers, and House’s many friends and acquaintances. Some had traveled long distances to be there. House had been in the circus business a long time and knew people from all over the country in both the circus and business worlds.

  Joy sat beside Travis and whispered, “I wonder where Chase is. I thought he’d be here.”

  “He’s coming. He told me he was,” replied Travis.

  Oz, sitting on the other side of Joy, said, “Look, there he is.”

  Joy looked up to see Stella coming in through a side door, escorted by the funeral home director, a tall man dressed in a black suit. Close by her side was Chase. Stella was dressed in black and wore a hat with a black veil, and she clung to Chase’s arm as she took her seat in the front row. Everyone had stood when they came in. Joy was disturbed at the sight of Stella holding on to Chase like that. She had expected Chase to comfort her, but her action seemed much too possessive to Joy.

  As they sat down again Oz whispered, “Stella’s been leanin’ on Chase pretty heavy since the colonel died. She doesn’t have many real friends, you know. I guess she depends on Chase more than anyone. Good thing he’s here to help her through it.”

  Travis heard this whisper and cast a covert glance at his sister. He saw that her face was tense, but she said nothing. Leaning back, he thought, I hate to see her like this. She’s not herself.

  The funeral was mercifully brief. The pastor of a local church read the eulogy and a group of Scripture passages, then preached the sermon. Afterward he announced that there would be a graveside ceremony for those who cared to attend immediately following the service.

  “I guess we’d better go,” Travis whispered.

  “All right.” Joy really had no desire to go, but she accompanied Travis anyway. They joined the long parade of cars, which all turned their lights on and followed the police escort. The country was flat as far as Joy could see, with flowers blooming everywhere. After being in the frozen north, it was strange to see such an abundance of gorgeous plants waving in the breeze along the road as they passed by in the funeral procession.

  When they got to the cemetery, she took Travis’s arm, and Oz accompanied them as they made their way to the green tent that swayed slightly in the breeze. They waited until Stella got out of the long black limousine and took Chase’s arm. The two followed the minister to the tent, where they sat down together, and then the minister waved the rest of the crowd in.

  Joy led Travis and Oz to the front row. She heard little that was said, for she was watching Chase and Stella closely. She could barely see Stella’s face because of the black veil, but she noticed that even as they sat there, she kept her hand on Chase’s arm the whole time, as if for an anchor.

  Finally she lifted her veil. Her face seemed pale, but she displayed little emotion as the minister read the Scriptures.

  Chase looks worse than she does, Joy thought, noticing that his olive complexion was weathered, and he looked thinner than usual. His coal black hair made a striking contrast, and sorrow reflected in his eyes as he listened to the readings.

  Finally the preacher said a closing prayer, and then he went over and put his hand on Stella’s shoulder and shook hands with Chase. Others began to file by, offering comforting words to Stella. Joy had no desire to do so, but Travis whispered, “We’d better go by and say something.”

  Joy moved reluctantly around into the short line, and when she got to Chase, he looked up at her, his eyes sad.

  “I know you’re grieving, Chase,” she said.

  “Yes, he was a good friend to me and a good man.”

  There was no time to say more, and when Joy got to Stella, she said, “I’m so sorry, Mrs. House.”

  “Thank you, Joy.” No more was said, and Joy moved out from under the tent into the sunlight. She waited for Travis, and when he came up with Oz at his side, she said, “I think we’d better go now.”

  Oz looked back at Stella and shook his head. “Well, it wasn’t too much of a marriage, but he needed somebody in his last days, and I guess she furnished that.”

  ****

  As Stella and Chase left the tent she was still clinging to Chase’s arm. Before they got to the car, she stopped and pulled him around to face her. She looked up at him and whispered urgently, “Chase, you’re all I’ve got left. You’ve got to help me.”

  “Sure, Stella. We all will.”

  “You’re the one I know best, Chase. We’ve got to keep this circus together, and it’s going to take all we’ve got. Please,” she said, leaning against him, “help me.”

  “All right, Stella,” Chase said, nodding slowly, “we’ll do it. Try not to worry.”

  ****

  Joy was so tired she could barely lift her head. She had arrived at Sarasota only a week ago, and she had visualized herself spending time on the beach and enjoying the ocean, but there had been little time for that. The morning after the funeral she had gone early to meet with Chase, who had greeted her with, “I’m glad to see you made the trip back all right. Was it a good trip?”

  “No, it wasn’t.”

  Chase caught the bitterness in her tone but said merely, “I’m sorry. Are you ready to go to work?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. It’s going to be hard. We’ve got mostly young animals. I had to take some that were grown in order to start the act, but I’m putting you in charge of the tiger
cubs.”

  “Oh, that’ll be fun. They’re so cute!”

  Chase suddenly grinned. “I’m glad you think so. They’ll keep you busy, I think.”

  There were four tiger cubs, and they indeed kept Joy busy. She quickly discovered that like human babies, cubs had to be fed several times during the night. She also discovered that someone had to clean their bottoms before they were big enough to do it for themselves. She had to prepare their food with just the proper mix of milk, and they had to have shots. Their needs never stopped.

  Joy quickly learned that each cub was different, though they all looked alike. One was pugnacious, always ready to fight the others, one was very calm and placid, and another was very curious. As the days went on, she bathed them, fed them, prepared all their food, and kept their boxes fresh. When one of them got sick, she would sit with the cub through the night just as she might have with a child.

  Along with her responsibility for taking care of the four tiger cubs, Joy also learned how to train the rest of the cats. “I want them to be as accustomed to you as they are to me,” Chase said on the first morning. “I’m going to show you the basics on how to train them, and then you’ll take over as I move on to others. The first thing we’ll teach them is to roll over.”

  This, as Joy soon discovered, was not as simple as she thought it would be. She had taught their dog to roll over pretty easily when she was a child, but cats were another matter. Joy started with a lion called Betty.

  “You’ll like Betty,” Chase said. “She’s quick to learn. The first thing is, you can’t touch her. She has to roll over at a voice signal.”

  Joy learned that this was not so simple. The first part of teaching Betty was to give her a workout. She got the lioness out into the cage, and after a workout, as Chase had told her, she would lie down. Next she took a light buggy whip attached to a long pole so she could stand ten feet away. Then by touching Betty’s feet lightly, and with a combination of hand and body movements, along with the spoken command, she tried to teach her to lie down. It was not easy, however, and it took almost a week to teach Betty this one simple trick. Joy grew discouraged, “We’ll never teach them all these things, Chase.”

  “Sure we will. They learn from each other. Now, next you take Greta and teach her to roll over.” Greta was a beautiful Siberian tiger, and to Joy’s amazement she learned to roll over after just two efforts and never seemed to forget it. This pleased Joy greatly, and she realized she was learning more than the tiger was.

  As the days passed, Chase allowed Joy to come into the cage more and more. “Never forget they’re wild animals.” He must have said it a thousand times, she thought. “You know what they can do from what happened to Karl, but they’re good animals. They need you to respect them. Don’t make pets out of them. I know it’s a temptation—especially with the cubs, because they’re cute—but don’t allow them to play with you. They have to learn to obey.”

  “Now,” he said, “I’ll show you how to teach them to get up on their perches. That’s the foundation of the act, as you know.”

  Joy worked hard on learning this. She quickly discovered some basic truths she had never dreamed of before. Chase taught her that Siberian tigers were different from Bengal tigers. They had much longer backs, which made it more difficult for them to sit up, and consequently they needed more time for this maneuver. Chase explained, “You can push a tiger from behind to get it into position only as long as it’ll allow it—usually when it’s young. They’re like little kids. You push them in the right direction until they’ll no longer tolerate it. But when they get big, never push a tiger.”

  One of the things Chase spent a great deal of time teaching Joy was exactly how to give commands. “Talk to them all the time, Joy. The voice means everything. Your whole relationship will be based on talk. As you already know, tigers make a lot of sounds. Lions don’t usually answer you. Your tone of voice is important too. When they do something wrong, use a harsh tone. When they do something right, speak in a pleasant tone.”

  There was no question that safety came first with Chase. “There’ll be two of us in the cage at all times,” Chase emphasized. “Tigers attack from the rear. They have to really be hurt to attack from the front. Otherwise, they never do that. They’re too smart. When they stalk their prey, they use surprise. Never turn your back on a tiger.”

  Joy learned that each tiger had to be treated individually. She had already noticed it even with the cubs, but as the winter passed, she learned that Greta, the Siberian tiger, learned almost instantly, while Brutus was rather stupid and took many, many repetitions. She never allowed herself to become irritated, though. She found out that Tom, another male tiger, had almost no balance at all. It took him forever to learn to sit up, and he was never much good at it.

  One day after breakfast, Chase announced, “Today we’re going to teach one of the tigers to go through a hoop of fire. Which one do you think it should be?”

  “Greta,” Joy said instantly.

  “You’re right. She’s the smartest and the most obedient.” He smiled and reached out to shake her hand. “Congratulations,” he said, “you’re becoming a wild-animal tamer.”

  Joy was ridiculously pleased at his praise. He gave it sparingly, but she knew he always meant it. He was not afraid to correct her when she did something stupid or dangerous, but she knew it was all for her own good.

  Teaching Greta to go through a hoop was not difficult. At first, of course, they taught her to go through it without the fire. They showed her the hoop until she got used to it, and finally the day came when Chase said, “All right, it’s show time for Greta. Let’s see if we can get her to go through it with the fire now.”

  Joy had been dreading this moment. Tigers are naturally afraid of fire, as are most animals, but Joy tried not to show her apprehension. She watched as Chase struck a match and lit the hoop, which was covered with kerosene-soaked rags. “All right, see if she’ll go,” he said, grinning.

  “Greta, jump!”

  With a bored expression, Greta took off from her perch, leaped through the fire, then turned around and looked at Joy as if to say, “What’s so hard about that?”

  Joy wanted to go over and hug her but knew better. “Good, Greta, that was very good! You’re a good tiger!” she crooned.

  In all this training Joy was amazed at how different Chase’s approach was from that which Karl Ritter had used. He was firm, but there were no guns firing or whips cracking. Inexperienced as she was, she realized that Chase Hardin was getting more out of these animals, as new as they were, than Ritter had gotten out of his after years of training them. She said as much one time to Chase as they were heading for the cages to feed the animals. This was another thing. Chase had insisted that the two of them be the ones to feed the animals every night. He explained, “They’ve got to feel dependent on us. They have to know that we’re in charge, and they depend on us for their comfort. When we’re on the road, we’ll go back after every performance, no matter how tired we are, and brag on them.”

  Now as they walked along, Chase turned to her and said, “I know you must be worn to the bone. It’s been hard work.”

  “I’ve loved it, Chase.”

  “You have, haven’t you?” He grinned at her and shook his head with admiration. “I wasn’t sure it was going to work, but you’ve got a gift for animals. I’ve never seen anyone learn so quickly.”

  Joy felt her face burn, and she suddenly reached over and squeezed his hand. “I never thanked you for letting me do this.” He squeezed her hand in return.

  They stood there for a moment, and she was aware of Chase’s lean, masculine strength. There was not an ounce of spare flesh on him. He was trimmed down to nothing but muscle, bone, and raw nerve.

  He said, “It’s good to have you here.”

  “It’s good to be here.”

  Chase looked like he was going to say something else, leaning his head toward hers, but then suddenly he released her ha
nd and said instead, “I guess we’d better go feed the cats.”

  Why did he do that? He was going to kiss me, and then he changed his mind. Joy suddenly knew the answer. That woman, she thought bitterly. Stella’s got him like a fish on a line. Indeed, she had been much aware, despite her busy life, that Chase spent an inordinate amount of time with Stella House. He spent a lot of time in her trailer, explaining it by saying, “Everything’s riding on this act, and besides, she needs help setting up the schedule.” It was a feeble enough excuse, and Joy was certain there was more to it than that.

  ****

  “The act’s going very well, isn’t it, Chase?”

  Stella had asked Chase to come to her trailer and go over some of the difficulties she foresaw for the next year. She had cooked a meal for him, and he had stayed until nearly ten o’clock. Now they were sitting on the couch with papers spread all over the coffee table. Chase leaned back and ran his hand through his hair. “It’s going better than I ever expected.”

  “It’s going to have to go over well if we’re to survive. We’re down to the bare metal.” Stella was wearing a clingy silk dress and the same perfume she used to wear. He had been concentrating on the logistics of moving scores of people and animals around, tearing a circus down, and putting it back together a hundred miles away. Now he was very much aware of Stella herself. She leaned closer to him and said, “You’re tired, Chase. You don’t rest enough.”

  “Oh, I’m all right, and don’t worry about the act. It’s going to be fantastic. The audiences will love it.”

  Stella took Chase’s hand and held it between both of hers as she whispered, “I don’t know what I would have done without you, Chase. I would have been lost.”

  Very much aware of the warmth of her hands on his, Chase turned to face her. Old memories flooded through him, and he realized again what a desirable woman she was. He had never been able to put the memories of their intimacy out of his mind, and now as she leaned toward him, he could not speak. He knew he should get up and leave, but before he could bring himself to do so, she released his hand, put hers behind his neck, and drew his head down. Chase felt caught in an emotional maelstrom. He held her tightly and returned her kiss.