Flash Gordon 3 - The Space Circus Read Online Free PDF Page B

Zumm.
    “It’s not fair,” said Booker. He noticed Flash now and held out a bloody hand toward him. “You got to get me out of here.”
    Flash said, “We’ll all get out.”

CHAPTER 11
    T he bent blue Nord nodded his round head approvingly. “He grows better each day.” His eyes were on Flash, who was performing high above the arena. This was an evening performance of the circus, and a humid, misty darkness hung over the amphitheater.
    The dozens of bright night lights caused Barko’s new yellow-silk cloak to glow. “The audiences continue to like him,” he admitted. “My notion of raising his platform another hundred feet higher has, despite your objections, improved the act.”
    “I merely pointed out that putting him three hundred feet above the crowd added greatly to the danger.”
    Barko spread his blue hands wide. “That’s what makes a circus what it is—danger. Look at the audiences—they love it. The idea that someone, even a lowly outlander, may fall to his death at any moment is thrilling to them. The life many of them lead, you must realize, is dull and conventional, not at all like our circus life.”
    Nord’s attention turned from Flash to the center of the arena. A piebald man was working in a large fenced-in circle with five big lions. “Something is wrong with the lions.”
    The animals were ignoring the whip and the shockstick the lion tamer was working with. They huddled in one corner of their pen, snarling, tails twitching.
    “It’s not the lions,” came Barko’s mental reply, “it’s that fool tamer. He doesn’t know how to handle them.”
    “These animals only recently arrived from Anmar, remember,” Nord reminded. “The arena lights still bother them.”
    “I’m inclined to leave that speckled fool and the whole pack of lions behind when we go on the road next week.”
    “They’re the only lions we have in the show at present. When we hit the small towns the lions are always one of the biggest draws.”
    “True, Nord, but—”
    The greatest shaggy horse Narla was riding had stumbled. It fell hard against the wooden pickets which fenced in the lions. There was a crackling sound. Part of the fence gave way.
    The audience was not silent now. A stunned inhalation of breath, coming from thousands of throats, could be heard.
    Two of the snarling lions leaped free of their enclosure, then a third.
    This one attached itself, claws digging deep, to the flank of the horse Narla was riding. The horse whinnied with pain and dropped to its knees. The girl cried out.
    The lion let go of Narla’s mount, turning its massive head toward her.
    Flash went sailing through the humid night air. “A few new tricks up their sleeves tonight,” he said as he glanced briefly at the metal tower from which the ropes and trapezes used in his act were controlled.
    When the lions broke free, Flash was grabbing hold of a trapeze which came flying at him a hundred feet from the ground. The sudden gasp of the audience reached him.
    “What’s going on down there?”
    The metal bar he was gripping began to sizzle with an electric charge. Flash let go, when the trapeze was at the high point of its arc. As he fell, he twisted so that he could see the glistening arena below him.
    “That looks like Narla in trouble down there.”
    A rope came swinging at him. Flash ignored it. He kept plummeting downward.
    “Let’s hope this thing will hold my weight.” He threw his arms out and caught hold of a cord which held decorative pennants.
    In the week he’d been a captive performer in Barko’s Interplanetary Circus, Flash had studied the arena from every possible angle. His particular act afforded him several unique views. He’d filed in his head a half-dozen ropes and railings he could grab onto in case of an accidental fall.
    The rope dipped low. One of the wooden poles which held it cracked.
    Flash let go and dropped to the ground. He went down to his knees, sprang up, and ran toward Narla who was