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the beast send him flying out of the cage and up a high pole. Pretending it was just a trick to amuse Merna, he slides down flapping his hands like a bird.
Caught idling, a kick from the property man brings up the pill stuck in Charlie's throat. Merna then explains to him that he need not take the abuse, that he is the hit of the show. The owner overhears her and is about to whip her when Charlie grabs the end of the quirt. "If you strike that girl, I'll quit." He follows this with a demand for a raise and gets it.
"The success of the Tramp made life easier for the girl and himself." Charlie now dresses nattily and, as the star clown, is treated with respect. In the next dressing room, Merna has her fortune read. "I see love and marriage with a dark, handsome man who is near you now." Charlie, on the other side of the curtain, is ecstatic, and prances in giddy horseplay with the Old Clown.
A new added attraction joins the circus — Rex, a tightrope walker. Merna meets and falls for the handsome Rex just as Charlie is buying a ring from a clown. Charlie is crestfallen to hear Merna tell the gypsy she is in love — with the tightrope walker. This blow affects Charlie's work; he hardly gets a laugh. Spying Merna and Rex, his "spirit" (through double-exposure) rises up to smite his rival. In some wonderful pantomime Charlie simultaneously registers disdain for the tightrope walker's act, envious jealousy of his daring and skill, and hope that he will fall and break his neck.
Charlie's new ambition is to become a tightrope walker. He practices on a rope close to the ground — takes bows, etc., until he is interrupted by the boss who threatens to fire him if he doesn't become funny again.
One day Rex does not show up and Charlie is pressed to substitute for him. Merna pleads with him not to do it. Noting a prop man with a halter and wire, Charlie bribes him to fasten it to him. In a prophetic trial