Spurred by your natural curiosity, you stick around after the show in the big top, hoping to catch an after-hours performance. Perhaps you'll get a peek at an impromptu clown act, or watch the late-night feedings of the exotic animals you goggled at earlier. But life at the circus isn't glamorous after the audience has gone home: instead of flashy feats, you overhear a mysterious conversation: a little girl - the circus owner's daughter - has been kidnapped! Her father is too naive (or is he too pompously stupid?) to do more than hire an inept detective to find her. He remains blindly loyal to his overworked performers, but... could it be an inside job? The girl might be hidden somewhere on the circus grounds... and one of the performers might be her abductor!

So you do what anyone would do in these circumstances: set out to rescue the damsel in distress. The odds aren't in your favor: you - a spectator, a bystander, an outsider in a defensive close-knit community - trying to find a girl you've never met, in a place you know nothing about, among bizarre people who want nothing to do with you. Some would call you brave. Some would call you foolish.

Every circus has its seedy underside. But few are as dangerous as this.

To play:

Click within the window then press Enter or Return to begin.

Type in basic text commands to guide yourself through the game. You gain points by solving puzzles and discovering items and areas.

Read everything carefully...

The first couple of steps are:

> south

> examine midget

> help midget

> west

> take mask