MORE MONEY
The animal men who had not gone out with Senor Bogardi to search
through the town were hurriedly summoned. The spare cage was wheeled in
and arrangements made to again put Prince into captivity. "Is he there
yet?" asked the ring-master, as he came up to where Mr. Fleet stood.
"Yes. He hasn't made a move or sign. Of course we're only guessing--Joe
and I--that he's under there. It was Toto's actions that gave us the
idea."
"Oh, I guess he's there, all right--the dog ought to know," said Jim
Tracy. "He picked out the best hiding place in the whole tent. I guess
it looked sort of like home to him."
Indeed the space under the tank platform, with its canvas covering
painted to resemble rocks, made an ideal hiding place. A lion, or any
other beast of his size, could crawl under the flexible cloth which
would fall into place without disclosing that it had been disturbed.
And, too, Barbary lions have their dens in holes in the rocks, and poor
Prince may have fancied he was back in his old home again.
"We'll make sure he's there before we try to drive him out," said Jim.
With a long prodding rod he lifted one end of the canvas. At once there
sounded a menacing growl, and some of the men moved back.
"He's there all right," the ring-master announced. "Now to get him out.
Bring up some of those tubs."
He pointed to some of the heavy wooden affairs used in elephant tricks,
and the men rolled them around three sides of the platform. Then they
braced them with boards so the sudden rush of the lion would not knock
them over.
"Now bring up the cage!" ordered Tracy. It was on wheels, one of the
regular wagon affairs, and the spring door was braced open, with a man
ready to snap it shut as soon as Prince should be inside. A big piece
of raw beef was thrown inside the cage as a bait.
"Now then, Joe, I'm afraid we'll have to spoil some of your
ornamentation," said the ring-master grimly. "I'm going to slit down
one side of the canvas, but we'll have it fixed for you again. I want a
good opening for Prince to run out through when we start him going."
A quick motion of a keen knife, and one side of the canvas fell away.
There was another menacing growl and then, in a far corner of the
hiding place he had chosen, Prince was seen curled up in a most
comfortable fashion.
"The rascal!" said Jim Tracy. "Come out of that. Get behind him, some
of you men, and prod him with the irons. Be easy, we don't want him to
go on another rampage."
Reaching under the canvas, the men, with prodding irons, poked away
until they touched the crouching body of the lion. With a roar Prince
sprang up. He saw light only in one direction, where the canvas had
been cut. He started toward that, caught a glimpse of the barred cage
and hesitated. Then there came to him the odor of the meat, and he
could not resist. Prince had had enough of liberty. With slow steps he
went into the cage, gave one roar, and began to eat. The door was
snapped shut and Prince was caught.
"Good work!" exclaimed the ring-master in relieved tones. "Now we can
go on with the show."
Messengers were sent to recall the other lion-hunters, and great
precautions were taken to see that this second cage was secure. Prince
seemed to have calmed down after his brief freedom.
"We've got to let the public know that the lion is caught," decided Jim
Tracy. "Otherwise we'll be playing to empty benches to-night, and that
won't do."
Accordingly men were sent out to spread the report that the beast was
captured, and could be safely viewed behind strong bars at the circus
that night. When Senor Bogardi came back, glad indeed to find that his
lion was safe, he said Prince was much quieter and need not be
concealed behind canvas, for the present at least.
Joe's stand was temporarily repaired and he made ready for the evening
performance.
"I guess we'll let the dog trick go for a while," he said to Mr. Fleet.
"Probably it will be hard to get Toto near the platform for a few days,
until he can no longer notice the lion smell."
The dog-trainer agreed with him. Wild beasts, even in captivity, give
out a strong odor, and it was this that had given the little dog the
information that some jungle creature was underneath the canvas
covering.
The efforts of Joe and Mr. Fleet to make Toto dive into the tank while
the boy fish was in it, were totally unavailing, even some days after
the lion episode. Toto would dive in when only the goldfish were there,
but the minute Joe entered the little beast refused to jump. It was not
that Toto was not friendly with Joe, either, for he would let the youth
pet him, and was very fond of him. It was one of those things which
cannot be explained, and there was no use trying to get Toto to do the
trick as Joe wanted it done.
"Well, if I have to give that up I'll work out something else," our
hero decided. And, as the show traveled on from place to place, Joe
perfected himself in aquatic work.
He was getting accustomed to staying under the water, increasing the
time of submersion a few seconds each day, and he did not doubt but he
could make a record of four minutes in the course of a month or two.
His lung power was increasing.
From Professor Rosello he had received a pack of celluloid playing
cards, and Joe now added to his tricks some sleight-of-hand work with
the Kings, Queens and other cards. It took well with the audience, but
Joe was not satisfied. He wanted something more spectacular.
Meanwhile Joe was doing less trapeze work in order to give more
attention to the tank. In private he practised picking up coins in his
mouth, as Benny had done. At first it was hard work, and more than once
Joe swallowed so much water that he had to come up to the surface. But
he did not stop on that account.
He still continued to use the goldfish, but the turtle died from some
undiscoverable cause. Senorita Tanlozo, the snake charmer, offered to
let Joe take one of her water anacondas into the tank with him.
"No, thank you," the boy fish said with a laugh and a shake of his
head. "It may be all right, but I'd be so busy watching him, to see
that he did not make a necklace of himself around my throat, that I
couldn't do my acts. I'll just work with the fishes for a while."
Gradually Joe found that he could gather up almost as many coins as
Benny had in his best day. Joe had acquired the knack of opening his
mouth under water without swallowing any of the liquid. Then came an
idea for varying the trick.
"Picking up the coins doesn't show off very well," he decided. "I ought
to have something larger. And yet I can't get so many of them in my
mouth. I have it--I'll eat under water! I wonder if it can be done."
After some experiments--not all of which were pleasant ones--Joe found
that bananas were easier to handle and eat while under water than any
other food; and, moreover, the moisture did not spoil them.
So one day he added to his stock of tricks that of eating a banana
while submerged. Some persons were skeptical as to whether or not he
really did swallow the fruit, thinking it might be sleight-of-hand
work. But Joe invited a committee to search him and the tank for any
trace of the fruit or of a hiding place, and he proved that he really
did swallow the banana under water. It was not easy, but he soon became
used to it.
Then he elaborated the trick a little. He had a sheet iron table made,
and this was lowered to him after he entered the tank. On the table
were plates, a cup and saucer, a knife, a fork and a spoon. It was a
complete table set under water.
For food Joe used bananas cut into different shapes. He swallowed them,
cutting them with his knife, feeding himself with his fork and
pretending to drink from the cup. That of course was pretense.
Then he did his "sleep act" and came up to receive merited applause.
Joe was certainly highly successful in his tank work. He had lengthened
the whole act by several minutes, and he was nearer than ever to
remaining under the full four minutes.
Another performer had been secured in his place to act with the
Lascalla Brothers, but Joe did his lone trapeze work with the same
satisfactory results as before.
Finally, the young performer decided to take a step he had contemplated
for some time.
"Look here, Mr. Tracy," he said one afternoon, after the big crowd that
had applauded our hero had filed out, "don't you think I ought to be
getting more money?"
"More money!" repeated the ring-master. "What for?"
"Well, I'm doing a double turn. I do almost as much trapeze work as I
did at first, and I'm putting on the tank act too. I've made that
longer than Benny did. I really think I ought to be getting more
money."
"You get a pretty good salary now, Joe. You've had several increases
since you joined the show."
"I know I have, Mr. Tracy. But I want more now. Why, you bill my act
big!"
"Oh, I know it. It's a good act, Joe."
"Then give me more money! I've just got to have it!"