Several of the names applied to the performers were amusing. A clown is always called a joy, and if he is a new man with the circus he is called a First of May, because it is on that date that many contracts are made in the circus. Acrobats are called kinkers, and the people who do work on the high trapeze are called casters, and their work is called a casting act.
“Then there is the high diver, only we call it a tank diving act. You won’t see that this afternoon, for the diver fell a couple of days ago and broke his arm. Funny; he’s been diving forty feet into an eight foot tank for several years, and never got a scratch, and then he slips on a banana peeling and breaks his arm. It’s too bad, too, for the diving act always goes big in these small towns. I’d give twenty-five dollars for a diver this afternoon,” concluded the man.
“Hand over the twenty-five,” said Dick suddenly.
“What do you mean,” asked the circus man in surprise.
“Just that you give me the twenty-five dollars and I’ll do your high dive for you this afternoon.”
The circus man looked at the other two boys as if he doubted his ears, and Garry and Phil immediately assured them that Dick was a first class swimmer and diver.
“Forty feet is not so much to Dick. He’s often done better than that in the river at home,” Garry told the circus man.
“Yes, but you want to remember that this is an eight foot square tank, and only eight feet deep,” he told Dick.
“That’s nothing, I’ll turn easily in eight feet. Have done it in a little less,” Dick assured him.
“All right. I’ll take you to see the owner when we get there, and he and you can fix things up. He’ll be glad to pay you that amount for the work, for it’s a big attraction and we have advertised it a lot. That’s my business with the circus—to do the advertising.”