"I don't stay under as long as I used to," Benny remarked. "In fact Jim Tracy was sort of kicking just now. Said I was billed to stay under water four minutes, and I was cutting it to three. I can't help it. Something seems to hurt me here," and he put his hands to his ears and to the back of his head.
"Maybe you ought to see a doctor," suggested Joe.
"I can't," said Benny shortly. "In this circus business if they find out you're sick the management begins to think of booking some one else for your act. No, I've got to keep on with it. But some days I don't feel much like it."
Joe and Helen felt sorry for Benny, but there was little they could do to aid him. It was not as if they could take some of the burden of work off his shoulders. His act was peculiar, and he alone could do it.
"Though I think," said Joe to himself one day after watching Benny perform, "I think I could stay under water almost as long as he does after I'd practised it a bit. I'm going to try some time. I think deep breathing exercises would help. I'm going to begin on them."
Joe had to have good "wind" for his own acts, but, as he was naturally ambitious, he started in on systematic breathing exercises. These would do him much general good even if he should never enter the water-tank.
Occasionally Joe would do some simple sleight-of-hand tricks for the amusement of Benny and Helen. He did not want to lose the art he had acquired.
"I may want to quit the circus some day and go back in the illusion business," he said.
"Quit the circus! Why?" Helen asked him.
"Oh, I'm not thinking seriously of it, of course," he said quickly. "But I don't want to get rusty on those tricks."