"Yes," answered the young acrobat "I can fill in all right. Let me finish out Benny's tank act."
CHAPTER III
JOE IN THE TANK
Jim Tracy seemed hardly to know whether or not Joe was in earnest. They stood together, a little distance away from the cot on which lay Benny Turton, only just recovering consciousness.
"Do you really mean it, Joe?" asked the ring-master.
"I certainly do," was the answer. "I don't say I can do all the tricks Ben did, for I haven't practised them. But I may be able to improvise a few of my own."
"But can you stay under water as long as he could, Joe? That's the point. You know we bill him as remaining under a fraction over four minutes, and challenge the world to produce his equal. We even invite the public to hold their watches and keep time for themselves.
"As a matter of fact, Ben never stayed under more than four minutes, though he once, in his earliest attempts, did make it four even. But the public isn't very critical on that point. As a rule the women get nervous, and I've often heard some of 'em call out to him not to drown himself.
"But the crowd would surely expect the act to last three minutes under water—I mean three minutes at a time. Can you do that?"
"I think I can. In fact I can do better than three minutes."