Joe wrote Benny a cheering message, and hurried back to the tent to get ready for the evening performance.
The tank act went off well, and to add to it Bill Watson, the veteran clown, rigged up a pole and line, and pretended to be fishing in the big glass box. Joe, who entered into the spirit of the occasion, caught the hook as he was lying on the sandy bottom, and fastened on it a rubber boot, which Bill pulled up and regarded with comical gravity.
When amid applause Joe came up out of the tank after an immersion of nearly three and a quarter minutes, Jim Tracy gave orders to have the water emptied out, and the tank packed for transportation. The glass sides were removable.
"I don't know whether we'll have any use for it again or not," said the ring-master. "How about it, Joe?"
"I'll tell you later," was the answer.
"Say, what about Benny Turton?" asked Tom Jefferson, the strong man, as the performance came to a close and the crowd was filing out. "Can he travel on with us?"
"No," answered Joe. "He will have to stay behind when the show goes on."
And, as the circus was to play in another town the next day, the show "moved on."
Benny Turton, the "human fish," was left behind. But it had to be so. There was no other way.
"Poor boy," murmured Helen, as she thought of the slight figure resting in the white hospital bed. "Poor boy! I suppose they'll all forget him soon—when they have a new act in place of his."