“Here’s a friend of mine,” went on the “fish,” with a smile. “His name is Strong. You ought to see him juggle trunks. He wants to watch the trapeze fellows doing some try-outs.”
“All right, Ben. As long as he’s a friend of yours it goes. Make yourself at home, Strong,” went on the ring-master, “and if anybody asks you what you’re doing, tell ’em Jim Tracy said it was all right. How you making out, Benny? Need any help?” His voice seemed to take on a kinder tone as he spoke to the rather frail looking lad.
“Oh, I’m all right now. He gave me a hand just when I needed it,” and he nodded to Joe. “Got to get my suit mended, or I’ll be full of water before my act’s half over.”
“That’s right—don’t spoil the act,” admonished the ring-master. “It’s too good to have that happen. Well, I’ve got about a thousand things to do. See you later,” and with a nod to the two young men he hurried off.
“Now you can go about as you like,” said Benny. “He’s the head boss, and one of the owners of Sampson Brothers’ Gigantic Aggregation of Circus and Hippodrome,” said Ben with a laugh, as he quoted part of the show bills. “What he says goes!”
Benny Turton, the “human fish,” had unlocked his trunk, and was taking out a queer suit, made, it seemed, of rubber, covered with shimmering green scales like those of a fish.
“This is supposed to be water-tight,” Benny explained, “and it is, when it doesn’t leak. I’ve got to put a patch on one elbow,” and he showed where a rip would let water in. “I mend it with a rubber cement,” he added, “and it takes a little time to dry. That’s why I was in a hurry to get at it. You’ll see some of the trapeze men at work soon, I think. Come back when you’re through watching them.”
A little later Joe found himself in the main tent, which was now almost completely erected, and as soon as this had been done men began putting in place the trapezes, flying rings and other pieces of apparatus on which the acrobats performed their feats.
While this was going on a man came strolling in, and from the anxious orders he gave, and from the manner in which he watched the arranging of some of the trapezes, Joe surmised that he was one of the performers. He made sure of this a little later when the man swung himself up on the bar, tested it, and then began to go through a few simple exercises in his street clothes, as though to test the ropes and fastenings.
“All right,” he called to the workmen. “That’ll do.”