"So simple," continued the wounded man with effort, "I'm sure you wonder to yourself you never thought of it before."
Here he gasped for breath. After a pause he gathered himself together for another effort, and went on.
"You tried it on Pompey. He was never trained, and of course you failed. If you are afraid of handling Brutus, you can train Pompey—as I did Brutus."
The tamer stopped again to get breath, and the pause was longer than those which preceded it. He was weak unto death. The faint reflection of a smile flitted over his features as he said in a hoarse whisper,
"My last performance now—no postponement—on account of the weather."
After another long pause, in the same hoarse whisper, he said,
"This secret—will be a fortune—to you, Jim Rounders. Now shake hands—and let—me die."
And two hands clasped. One was warm, and pulsating with vigorous life, but the other was dead. As Rounders held the lifeless one in his, he resolved to renounce the ungrateful profession; but after the burial of the dead tamer, the ruling passion took possession of him again, and he did not rest until he had performed the "meat-jerk" with Brutus. Indeed, he was not satisfied to walk in the footsteps of Brinton, but became in his turn a creator of a Biblical drama, which he called "Daniel in the Lion's Den."
Albert Rhodes.