"They put on Thacher in your place. You and him are probably the only
two men in the profession who can do the somersault trapeze act with old
Benares. That puts you out of a job, for you're no good single."

"I guess that is right. Thacher takes the bread out of my mouth, sink
him!"

"You say, 'twenty dollars' if I fix Thacher so he can't act well,"
declared Murdock in a cold-blooded way that made Andy shiver, "he won't
act for a spell after to-night, I'm thinking."

"Come to the point--what did you do?"

"Why, after doing their regular stunt on a separate trapeze, Thatcher
somersaults and catches a bar swing from centre. He hangs by his knees
and Benares swings from aloft and catches his hands in his dive for
life. Well, the minute Thacher lands on the centre trapeze to-night down
he goes forty feet head-first. It's broken limbs or nothing, for I cut
the bar free first thing after the afternoon performance. It's held in
place now by only two little pieces of thread that a child's finger
could break."

"Um!" remarked Daley. "I guess I'll cut for it. They think I'm a hundred
miles away. It mustn't be known that I was this near the circus or
they'd suspect me. I presume they'll be wiring for me to come back now."

"Oh, sure. They won't suspect me, either. I sneaked in the big tent and
fixed the trapeze when no one was about. See here, Daley, if you do get
your job back you'd ought to give me an extra ten."