minutes. It can be seen that it is not
always a man or a boy who has the largest lung capacity. This girl was
not remarkable for size, being, in fact, rather frail. But she had
under-water endurance down to a science, and it is even said that her
last record was four minutes.

Sponge and pearl divers of tropical countries are credited with power
to remain under water for long periods--some claim five minutes--but
the records give about three minutes as the average, though it is
possible that some exceptional individual may equal five minutes. But
they have to work hard while under water, and, of course, divers go
deeper than the eight feet in Joe's tank.

Opening his mouth under water gave the young performer an idea.

He stretched out his arms in a tired and lazy manner, yawned with
wide-open mouth as though sleepy, and then, using the box his tricks
came in as a pillow, he stretched out on the sandy bottom of the tank,
and pretended to go to sleep.

And this, coming at the end of his little performance, and when he had
been under water nearly three minutes, made quite an impression on the
crowd. There was some laughter at Joe's comical antics, but there were
also murmurs of wonder at his endurance.

However, Joe was about at the end of this now. His head felt dizzy and
it seemed as if his lungs would burst through his chest, so great was
the confined pressure on them now.

Still he knew he must not hurry up, gasping for breath. Benny never did
that, but came out as though he could have stayed under all day if he
had cared to. It made a far neater finish to the act.

So Joe slowly opened his eyes, pretended to look at a watch as though
it were time to get up, and then he slowly floated to the top of the
water.

And oh! how good it did feel to get that breath of air. He wanted to
gulp in a whole lot of it at once, but he held himself in reserve, and
tried to breathe naturally. It was hard work, though.

"Three minutes and four seconds!" announced the ring-master, as he held
up his watch. "If I am wrong correct me, friends."

"Good work! Fine, Joe!" cried the ring-master. "You saved the day for
us. I put some one else on your trapeze for the time being. I thought
you wouldn't want to go on."

"No, hardly. Glad you did. Do you think it went all right?"

"It sure did!"

"Oh, Joe! I'm so glad--for you!" exclaimed Helen as the young performer
went down the steps to the ground.

"Look out! I'll get you all