b."

"Oh!" exclaimed Helen, sympathetically. "Poor Benny, never to speak or
hear again!"

"Well, we may be able to save him, but that can not yet be said with
certainty," stated the doctor. "You see the water pressure on his ear
drums, and on his vocal cords, caused by his act in picking up coins in
his mouth while under water, has, to a certain extent, injured them. He
is in a bad way now."

"Can he speak?" asked Helen.

"Only a little. And he can hear less."

"We'd like to see him," put in Joe.

"I think that can be arranged," the doctor said. "I'll go and find out
how he is now."

"That was the meaning of all the pains and queer feelings Benny had,"
said Joe to Helen, as they were left alone in the waiting room of the
hospital. "You know he often spoke about a pain at the back of his
head."

"Yes, you mentioned it several times," Helen remarked. "Oh, I am so
sorry for him! I wonder if there is anything we can do for him."

"I'll find out when we see him," answered Joe. "But I don't know what I
ought to do. If he can't go on with his act to-night----"

"Oh, surely he can't!" Helen interrupted.

"No, I reckon not," Joe agreed slowly. "Well, that means I'll have to
do it, I suppose, if they have it billed. It won't do to shut it off
suddenly. We'll have to wait until we get to another town, and we show
here another day. I guess I'll have to let Jim Tracy know that Benny
won't be with the show again right away."

"I suppose that would be best," Helen said. "We'll go back to the tent
as soon as we've seen Benny."

They found the young circus tank-actor propped up in the clean, white
hospital bed, with a pleasant-faced nurse hovering about him. Benny
looked pale and wan, though perhaps some of his pallor was caused by
the white pillows and bedspread.

"Well, old man, how goes it?" asked Joe, as he walked up, with extended
hand.

Benny smiled, but did not answer.

"You'll have to speak louder," the nurse said. "He's quite deaf, you
know."

Joe, for the moment, had forgotten. He repeated his question in louder
tones.

Benny fumbled under the bedclothes and brought out a pad and pencil.

"The doctor doesn't want him to speak for a while," the nurse
explained, for the physician, after telling Joe and Helen they might go
up, had been called to see another patient. "He will write his answers,
and he can hear if you speak quite loudly."

Benny wrote:

"I'm feeling better. Glad you came. What did they