villages. The vestal silence remained unbroken by the
stridulous clarinet and the blatant trombones.

Every man has a weakness, and Brinton had his. He was in tender
thraldom. He loved the woman that jumped through the hoops and balloons
on a padded horse. Whenever her eyes turned on him they sent a thrill
through him more exciting than that produced by Brutus. He generally
stood near the ring-board when she appeared in public, and envied the
ringmaster the agreeable duty of assisting her to mount. Admiringly he
watched her shapely legs going through the hoops and over the garters,
as her eyes sparkled and her face flushed with the excitement, but there
was no indication of his love being returned.

When Rounders discovered this tenderness in the heart of the tamer, he
thought of Samson and Delilah, and wondered if something of the kind
could not be done with natural comeliness instead of a pair of scissors.
Guided by instinct, Rounders, who was a shrewd fellow, as has already
been said, made his court to Mlle. La Sauteuse, known in private life as
Sally Stubbs. There were conventional barriers between a keeper and a
rider, but Rounders by tact and good looks got over them, and whispered
sweet nonsense in the porches of Miss Stubbs's willing ear.

One evening, after the performance, as the moon shone athwart the great
tent, and the brass band was hushed, Sally Stubbs stood against a
background of canvas, bathed in the sheen from on high. Quiet reigned in
the tents of the elephantine woman and the calf with six legs. The
lung-tester had folded up his machine and departed. The sound of
"ice-cold lemonade" had died in the general stillness. Mlle. La Sauteuse
leaned over lovingly to the new keeper, and asked in a low, sympathetic
voice,

"What can I do for you, Jim Rounders?"

"Find out the 'meat-jerk,'" was the swift response.

"Alas," said the fair Stubbs, "when you've been as long in the tent as
I've been, you'll know that that is impossible. You might as well ask me
for a slice of the moon that is now lookin' down on this here peaceful
scene atween you and me."

"You've heard the Sunday school story about Samson and Delilah?" pursued
Rounders.

"What's that got to do with John Brinton's secret?"

"What's been done can be done again. Delilah wormed it out of Samson:
why can't Sally Stubbs worm it out of Brinton?"

"Cut off his hair, as the Bible woman did?"

"That's too thin," said Rounders rashly, without f