rp as gimlets with
looking out for snags and sandbanks.

"The finest beast in the whole menagerie, that big grizzly," said he,
spitting accurately into a spacious box of sawdust, "I noticed as how
ye didn't have _him_ in your performance, Mr. Toomey. Now, I kind o'
thought as how I'd like to see you put _him_ through his stunts."

Toomey was silent for a moment. Then, with a certain reserve in his
voice, he answered--

"Oh, he ain't exactly strong on stunts."

The leather-faced captain grinned quizzically.

"Which does he go shy on, Mr. Toomey, the love or the fear?" he
asked.

"Both," said Toomey, shortly. Then his stern face relaxed, and he
laughed good-humoredly. "Fact is, I think we'll have to be sellin'
that there grizzly to some zoological park. He's kind of bad fer my
prestige."

"How's that, Job?" asked Sanderson, expectant of a story.

"Well," replied Toomey, "to tell you the truth, boys,--an' I only say
it because I'm here at home, among friends,--it's _me_ that's afraid
of _him_! An' he knows it. He's the only beast that's ever been able
to make me feel fear--the real, deep-down fear. An' I've never been
able to git quit of that ugly notion. I go an' stand in front o' his
cage; an' he jest puts that great face of his up agin the bars an'
stares at me. An' I look straight into his eyes, an' remember what has
passed between us, an' I feel afraid still. Yes, it wouldn't be much
use me tryin' to train _that_ bear, boys, an' I'm free to acknowledge
it to you all."

"Tell us about it, Job!" suggested the barkeeper, settling his large
frame precariously on the top of a small, high stool.

An urgent chorus of approval came from all about the bar. Toomey took
out his watch and considered.

"We start away at 5.40 A.M.," said he. "An' I must make out to get a
wink o' sleep. But I reckon I've got time enough. As you'll see,
however, before I git through, the drinks are on me, so name yer
pison, boys. Meanwhile, you'll excuse me if I don't join you this
time. A man kin hold jest about so much Vichy an' milk, an' I've got
my load aboard.

"It was kind of this way," he continued, when the barkeeper had
performed his functions. "You see, for nigh ten years after I left
Grantham Mills, I'd stuck closer'n a burr to my business, till I began
to feel I knew 'most all there was to know about trainin' animals.
Men do git that kind of a fool feelin' sometimes about lots of things
harder than animal-trainin'. Well,