of politeness as well, to
give ear.

Speaking in a quaint and at times almost incomprehensible vernacular, he
began by telling me as we reclined side by side beneath the same
coverlid that he was no other than Zeno the Great. He then paused, as
though to allow me time in which to recover from any astonishment I
might feel. In sooth, I had never before heard of any person wearing so
singular an appellation; but, realising instinctively that some response
from me was expected, I murmured, "Ah, indeed! How very interesting!"
and begged him to proceed.

This he straightway did, paying no heed to the muttered complaints of
our third companion, who reclined on the other side from me, I being in
the middle. Since our fortunes were thereafter to be so strangely
intertwined, I deem it best to detail in effect the disclosures then and
there made to me by this gentleman, Zeno the Great.

His name, it developed, was not Zeno, but Finnigan, the more sonorous
cognomen having been adopted for professional purposes. He had begun
life humbly, as a blacksmith's assistant in a hamlet in Michigan, later
attaching himself to a travelling circus. Here his duties mainly
consisted in lending assistance in the elevating and lowering of the
tent. Possessing great bodily strength and activity, however, he had in
spare time perfected himself in the art of lifting, balancing and
juggling objects of enormous weight, such as steel bars, iron balls, and
so on, with the gratifying result that he presently became a duly
qualified performer, appearing for a term of years before large and
enthusiastic audiences, and everywhere with the most marked success
imaginable; in fact, he was now without a peer in his chosen vocation,
as he himself freely conceded. He expressed himself as being exceedingly
sorry not to have with him a scrapbook containing a great number of
press clippings laudatory of his achievements, adding that he would have
been glad to lend me the book in order that I might read its entire
contents at my leisure.

At length his fame, having first spread the length and breadth of our
own country, reached foreign shores. After spirited bidding on the part
of practically all the leading Continental managers he accepted an
engagement at a princely salary to perform before the crowned heads of
Europe, and others, as the principal attraction of a vaudeville company
contemplating a tour of Europe. I recall that he specifically mentioned
crowned