ay, he was eyed with considerable
curiosity by the freaks. Castellani asked him directly what Bat meant
by his stories. Sampey had expected this question, and was ready for
it. After binding the showman to everlasting secrecy, he said:

"I have made a great discovery, but it is impossible for me to go into
all its details. It must be sufficient at present for me to say that
after many years of scientific experiment I have learned the secret of
changing the color of my eyes at will."

He said this very simply, as though unconscious of announcing one of
the most extraordinary things to which the ages have given birth.

But Castellani was a study. Some great shock, resembling apoplexy,
seemed to have invaded his system. Being a shrewd business man, he
presently recovered his composure, and then in the most indifferent
manner remarked that a person who could change the color of his eyes at
will ought to be able, perhaps, if he should get started right, to make
a little money, possibly, out of the accomplishment; and then he
offered Sampey forty dollars a week to pose as a freak in the Great
Oriental Dime Museum. Sampey, who knew that the Wild Man of Milo's
salary was two hundred dollars a week (which, although large, was well
earned, seeing that everybody had to pull the tuft on his nose to be
sure that it grew there), asked time to consider the splendid offer,
which to him was a fortune.

There was the certainty of losing Zoe when she should learn that his
amber eyes were not really heroic. He went to a retired showman and
asked him what salaries might be commanded by a man with a hair-tufted
nose and a man who could change the color of his eyes to any other
color at will. This showman answered:

"I've seen Castellani's man with the tuft. He gets two hundred dollars
a week. That is pretty high. If you can bring me a man who can change
the color of his eyes at will to any other color, I will pay him a
thousand dollars a week and start in the business again."

Sampey slept not a wink that night.

Meanwhile a change had taken place in Zoe: she had suddenly become more
charming than ever. Her gentleness and sweetness had become conspicuously
augmented, and she was so kind and sweet-mannered to all, including the
Wild Man of Milo (whom she had formerly avoided through instinctive
fear), that Bat took greater heart and swore to win her, though he
might have to wade through oceans of Sampey blood. Mark this: Stake not
too