Sube Cane Part 30

Sube hung his head as he murmured, "I said, 'the Bible.'"

Mr. Cane softened instantly. He thought he had discovered an undreamed-of spark of reverence in his son. "That's a very good book for you to read," he said kindly. "I hope you'll read it every day."

If Mr. Cane had looked into the parlor two minutes later, he would have realized his mistake. For Sube carefully tore from the Holy Writ a single page which he folded up compactly and thrust deep into his hip-pocket. At that moment he heard his mother's voice calling him; and hurriedly thrusting aside the screen his father had so carefully adjusted, he leaped from the window and was gone.

As Sube's showmanship developed, his manners dwindled. Sometimes it seemed to his family that his reason was tottering. One evening at dinner he humiliated his parents and irritated beyond words a dyspeptic jurist who was his father's guest, by interjecting into the conversation observations regarding the peculiarities of the blood-sweathing behemoth. And this in spite of the fact that his mother had previously warned him that any attempt on his part to partic.i.p.ate in the talk at the table would be considered as an unfriendly act. Finally his enthusiasm ran away with him to such an extent that he forced upon the diners over the _sotto voce_ protests of his mother, an off-hand description of the creature of Job's fancy, so detailed and so unexpurgated that his instant dismissal from the table became imperative.

He left the room more outraged than chastened, muttering something about being able to "prove it" and fumbling sulkily in his hip pocket apparently for evidence. A few moments later he was standing before his beloved poster regarding his heart's desire with a sense of peculiar proprietorship. After a little he sat down on the gra.s.s; and while Sport, his old spotted dog, lay at his feet lazily digging at one ear with a rheumatic hind-foot, Sube drew from his pocket and read aloud in a halting monotone certain portions of the fortieth chapter of the Book of Job, often pausing between verses to verify the observations of the Patient Prophet by comparison with the portrait taken from life.

When the gathering dusk made further reading impossible, and began to blur the features of the behemoth into less pleasing form Sube stood up.

"Sport," he said, "you'll prob'ly make a b.u.m job of it, but you're goin'

to be a blood-sweatin' behemoth of Holy Writ."

The dog received this announcement with equanimity, little realizing the inconvenience it was to cause him.

The next day at Sunday School Sube declined to give the Golden Text, and recited in its stead a few verses from the Book of Job to which his teacher, Miss Lester, took choleric exception. He was immediately sent home; but when Miss Lester stopped in to explain matters to his mother he had not yet arrived. As he sauntered in half an hour later he met with a very warm reception and was placed on jail-limits for the remainder of the day, being forbidden to leave the premises. But this entailed no great hardship, for he spent the afternoon in the barn printing posters and making preparations for the circus which he was planning to launch on the morrow.

Monday was a red-letter day for the youth living in that part of the town known as the East Village. The lucky few who were a.s.sociated with the management were engaged in building the "ampatheater" and fashioning the drop curtain from a quant.i.ty of ex-fertilizer sacks that were Gizzard Tobin's contribution to the enterprise; the others were kept busy knocking the show, and at the same time getting together the price of admission.

At about two o'clock in the afternoon a great hubbub was heard in the streets. It sounded at first as if a newspaper extra had arrived; but a careful listener would have been able to make out that the cry was, "Cir-cus!" instead of, "Ux-try!" Then came the additional announcement that the big show would start at two-thirty sharp in the main tent upstairs in Canes' barn.

The barkers darted from place to place with such amazing rapidity and shouted so l.u.s.tily that it seemed as if there must be nearer forty of them than four. Indeed their cries appeared to come from all sides at once. Nor was the rapidity of their movements accelerated by their circus costumes, for they were all in full dress; and their upturned trousers would insist on coming down over their feet and tripping them up from time to time.

It is possible that this may account for the disreputable condition in which two or three fathers in the neighborhood found their evening clothes the next time they had occasion to wear them. Although, without exception, the boys in the affected families denied any knowledge of the matter.

When the time-piece on the shelf in Canes' kitchen reached two-thirty o'clock the "ampatheater" was crowded to capacity, and although several late comers were a.s.sured by the man at the door that there were plenty of "reserved seats for every man, woman and child, one and all, admitted to the big tent," they found on going inside that there was standing room only.

"Plen-ty of room! Plen-ty of room!" drawled the loud nasal voice at the door. "Do not loi-ter about the entrance, please! Either step in, or step aside! Gangway, please! Gang-way! Do not interfere with our pa-trons--"

These and many other remarks of a distinctly professional nature came from Ringmaster Cane, who seemed to be everywhere at once. Now he was at the entrance keeping it free from loiterers; now his nasal drawl could be heard issuing orders behind the scenes; now he was a.s.sisting a couple of ladies to find seats in the "ampatheater"; and at last, with three shrill blasts on a police whistle, he stood before the curtain and cracked his whip for order.

CHAPTER XIX

SUBE THE SHOWMAN

A battered silk hat that had seen his father through a campaign for district attorney a number of years before rested on his ears, causing them to protrude unnaturally, while a full-dress coat with pointed tails that just cleared the floor gave him a quadrupedal appearance. This coat was the wearer's conception of sartorial perfection, having been cut out by his own hands from an old raincoat of his father's. A pair of painter's overalls with a hectic past completed his costume.

And while the audience gazed with interest at the ringmaster, the ringmaster was gazing with equal interest at the audience. He was trying to make himself think that the circus was solely responsible for the gala dress that confronted him, although his better judgment should have told him that most of those present were thus gayly clad for Cottontop Sigsbee's party that was to take place at the conclusion of the performance.

After cracking the whip a few times to show how skillfully it could be done, the ringmaster proceeded to deliver a highly entertaining lecture prepared by himself in collaboration with one Job, and to a.s.sure his hearers that his show possessed the only "genuine blood-sweatin'

behemoth of Holy Writ now in captivity, regardluss of the claims of jealous compet'ors exackly as advertised."

As he gave a preliminary shake of the drop-curtain the antic.i.p.ations of the audience ran high, for they distinctly smelled something suggestive of the odor of wild animals; but alas, it was only a faint reminiscence from the curtain. After one or two false starts the ringmaster drew back the curtain.

"Behold now behemoth, ladies and gent'mun!" he cried with a sweeping gesture of the hand toward the center of the stage.

With a craning of necks and a straining of eyes the audience beheld a quadruped about the size of Sport and the color of stove-blacking, manacled by a huge log-chain to a Nubian animal trainer who bore a striking resemblance to Gizzard Tobin, although bereft of all clothing save a pair of swimming trunks and a spa.r.s.e coating of black.

The murmur of disapproval that greeted this tableau was quickly quelled by the ringmaster, as he brought the curtains together and began to declaim in a loud voice:

"Not so pre-vious, ladies and gent'mun! Not so pre-vious, I beg of you!

The best is yet to come! You have not seen this wonderful Biblic animal p'form!... Why, ladies and gent'mun, he sweats blood! Bl-l-l-l-ud!...

Real,--rich,--red,--human bl-l-l-ud!... Each and every person present is unt.i.tled to see him sweat bl-l-l-ud, or money refunded, exackly as advertised!"

Then the ringmaster poked his head between the curtains and said in a desperate whisper quite as audible on one side of the curtain as the other: "Hurry up, Giz! I can't keep this up all night!" and turning to the audience resumed, "Yes, ladies and gent'mun, he sweats bl-l-lud; and Job, this wond'ful blood-sweatin' creature's trainer, is now gettin' his blood ready for him. For, ladies and gent'mun, he does act'ally sweat bl-l-lud! Real,--rich,--red,--human,--bl-l-l-lud! The same as you one and all have got in your insides, exackly as advertised--"

Three distinct raps were heard. Again Sube drew back the redolent curtain and to all appearances the dog-like behemoth was sweating blood profusely. He was completely inundated with a bright red liquid which dripped and trickled down on the floor in numerous gory puddles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AUDIENCE WAS SPELL BOUND]

For an instant the audience was spellbound. Sube was enough of a showman to realize this; but he was not enough of a showman to draw the curtain before the spell could be broken. Intoxicated with success, he attempted to prolong the supreme moment to the uttermost. And thus came disaster.

For this particular behemoth was new at the blood-sweating business. In fact, he had no idea that he was sweating blood. He knew only that he was saturated with a chilling liquid, and he did the customary thing: he shook himself thoroughly.

For an instant there was an ominous silence, during which fresh white dresses with socks to match suddenly acquired numberless polka dots, while mult.i.tudes of crimson freckles appeared on hitherto unblemished cheeks and arms and legs; and Biscuit Westfall's new white sailor suit, purchased especially for the party, broke out with more red pimples than a bad case of chicken-pox. n.o.body was spared. But those in the rear were only sprinkled, while those in the front row were deluged.

Expectorations, expostulations and lamentations followed in order. Then came the most dreaded of all showman's disasters, the ghastly rush for the exits.

Fortunately the stairway was large and the audience was small. There was no choking of the aisles. n.o.body was trampled underfoot. Not a single casualty occurred, although Sport had a narrow escape. For, as the howling mob was rushing out of the big barn-door, he came flying down the stairs astride his long tail, followed by numerous missiles and epithets forcefully hurled after him by unseen persons in the loft.

Sube came to a hasty conclusion that Cottontop's party was no place for him, and went into hiding for the rest of the afternoon. Annie called him until she was hoa.r.s.e, but there was no response. And when she tried to enlist Sport's aid in finding his master the long-suffering creature refused to be lured from his kennel, but spent the remainder of the day licking at the unpalatable mixture of stove-blacking and raspberry juice with a sullen expression that seemed to indicate that even among dogs patience sometimes ceases to be a virtue.

On the whole it was an ignominious ending for Sube's moment of triumph.

It threatened to crush his three-ring ambitions; but two weeks later when the special train of Baylum and Barney's Greatest Show on Earth came thundering into town an hour before daybreak, the first person on hand to welcome and a.s.sist was none other than Sube Cane.

In spite of the interference of several officious roustabouts Sube succeeded in superintending the unloading of the blood-sweating behemoth's cage, and personally conducted it to the Fair Grounds. When the tarpaulin was removed it was discovered that the cage had been so badly damaged in transit that immediate repairs were necessary.

Arrangements were accordingly made to transfer the behemoth to another cage; and while the roustabouts were still something of a hindrance to the youthful superintendent, matters progressed smoothly until Sport appeared on the scene, fawning humbly and wagging his tail with obsequious joy at the sight of his master.

Sube had placed the dog in solitary confinement before leaving home for the express purpose of preventing his attendance at the circus, and he was greatly annoyed at this display of presumption. He intimated as much in a gruff undertone followed by the vicious throwing of several imaginary rocks. Sport retired with a deeply injured air, and was soon lost to sight in the crowd.

But just as the huge hulk of the blood-sweating behemoth was pa.s.sing from one cage to the other the faithful animal came back and made a heroic effort to save his master's life by attempting to attack the hideous beast through the bars of the temporary fence by which it was confined.

The unexpectedness of the onslaught caused the behemoth to shy so violently from its a.s.sailant that it knocked down the fence on the farther side of the lane through which it was being urged, and suddenly found itself free and unfettered. Meanwhile Sport was pressing his attack with great vocal enthusiasm, and was showing signs of closing in on his quarry. He abandoned this idea, however, when the behemoth turned and made a counter-charge. It was then that a parade not on the program took place.

It was led by Sport, at a pace totally at variance with the ordinary formal circus-wagon parade, for Sport was capable of much more speed than his years and his rheumatism would have induced one to believe. In fact, the only thing that prevented him from making a world's record was his tail, which kept getting tangled up with his front legs.

A short distance behind Sport came the behemoth, lumbering, careening and snorting, but making very rapid progress. Then after a long blank s.p.a.ce came Sube the Showman, on a bicycle he had commandeered for the occasion, pressed to the utmost to maintain the pace set by the leaders.

Not far behind Sube came a motley crowd of blasphemous circus-hands and howling urchins. The rear guard was made up of the more mature onlookers whose curiosity was mightier than their caution.

The parade proceeded by the most direct route to Canes' barn, the First Section arriving only a few feet in advance of the Second. Nor did the First Section tarry long in the barn; but hurled itself through a small hole in the rear wall that led into its kennel--and there it fell exhausted. The Second Section brought up with a loud snort in an abandoned horse stall, and stood puffing and wheezing and wondering what to do next, when the Third Section arrived and by almost superhuman efforts managed to close the big barn-door all but a few inches.

The Third Section was peering so intently through the crack of the door in an effort to see whether the Second Section was sweating blood exackly as advertised, that it failed to note the coming of a rubber-tired runabout drawn by a team of milk-white Arabians, until the red-faced individual in charge of the conveyance exploded:

"Well--I'll--be--blowed!"