him says it's time to grab or let go. That's the only
watch he has, and it's the only one he needs."

"And he dives by the sense of time?"

"That's right."

"And does triple somersaults by the sense of time?"

"Certainly he does. He can't see. What could _you_ see, falling and
whirling? A gymnast has no different eyes from any other man. He's got
to _feel_ how long he must keep on turning. And it's good-by gymnast if
his feeling is a quarter of a second out of the way."

"Do you mean that literally?"

Mr. Potter smiled. "I'll give you a case, and you can judge for
yourself. There was a fellow named Johnnie Howard in the Barnum show. He
was doing trapeze work with the famous Dunham family, and was very
ambitious to equal Dunham in all his feats, which was a large contract,
for Dunham is about the finest gymnast in the world. What a pretty
triple he can do, clean down from the top of the tent, and land right
every time!

"Well, Howard he kept trying triples, and sometimes he got 'em about
right and sometimes he didn't. Dunham told him he'd better stick to
doubles until he'd had more practice, but Howard wouldn't have it, and
he kept right on. Prob'ly he thought Dunham was jealous of him. Anyhow,
he tried a triple one night at Chicago, in the Coliseum, and that was
the last triple he ever did try. He misjudged his time by a quarter of a
turn--that is, he turned three somersaults and a quarter instead of just
three--and struck the net so that he twisted his spinal column, and he
died a few weeks later. That last quarter of a turn killed him, and it
probably didn't take over a tenth of a second."

Here was something to think about. Precision of movement to tenths of a
second, with no guidance but a man's own intuition of time, and a life
depending on it!

"Can a man regulate the speed of his turning while he is in the air?"

"Certainly he can. That's the first thing you learn. If you want to turn
faster you tuck up your knees and bend your head so the chin almost
touches your breast. If you want to turn slower you stretch out your
legs and straighten up your head. The main thing is your head. Whichever
way you point that your body will follow. In our act we do a long drop
from the top of the tent, where you shoot straight down, head first, for
fifty or sixty feet and never move a muscle until you are two feet over
the net. Then you duck your head everlastingly quick and land on your
shoulders."

I asked Mr. Po