cuted with great certainty, but incomprehensible to any one
not in the secret. There could be no doubt but that the spectacle which
was being prepared would be of a sensational character: even the back-wall
of the stage, which was empty at that moment, had been altered. By
clearing away a few dressing-rooms, they had raised the floor and ceiling
of the huge property-entrance. It had been closed up at the back and
fitted with a sliding door in front.

"The bird's cage," said Jimmy, with a smile.

"And how does he get out?" asked Harrasford.

"Windlasses here ... a rope up above ... hooks," said Jimmy.

"And when will it be fixed?"

"Finished next week, everything's ready, the trials have been made. It
will only need a little practice, here, on the spot, calculating the
effort, getting used to the distance."

"House packed for six months!" said the manager. "Here's a cigar to your
success, Jimmy! Come and let's have a drink at the bar; we'll settle the
program over there."

A moment later, the two entered the bar where, a fortnight earlier, Lily
had handed round the hat a second time for old Martello and his Bambinis
and where the artistes, who had already dispersed toward the four corners
of Europe, had raised their glasses to the success of the Astrarium. And
there, in the little back room, which was deserted by the artistes, now
that the theater was closed, but which would soon again be the
intersecting point of so many vagabond existences ... where the nigger
cake-walker from Chicago would play poker with the equilibrist from Japan
... where the profs and the bosses would exchange complaints about the
strictness of the regulations concerning the work of apprentices ... where
little girls, worth their weight in gold, would come, coyly, encompassed
by Pas and Mas, but with glances askance at flight; in that corner where
funny men would swallow mixed drinks and talk through their noses; there,
under the frames containing row upon row of signed photographs of
artistes: human pyramids, girls in a knot, foaming muslins, Apollos and
Venuses all muscles; there, in Pros' Corner, Harrasford, the man for whom
all those people toiled and moiled, head down or feet in the air, the man
from whom one thousand persons drew salaries night after night, Harrasford
lit his cigar and sat down at a table with Jimmy, over a

bottle of beer, and, forthwith, pencil and note-book in hand:

"Let's see the program."

Jimmy, on his side