capital of his body. The inference was logical. It was a
strong clue, and Mr. Gubb hurried to the circus grounds to study the
situation.

"No," said Syrilla tearfully, "you _don't_ care a hang for the nerves
of the lady and gent freaks under your care, Mr. Dorgan. It's nothin'
to you if repulsion from that corpse-like Pet drags seventy or eighty
pounds of fat off of me, for you well know what my contract is--so
much a week and so much for each additional pound of fat, and the less
fat I am the less you have to add onto your pay-roll. The day the Pet
come to the show first I fainted outright and busted down the
platform, but little do you care, Mr. Dorgan."

"Don't you worry; you didn't murder him," said Mr. Dorgan.

"He looks so lifelike!" sobbed Syrilla.

"Oh, Hoxie!" shouted Mr. Dorgan.

"Yes, sir?" said the Strong Man, coming to the car door.

"Take Syrilla in and tell the girls to put ice on her head. She's
gettin' hysterics again. And when you've told 'em, you go up to the
grounds and tell Blake and Skinny to unpack the Petrified Man. Tell
'em I'm goin' to use him again to-day, and if he's lookin' shop-worn,
have one of the men go over his complexion and make him look nice and
lifelike."

Mr. Dorgan swung off from the car step and walked away.

The Petrified Man had been one of his mistakes. In days past petrified
men had been important side-show features and Mr. Dorgan had supposed
the time had come to re-introduce them, and he had had an excellent
petrified man made of concrete, with steel reinforcements in the legs
and arms and a body of hollow tile so that it could stand rough
travel.

Unfortunately, the features of the Petrified Man had been entrusted to
an artist devoted to the making of clothing dummies. Instead of an
Aztec or Cave Dweller cast of countenance, he had given the Petrified
Man the simpering features of the wax figures seen in cheap clothing
stores. The result was that, instead of gazing at the Petrified Man
with awe as a wonder of nature, the audiences laughed at him, and the
living freaks dubbed him "the Pet," or, still more rudely, "the
Corpse," and when the glass case broke at the end of the week, Mr.
Dorgan ordered the Pet packed in a box.

Just now, however, the flight of the Tasmanian Wild Man, and the
involuntary departure of Mr. Winterberry at the command of his wife
after his short appearance as Waw-Waw, the Mexican Hairless Dog-Man,
suggested the new use for the Petrifie