For months after， on any given night， as the cara-
van of trailers moved down the road， some sleepy
juggler or flyer or acrobat would turn from the
tedium of the unending road to say to his partner，
\" If Starback would only have left that cat alone， I
bet it would have circled the arena and jumped
back up on its stand.\"
And another sleepy juggler or flyer or acrobat
would say， \"Nobody U ever know.\"
Starback himself knew only that he had to have
complete control or he had nothing but luck， and
~ ~obody s luck lasts forever. He headed the cat oK
and tried to back him down. The chair was eaten
out of his hand. The pieces of it broke like snap-
ping bones and flew up in front of his face. He
dropped the whip. Then he did that other thing.
He jumped up on the bars of the arena and tried
to crawl to the top. Old Dan jumped too， and took
the right buttock in his yellow mouth and held
Starback fast while he raked his back with one
set of claws. Starback held tight to the bars.
It hurt beyond all imaginable pain. The scream
twisted shut his throat.
He was Captain Rex Starback then. Ten years
ago.
Beads of perspiration still dotted his head when
he thought about it， and an ache surrounded the
ten inches of numbness that ran from his buttock
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