human
The trouble is they're getting too used to it, the man complained.
gpt
Isadora can't prod them up any more. They just won't make a showing.
human
I know them, Collins nodded.
gpt
They're pretty old now, and they're spirit-broken besides. Take old Sark there. He's had so many blank cartridges fired into his ears that he's stone deaf. And Selim--he lost his heart with his teeth. A Portuguese fellow who was handling him for the Barnum and Bailey show did that for him. You've heard?
human
I've often wondered, the man shook his head.
gpt
It must have been a smash.
human
It was. The Portuguese did it with an iron bar. Selim was sulky and took a swipe at him with his paw, and he whopped it to him full in the mouth just as he opened it to let out a roar. He told me about it himself. Said Selim's teeth rattled on the floor like dominoes. But he shouldn't have done it. It was destroying valuable property. Anyway, they fired him for it.
gpt
Well, all three of them ain't worth much to me now, said their owner.
human
They won't play up to Isadora in that roaring and rampaging at the end. It really made the turn. It was our finale, and we always got a great hand for it. Say, what am I going to do about it anyway? Ditch it? Or get some young lions?
gpt
Isadora would be safer with the old ones,
human
Too safe, Isadora's husband objected.
gpt
Of course, with younger lions, the work and responsibility piles up on me. But we've got to make our living, and this turn's about busted.
human
What d'ye mean?--what's the idea?
gpt
They'll live for years yet, seeing how captivity has agreed with them, Collins elucidated.
human
If you invest in young lions you run the risk of having them pass out on you. And you can go right on pulling the trick off with what you've got. All you've got to do is to take my advice . . .
gpt
Which will cost you, Collins went on deliberately,
human
Just for some advice?
gpt
Which I guarantee will work. What would you have to pay for three new lions? Here's where you make money at three hundred. And it's the simplest of advice. I can tell it to you in three words, which is at the rate of a hundred dollars a word, and one of the words is 'the.'
human
Too steep for me, the other objected.
gpt
I've got a make a living.
human
So have I, Collins assured him.
gpt
That's why I'm here. I'm a specialist, and you're paying a specialist's fee. You'll be as mad as a hornet when I tell you, it's that simple; and for the life of me I can't understand why you don't already know it.
human
And if it don't work?
gpt
If it don't work, you don't pay.
human
Well, shoot it along,
gpt
You mean . . . ?