Fram the polar bear [antikvár]

A I. A Farewell Performance at the . Q- } Circus in Winter 1924Strutskihe tigers were entering the ring one by one. They trod on the sand with springy steps, soft, lithe and noiseless. They never raised their eyes, yellow and shining like glass, to look right or left. From behind the bars, the people in the stalls were watching with bated breath, in apprehensive expectation.But for the Bengal tigers the people in the stalls simply did not exist. They were not worth looking at. For them now one single human being counted: the woman standing in the middle of the ring wrapped in her dress all trimmed with golden spangles and glittering strass. Her eyes were burning as bright as the tigers', except that there was a commanding, unrelenting look in the woman's green eyes, while in the eyes of the beasts one could read a great exhausted submission.Their eyes were searching one another, waiting for one another and meeting. That was enough to understand each other.The eyes of the woman seemed to be piercing them, while the beast's kept fixing the ground. A whip, with a silk tassel at the end,was swinging in her hand pointing to each his place: "You here! You there! You over there! " And the tigers would each take the place assigned without putting up any resistance, advancing at a slow springy pace and balancing their long, heavy tails.Six huge wooden balls were lined on each side. The tiger would touch the round ball with his paw and rise with a slow light movement to jump on it. He alighted on the ball like a cat on the top of a gate post.He would then wait for the others to jump, yawned, and bristling his moustaches he would show the roof of his mouth. A thrill ran through the hearts of the spectators and a thought lingered in their minds.They all knew that in a trice the strong sharp fangs and the paws with their steel claws could tear to pieces as they would a little sparrow the woman in the dress with golden spangles and glittering strass.Yet Miss Ellian was smiling. That was her name. Miss Ellian was smiling indifferently. She was alone among the beasts. She carried no weapon about her. Nothing but a whip, with a silk tassel, and the look in her eyes. She didn't need anything else to turn twelve Bengal tigers into twelve gentle, obedient cats. "All the trainer's power is in her eyes!" an old gentleman, seated right in front of the bars, said to his granddaughter beside him. "If her look flays once only, if the tigers feel the trainer is thinking of something else or that he is afraid, they all ponce upon him and " "I'm frightened! I don't want you to talk like that I'm afraid!" the little girl whispered, gripping her grandfaher's arm. "Hush! quiet! " They are all silent now.The little fair-haired girl in a white wintercoat